Balloons will broadcast the 2017 solar eclipse live from on high
Astrophysicist Angela Des Jardins wants to show the world in first-of-its-kind livestream
SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS Students practice launching balloons like the ones that will loft cameras to livestream the solar eclipse on August 21.
Kelly Gorham/Montana State University
Only a lucky few have watched a solar eclipse from above the Earth. Angela Des Jardins wants to bring that view to everyone.
On August 21, Des Jardins, an astrophysicist at Montana State University in Bozeman, will help broadcast the first livestream of a total solar eclipse from the edge of space. She and more than 50 groups across the United States will launch high-altitude balloons to film the moon’s shadow racing across the Earth and broadcast it over the internet as it happens (eclipse.stream.live).
“On the ground, an eclipse just kind of happens to you. It just gets dark,” says Des Jardins. “From the air, you can see it coming and going. I think that perspective is really profound.”
