Description

Our local star, like you've never seen it before!

This August 21, the Sun and moon will align, giving Americans a front row seat to a rare celestial event. Don't miss a moment with the Smithsonian Solar Eclipse App.

Watch a live NASA stream of the eclipse as it travels across the continental United States, calculate your view with our interactive eclipse map and get a virtual view in our eclipse simulator. While you wait, check out some of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's solar research and get even closer to the sun with near-live views from space.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) is one part of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, where leading astronomers ask, test, and answer some of humanity’s greatest questions.

Since 1890, SAO has conducted solar research, including the study of solar radiation and the solar constant.

Today our telescopes and instruments send back high resolution images of the Sun and other data to study phenomena including how the solar atmosphere is energized, the topology of solar features, and space weather, to name just a few. During the 2017 solar eclipse, SAO’s AIR-Spec instrument will ride along a unique aircraft built for scientific research in order to measure plasma emission from the sun.

Our solar research is more than a century in the making, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

The Smithsonian Eclipse app was made possible by a grant through the Smithsonian Women's Committee (SWC). SWC supports the Smithsonian through volunteer fundraising, grant awards, and public relations.