By Robert Sanders, 

 The Eclipse Megamovie project has released an app that makes it easy for citizen scientists with smart phones to photograph the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse and upload the images to the project, a collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley, and Google to provide a lasting photo archive for scientists studying the sun's corona.

The app, created by Ideum, is available for Android phones through Google Play store and for iPhones through iTunes' App Store.

When downloaded and installed, the app walks users through a simple process to point your smart phone at the sun using an appropriate filter to protect the camera’s sensors. Once protected and pointed properly, the camera determines where you are and automatically starts taking photos of the sun 15 seconds before totality at your location, snaps periodic shots throughout the total eclipse — which will last a maximum of 2 minutes, 40 seconds, depending on where you are — and takes a series of photos during the 15 seconds after the total eclipse has ended to capture the “diamond ring” effect.

The app will even beep to remind you to remove the filter during totality and replace it afterward.

Once within range of Wifi, the app will prompt users to upload the images and other data, such as location, to the project.

"The app is going to do everything for you, so you just need to enjoy the eclipse," said solar physicist Juan Carlos Martínez Oliveros, who is part of the Eclipse Megamovie team at UC Berkeley’s Space Sciences Laboratory. "The idea is to create a unique new type of dataset that can be studied by scientists for years to come. It's really an experiment in using crowd-sourcing to do solar science, which will hopefully pave the way for much future work."

Oliveros urges users to practice beforehand, so as to be prepared when the big day arrives. The app has a practice mode with which users can snap photos of the sun or moon (see Oliveros’ video demonstration).

The total solar eclipse — the first visible from the continental US since 1979 — will traverse the entire country in a band about 70 miles wide, beginning the morning of Monday, Aug. 21, on the Oregon coast and ending 90 minutes later, in mid-afternoon, off the coast of South Carolina. Many millions of people along the path of totality are expected to watch as the moon eclipses the sun, while even more outside the path of totality will see a partial solar eclipse. Check out the Eclipse Megamovie Simulator to preview what you will experience on Aug. 21.

Anyone planning to observe the eclipse should obtain a pair of certified eclipse glasses (see American Astronomical Society recommendations). While the glasses should be removed during the couple of minutes of totality, they must be worn when looking at the eclipse leading up to and following totality, or when viewing the partial eclipse from outside the zone of totality.

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