Broadcast in 98 made eclipse viral before viral videos – 04/07/2024 – Science

On February 26, 1998, hundreds of people gathered to watch a total solar eclipse.

The crowd gasped as the Moon swallowed the Sun. They oohed and aahed as the feathery wisps at the top of the Sun’s atmosphere came into view. Applause erupted moments later as the Sun peeked back from behind the lunar surface.

“Saved again by the laws of celestial mechanics,” said an event presenter in a video recording with scenes from Aruba, one of the places where the eclipse crossed the earth.

Except that crowd wasn’t actually in Aruba. They were thousands of miles away in San Francisco, gathered in front of a screen in a museum called the Exploratorium. For the first time in the history of the internet, a solar eclipse was broadcast live.

The crowd in the auditorium wasn’t the only remote audience for the eclipse. Potentially millions of users of the young World Wide Web watched “Eclipse ’98,” creating a digital viral moment years before audiences were introduced to viral videos like “Peanut Butter Jelly Time,” “Charlie Bit My Finger” or “Gangnam Style.” .

Technology brought space to Earth decades ago. The public was amazed when NASA broadcast humanity’s first steps on the Moon in 1969. Years later, they watched in horror as the space shuttle Challenger exploded on television.

But the emergence of the web offered a new way to encounter the cosmos. Anyone with a computer, a fast enough internet modem, and a monitor could participate on demand in the ethereality of being under the Moon’s shadow — no longer reserved for those who could get into the eclipse’s path.

And just as late 19th century audiences were amazed to see moving images projected onto screens for the first time, the crowd at the Exploratorium seemed awed by what they saw on the live broadcast.

“Even remotely, people can have that emotional connection that is so important to an eclipse,” said Robyn Higdon, executive producer of the Exploratorium.

Scenes from the webcast meeting in Aruba depict the height of the ’90s. There’s no shortage of turtlenecks, short haircuts, and colorful windbreakers in the crowd. The event’s presenters wore now-vintage wired headphones and stood next to bulky white computers.

The internet was just taking off: YouTube wouldn’t be founded for another seven years, and less than half of Americans were online, many frustrated by slow dial-up connections. Despite technological obstacles, the live broadcast of the eclipse — carried out with the help of NASA and the Discovery Channel — was an effort by the Exploratorium to establish an online presence. Part of the goal was to share what was inside with people who couldn’t visit in person, said Rob Semper, the museum’s director of learning, who helped launch its website more than 30 years ago.

“But at the same time,” Semper added, “the web was also a way to bring the outside world in.”

What team members didn’t expect was how many people their webcast would reach beyond the museum walls. Among the first high-resolution live videos of a solar eclipse, the broadcast was quickly picked up by major news networks. Museum spokespeople say 4 million viewers tuned in directly online.

Years later, the digital audience for eclipses and other astronomical events has only grown. Online viewership was gigantic for the 2017 total solar eclipse that cut across the United States, and at that time many organizations besides the Exploratorium were broadcasting the solar spectacle. NASA broadcast a live show from 12 locations; the Science Channel, which was live in Oregon, also attracted a large number of views. They both plan to do it again for the eclipse on April 8 this year.

“As with so many aspects of our lives that the internet has changed, it all comes down to accessibility,” said Jeff Hall, a solar astronomer at Lowell Observatory, who narrated parts of a 2017 webcast. Images of eclipses have long been available, Hall added, but “it’s another level of experience to be able to watch the event unfold in real time.”

Live broadcasts also offer the chance for viewers to learn about the different cultural beliefs of places lying beneath the Moon’s shadow. Last October, the Exploratorium broadcast the “ring of fire” eclipse from the Valley of the Gods in Utah, where gigantic rocky red thorns emanate from the earth. Because the land is sacred to members of the Navajo Nation, the museum partnered with Navajo astronomers who shared traditional knowledge of the cosmos.

But not everyone thinks that the internet is a worthy substitute for real life. “It’s a poor way to experience an eclipse,” said Paul Maley, a retired NASA engineer who has seen 83 of them — and counting.

Eclipses, Maley explained, are more than what you see: During totality, winds change, temperatures drop and the horizon glows. “Watching a live stream doesn’t provide any of that,” he said.

Patricia Reiff, a physicist at Rice University, partly agrees. “Live streaming is cool, but it’s basically just visual,” she said. “It’s like the difference between seeing a photo of the Grand Canyon and going down it in a canoe.”

Still, Reiff has created live broadcasts of some of the solar eclipses he travels to see — 25 of them so far — and says he believes at least part of the experience can be conveyed on screen. The 1991 solar eclipse is one of the last memories she has with her mother, who watched a television broadcast of the event while Reiff saw it in Mexico.

“It was a moment we shared, even though we were far from each other,” Reiff said.

In addition to live broadcasts, the internet has greatly expanded the reach of eclipse information, including locations, safe viewing practices, and weather forecasts, to the public. Eclipse chasers use it as a tool to connect, organize trips, and describe their visceral reactions to totality. Researchers even analyzed social media activity from the 2017 eclipse to study the tourism trends it boosted in rural communities.

In April, the Exploratorium will be back, this time with production teams in Texas and Mexico to broadcast the last solar eclipse to touch the contiguous United States for 20 years. There will be programs in English and Spanish, and will also provide what Larry Kenworthy, technical director of the museum’s eclipse expeditions, calls a “nerd broadcast” — a three-hour broadcast for organizations to use at their own viewing parties, or for those online who just want to immerse themselves in the views.

Hall, who will be hosting a live show on the Science Channel on April 8, hopes these online broadcasts will inspire viewers to see an eclipse in person one day.

“Put it on your bucket list to go see one at some point,” he said. “Because as cool as the internet is, you can’t replicate the experience of actually being on the path to totality.”