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One year after last years total solar eclipse, Portland State University has released photos from a NASA-funded project that captured the moment of totality in a never-before-seen way.
The PSU team launched weather balloons equipped with digital cameras in Corvallis, Ore. The cameras collected thousands of photos which were stitched together to create unique spherical panoramas that captured the moon, the sun and Earth at once.
Special imaging system design and image processing were used to create a video showing to movement of the shadow over Oregon.
"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, project leader and an engineering undergraduate student at Portland State at the time of the eclipse.
"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.
This video of the earth-sun-moon systems during the eclipse was constructed of 7 cross-faded panoramic images taken from the third balloon at an altitude of approximately 100,000 feet. View the complete photo gallery here.
The project was funded by the NASA Oregon Space Grant Consortium as part of the NASA Space Grant Eclipse Ballooning Project. PSU released it Tuesday, on the one-year anniversary of the eclipse.