NASA-backed project wants your photos of ‘The Great American Eclipse’: Digital Photography Review

A view of the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse from Madras, Oregon. Image: Gopalswamy/NASA

Sunsketcher, a new NASA-backed project with an iOS and Android app, wants your photographs of the “Great American Eclipse.” (Incidentally, so do we.)

Scientists behind the project want to gather more information about the sun’s interior and aid their work in accurately measuring the shape of the sun and testing theories of gravity, including general relativity.

Through the app, anyone photographing the event is asked to upload their pictures. Organizers say the more people using the app the better, as having a large database of images will help with the research.

To participate in the project, users need to situate themselves somewhere across the path of totality within the United States, which means points along the Mexican border to as far north as Maine. Although the path of totality goes beyond US borders, due to privacy laws the app isn’t available outside the US. Sunsketcher says it hopes to expand availability for future eclipses, but for now, the international community will just have to reap the benefits of scientific research.

It may also disappoint some photographers to learn you can’t use a dedicated camera to take part, meaning you can’t take photos and transfer them to your phone to share with the app; you can only use the Sunsketcher app to create images. The organization says this is because “the Sunsketcher app generates other relevant, necessary data per image.” This likely means the research relies on some metadata and geodata and forcing everyone into the app allows researchers to have a consistant and predictable database strucutre.

Sunsketcher says you don’t need special equipment, such as lenses and filters, beyond a smartphone. Just open app at least five minutes before the eclipse and position your camera towards the sun. Ideally, you’ll want to use a tripod, but handheld is also fine.

To take part in the project, the app is available on Apple App Store and Google Play Store.