Watch the Total Solar Eclipse From Your Home With These Live Streams Online
Not in the path of totality? See the moon blot out the sun, revealing its magnificent corona, from your computer or phone
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On April 8, virtually everyone in the contiguous United States will be able to see at least a partial solar eclipse as the moon passes in front of the sun in a rare celestial occurrence. The total eclipse will cast a shadow on North America, tracing a roughly 115-mile-long band across the continent. But if you’re not on the path of totality—or your view is obscured by clouds—you may want to catch a glimpse of our nearest star’s ethereal corona in another way.
Several services will be live streaming the event from sites across the path of totality—and even airing video from the stratosphere.
Here are 11 ways to watch the total solar eclipse online.
NASA
The U.S. space agency will offer multiple broadcasts of the total eclipse—the first to pass over the country since 2017 and the last to touch the contiguous states until 2044.
From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern time on April 8, NASA will provide live streamed commentary and views of the phenomenon from across the path of totality. From conversations with expert scientists to telescope footage, the agency will air an educational program that captures the celestial spectacle.
But for uninterrupted views of the eclipse, NASA is offering a live telescope feed without commentary, featuring sights from across the continent—Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York and Maine. If the weather allows it, the agency will show views of the partially eclipsed sun in various wavelengths of light.
The agency will also provide a broadcast with programming in Spanish.
If you want a change of pace from streams of the sun and moon, NASA will be airing a live feed of three sounding rocket launches for its Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path (APEP) mission. The rockets will take off from Wallops Island, Virginia—which will experience an 81 percent eclipse—with each launch roughly 45 minutes apart, between 2:40 p.m. and 4:05 p.m. Eastern time.
The mission is meant to study how the eclipse might disturb the ionosphere, the high-up region of Earth’s atmosphere that produces the planet’s magnetic field. When solar energy interacts with particles in the ionosphere, it alters their electric charges. The rockets will look for changes in the upper atmosphere as the amount of incoming sunlight drops.
Time and Date
Time and Date, a leading sky-watching site based out of Norway, will be streaming the solar eclipse from Llano, Texas, and posting real time updates and background information on its blog.
Teams have been preparing and testing their equipment for months ahead of the big event. But for one precious moment, they will have to learn on the fly.
“There’s an extraordinary moment during eclipse totality when the sun is completely obscured, and the sky darkens. This is when we’ll remove the solar filters from the telescopes and search for footage of Baily’s Beads,” says Geremy Krause, design team lead for Time and Date and a telescope operator during the stream, in a blog post. “There’s no good way to rehearse for this; if you get it wrong, you not only miss your opportunity but risk damaging the equipment due to sun exposure. We will be learning as we stream live, so wish us luck!”
Exploratorium
The Exploratorium, a science and art museum in San Francisco, is offering live streams of its own—one with a unique sound experience.
From Torreón, Mexico—which will get the longest period of totality, lasting 4 minutes and 28 seconds—the museum will broadcast a telescope feed of the total eclipse. Beginning at 1:45 p.m. Eastern time, another live stream will feature hour-long educational programs, led by scientists from NASA, experts with the Exploratorium and local educators. That stream will be airing from Junction, Texas, where totality will last nearly 3 minutes and 10 seconds.
Also from Junction will be a special stream, playing views of the eclipse accompanied by a sonification—or the translation of solar data into sound. The audio will be played from museum composer Wayne Grim’s computer software, which converts inputs such as the sun’s color and intensity into musical components. The piece relies on pre-programmed technology, but it will come together live as the moon passes over the sun.
The museum also plans to provide live coverage in Spanish.
National Science Foundation
Featuring the science behind a total solar eclipse, the National Science Foundation is hosting a live stream of the celestial phenomenon geared at school-age children. Beginning at 1:55 p.m. Eastern time, the stream will feature educational programming from solar scientists; information about high-tech solar instruments, such as the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope in Hawaii, the world’s largest and most powerful solar telescope; and live views of totality from Dallas.
University of Maine Balloon Stream
On April 8, from somewhere in the Northeastern U.S., a team from the University of Maine will capture a live view of the solar eclipse from the stratosphere.
The group is one of 53 teams across the country that will participate in the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, led by Montana State University. For the project, researchers will send weather balloons into Earth’s atmosphere and collect data or video during the eclipse.
When the University of Maine’s balloon launches, teams on the ground will operate an on-board ventilator, which will add or remove air to control its height. But after that, the balloon will be at the mercy of the wind, free-floating for up to 35 minutes and ideally passing through the path of totality. As a result, the balloon’s launch site will be chosen by predictive modeling, based on wind speed and direction.
The balloon will be carrying both regular and 360-degree video cameras, as well as GPS technology—so that researchers can find it after it falls. “The idea is the parachute deploys, and [the payloads] come down nice and slow for a nice gentle landing,” Andy Sheaff, an electrical and computer engineer at the University of Maine, says in a statement.