DEB Initiative (Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast Initiative)

The Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast (DEB) Initiative is seeking participating teams throughout North America. Teams receive training and become part of the network that will conduct coordinated solar observations leading up to and during the 2023 annular and 2024 total solar eclipse, and web broadcast images from observing sites in near real-time. Compelling images from the partial phases of the eclipses, and science quality data from the path of totality, will be collected from a large number of sites.

Volunteers do not need observational astronomy experience and will receive training leading up to eclipse observations. The average team size is about 5 although we have had teams as small as two people and as large as 15 in past projects. The project is especially well suited for high school and college students although middle school students with a dedicated team leader can also thrive in DEB and participate in long term follow-on projects after eclipse 2024

Our goal is to have volunteer observers imaging from Mexico, Canada and across the USA. Inexpensive camera and telescope systems, combined with new data analysis techniques, will enable unique observations of these upcoming solar eclipses. DEB will provide context observations for all of the 2024 eclipse experiments by showing the evolution of the white light coronal structures and the solar disk during the 90 minutes of totality throughout North America.

Observations will produce scientific results through:

1. Coronal observations during the 2024 total solar eclipse.

2. Solar and lunar limb observations during 2023 annular solar eclipse.

3. A variety of day and night time follow on projects.