In an ongoing mission to share a live view of the Universe, Slooh Space Camera will broadcast a free, real-time feed of the stunning total solar eclipse live from Cairns, Australia – the only land site in the world to view totality. Stargazers all over the world are invited to capture a first look of the total solar eclipse on Slooh.com, Tuesday, November 13th starting at 11:30 AM PST / 2:30 PM EST / 19:30 UTC (International times here: http://goo.gl/BfKJC). This eclipse will be particularly dramatic as the Moon commences its journey across the face of the Sun at sunrise.
Slooh will have a three-person crew at the prime observing location near Cairns, Australia to bring the world Slooh’s live, real-time coverage of 2012’s great total solar eclipse. Slooh’s on-site personnel includes photographer Anjali Bermain, Astronomy Magazine’s Bob Berman, author of “The Sun’s Heartbeat”, and experienced astro-imager Matt Francis of the Prescott Observatory. Furthermore, BBC contributor, Dr. Lucie Green, solar researcher at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, will join the broadcast along with Slooh’s President, Patrick Paolucci, and Slooh’s Public Outreach Coordinator, Paul Cox.
Viewers can watch the show on their PC or mobile device and will have the ability to ask questions to the Slooh team, including the crew located in Cairns, using the Slooh Conversations section on the Slooh homepage. Viewers will also be able to snap the live pictures directly from the Slooh homepage using Pinterest.
“We are ecstatic to have a world-class team on-site in Cairns bringing the power and beauty of this spectacular event live to our worldwide audience,” says Slooh President, Patrick Paolucci. “We are ramped up and ready to go to handle millions of viewers.”
No celestial spectacle can compete with a total solar eclipse. The Moon’s dark umbral shadow touches Earth once during most years, creating a long narrow path in which the stars can be seen in the daytime. Observers within that very limited area will witness the solar corona or atmosphere, and pink prominences along the Sun’s edge, like geysers of nuclear fire.
For any given region on Earth, a total solar eclipse occurs just once every 375 years, on average. Thus, travel is usually necessary, and it is a long tradition among astronomical research organizations and universities to dispatch expeditions to observe these precious events, which this time will last for two minutes.
For this total solar eclipse, the path of totality will be about 108 miles wide (174km) and will cover 9,000 miles (14,500km) over a 3-hour period, but mostly traveling over the South Pacific ocean, thus making this eclipse extremely difficult to view.
Says Berman, “Nothing in nature can equal the sheer spectacle of a total solar eclipse, and this time the event is a dramatic sunrise apparition in the tropics, low over the ocean off the Great Barrier Reef. Occurring as it does within months of the expected Solar Max, the solar corona should take on a ‘wound up’ circular shape, with a high potential for tongues of pink nuclear fire leaping from the Sun’s edge.”
The next total solar eclipse will occur over equatorial Africa on November 3, 2014 in a region unfortunately notorious for clouds. The next total solar eclipse over the United States will occur on August 21, 2017, ending an unprecedented 38-year US eclipse drought.
Embed the live broadcast into your online coverage Please contact Patrick Paolucci to receive the embed code 30-minutes prior to the broadcast.
Contacts:
Patrick Paolucci
patrick@slooh.com
877-427-5664 x707
About Slooh
Slooh is the leader in live, celestial event programming with weekly shows featuring the great wonders of the Universe – shown live by observatories worldwide. Slooh is powered by its members–men, women and children in 80 countries who have taken 1.8 million photos of 46,000 unique objects and events in the night sky since our launch on Christmas Day, 2003. Slooh’s patented instant imaging technology makes astronomical objects appear in true color and in real-time over a 5 to 10 minute time frame.
