Join the Network of Netcams!
We need your help to get the best footage we can of this eclipse. Do you live in an area that will be able see the eclipse and want to help out? Just follow the instructions below.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Make sure you live in an area that will be able to see the eclipse. The best locations are Europe, Africa and Asia.
2. Make sure you have some kind of recording device (digital camera, videocamera, quick cam) which you can use to transfer images to your computer, with a clear view of the sky. You also need some kind of connection to the Internet which you can stay hooked up to for the duration of the eclipse.
3. You need to let us know that you want to participate. Just send an email to info@universetoday.com.

If you'd like more information on how to set up your computer, here's what experienced eclipse chaser Olivier Staiger uses:

Olivier Staiger - olivier.staiger@span.ch
This is exactly what I used for the last lunar eclipse (http://eclipse.span.ch). Some from Hi8 cam with x18 optical zoom (time/date at right), some from D8 with x20 optical zoom (no time/date, or time/date at left).

• Tripod to keep the picture stable (don't worry about autotracking, you can manually move the camera as the moon moves)
• Sony Hi8 video cam with x18 or more zoom. Digital8 Sony cam is really good, with a strong optical zoom, and a clear image in play-pause mode. When totality occurs you can use slow shutter settings to increase the red hue of the total lunar eclipse. You may need to manually control exposure, to see features on the moon.
• Snappy frame grabber (from http://www.play.com). Increase colour value in settings to show red hue of total eclipse.
• Laptop PC or a really long cable to the camera.
• Internet connection. A normal phone line or even a cellphone. A cellphone connection is slow, 9600 bps only, but fast enough to send an image once every 10-15 minutes.
• I use webcam32 software to auto-ftp the images to my server. Download from http://surveyorcorp.com/webcam32/. You'll need to register and pay for nonstop webcasting. The demo stops after 1 hour of webcasting but that is no big problem since you can immediately restart the program. Great program.
• Important: the eclipse is a long lasting event, several hours. You need several good batteries for the PC, cellphone and camera!