EclipseCon: Designs for Lasting Impact

March 23-24, 2026 | Sonoma State University

Even 9 years after the 2017 "Great American Eclipse," we are still disseminating and synthesizing lessons learned and research from the celestial event. New and sustainable outreach programs were seeded or enhanced by citizen scientists, researchers and educators for the eclipse. Books are being published, reports written, and scientific research findings are being shared with the world.

About the Eclipse Megamovie Team Meeting

The 2017 and 2024 Eclipse Megamovie projects had galvanized individual volunteers into a community of citizen researchers. The Eclipse Megamovie Team Meeting took place in the form of conversation and sharing, with the goal of synthesizing and summarizing activities, research, lessons learned, and resources in ways that were useful for maintaining relationships with audiences and preparing for future eclipse events.

This gathering documented what participants had done as part of the Eclipse Megamovie community over the course of two total solar eclipses that took place in the United States in 2017 and 2024. Together, we examined best practices and potential risks of taking scientifically relevant photographs of solar eclipses to synthesize into an article for future total solar eclipse citizen science efforts. Despite having two total solar eclipses under our metaphorical belts from the last decade, there was still plenty to learn and room to grow in our eclipse outreach and research expertise.

Additionally, many Eclipse Megamovie volunteers and team members engaged the public in astronomy and space science. This meeting gave those who were passionate about eclipses and citizen science an opportunity to shape their path over the course of the next decade of eclipse outreach and science. While the moon's shadow during a total solar eclipse was not scheduled to cross the U.S. for a number of years, together, we found effective ways to keep communities involved in science. Moreover, there were international opportunities that many eclipse educators and researchers were already planning to use to engage those they served or for the research they undertook. The Eclipse Megamovie Meeting was an opportunity to support these efforts.

Participants anticipated responding to questions posed by the Eclipse Megamovie team, such as:

• What did you wish you had that you did not have for the eclipse?
• What did you need to make an eclipse outreach event or research project a success?
• What had you learned from the Eclipse Megamovie and other eclipse activities you performed that informed future decisions?
• What did you think the path forward into future eclipse outreach and solar research should look like?

We were very excited to bring together those who had been involved in Eclipse Megamovie in any way over the past 14 years, and we invited attendees to include their friends or colleagues. Attendees, made up of people passionate about eclipses, including "eclipse chasers," research scientists, astrophotographers, and amateur astronomers, discussed the products of nearly 10 years of eclipse citizen science and identified what the future held. This included the collection of feedback from volunteers and citizen scientists regarding what they enjoyed most, what was most useful, and what they felt they needed while participating.