by Shaun McGillis
August 21st 2018
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On the anniversary of last year’s total solar eclipse, a team of Portland State University engineering students and alumni released today a spectacular video and high-resolution photos showing the eclipse shadow as it moves across Oregon.
The video is the only one of its kind to have been produced following a nationwide NASA-funded project that sent weather balloons 100,000 feet above the earth’s surface to document the eclipse as it traversed the United States. It was made from panoramic images consisting of over 1,000 stitched photos captured by cameras mounted to weather balloons the team launched from Corvallis, Oregon on August 21, 2017.
“Participating with 55 other schools to launch weather balloons to record the eclipse up close was a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Rihana Mungin, an engineering undergraduate student at Portland State at the time of the eclipse and project leader. “For anyone who was in or near the path of totality last year, this is what was happening,” said Mungin, who is now a graduate student at PSU studying mechanical engineering.
The time-lapse video of the eclipse is available on YouTube and high-resolution photos captured during the balloon’s flight available on Flickr.