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Chasing Eclipses with timeanddate.com

timeanddate.com captures breathtaking live images of solar and lunar eclipses worldwide using a mobile observatory.

Telescopes set up to pint at the Sun to capture a total solar eclipse.

Adalbert Michelic with the mobile observatory in San José de Jáchal, Argentina

©timeanddate.com

The next eclipse season kicks off with an almost total lunar eclipse on November 18-19, 2021, and we will be streaming it LIVE.

Lunar and Solar Eclipses in May and June 2021

Covid restrictions kept our mobile observatories within Norway's borders for the annular solar eclipse on June 10, 2021. After monitoring the weather to decide at the last minute where to travel, we ended up with one observatory going to Kautokeino and one to Oslo. See the eclipsed sun in our annular solar eclipse show.

Unfortunately, the pandemic completely blocked our plans to take the mobile observatory on the road for the total lunar eclipse on May 26. Luckily, with the help of our trusty streaming partners, we streamed the eclipse LIVE. See the Blood Moon in the total lunar eclipse show.

Eclipses in November and December 2020

Covid-19 travel restrictions stopped our plan take the mobile observatory to Argentina for the total solar eclipse on December 14, 2020. We still streamed the total solar eclipse with our streaming partners' help.

As a special bonus show, we also live streamed the penumbral lunar eclipse on November 29/30, 2020.

Annular Solar Eclipse 2020

Our plans to travel to Oman to capture the annular solar eclipse on June 21 were thwarted by Covid-19 travel restrictions. Despite this, several partners on location helped us broadcast a spectacular live stream of the eclipse straight from our studio in Stavanger, Norway.

Three Eclipses and a Transit in 2019

In 2019, timeanddate.com's mobile observatory was on the road for a total lunar eclipse, a total solar eclipse, a partial lunar eclipse, and a transit of Mercury.

Lunar Eclipse in Greece 2018

We first took timeanddate.com's mobile observatory on the road in 2018, capturing the July 27, 2018 total lunar eclipse from Santorini, Greece.

timeanddate.com's mobile observatory.

Eivind Kjørstad working the telescope and computers of timeanddate.com's mobile observatory in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

©timeanddate.com

A Traveling Telescope

Although the setup of a mobile observatory is a lot simpler than one might think, there is quite an extensive list of items needed to make sure the images make it all the way to our viewers, including:

  • a telescope or two,
  • a camera to capture the telescope images,
  • a couple of computers with the right software,
  • networking equipment,
  • a good internet connection,
  • a huge number of cables and batteries, and,
  • astronomy enthusiasts willing to travel across oceans.