The August 2017total solar eclipseshould bevisible to some degreefrom just about everywhere in the continental United States — that is , if the weather cooperates . But now , even if it does n’t , everyone will be able to watch along , thanks to livestreamed video fromballoon camsdrifting international mile above the Earth .
Astrophysicist Angela Des Jardins of Montana State University ( MSU ) have the theme to supervise themagnificent cosmic eventfrom the melodic phrase after reading about an airplane pilot’sflightthrough the path of a 2013 eclipse . She cogitate her students might delight the chance to get an up - close look for themselves .
But what started as a year project quick , well , ballooned . At last count , teams from more than 50 other schools had get together the Eclipse Ballooning Project . The marrow of the piece of work remains near to domicile ; MSU students have design , built , andtestedthe equipment , and even offer multi - day training for scholar from other schools . undergrad in the computer scientific discipline and engineering programs evencreated the softwarethat air traffic controller will use to track the balloons on the prominent day .
The next stair was to get the balloon River Cam footage to a large audience . Seeing no ground to conceive small , Des Jardins hold out straight to the source , inviting NASA and the website Stream to join the fun . The blank space agency is now grouse up its website inanticipationof 500 million livestream viewers .
And what a perspective it should be . The balloon will come up more than 80,000 feet — even higher than NASA ’s airplane - mountedtelescopes .
" It ’s a blank space - like linear perspective , " Des Jardinssaidin a imperativeness statement . " From that height you’re able to see the curvature of the Earth and the lightlessness of infinite . "
Online or outdoors , Des Jardins articulate witness can await a kind of " deep twilight , with basically a 360 - stage sundown " during theeclipse .
She urges everyone to get outdoors if they can tosee the eventwith their own eyes , but expect the balloon cams will deliver something really exceptional .
" On the ground , an occultation just kind of happens to you . It just gets dark , " Des JardinstoldNew Scientist . " From the tune , you may see it coming and going . I think that perspective is really profound . "
