Follow the eclipse on the web

WASHINGTON (AP) — Will bad weather or your location keep you from seeing the total solar eclipse? Watch it online instead.

If you are not in the path of totality or if clouds spoil your view, you can still watch the eclipse online.

Weather permitting, tens of millions of people living along the narrow strip stretching from Mexico’s Pacific coast to eastern Canada will be able to simply look up at the sky next Monday and watch the day darken as the moon passes in front of the sun.

Special glasses are mandatory to avoid eye damage. The only time when it is safe to remove glasses is during total, a few minutes of absolute darkness.

Here are some alternatives in case there are cloudy skies during the eclipse or if you cannot travel to a place located in the path of totality:

NASA will offer several hours of webcasts and NASA TV broadcasts from several cities in the path of totality.

The space agency will show telescopic images of the Sun and will have the participation of scientists and astronauts from the Space Station.

Rockets

During the eclipse, small rockets carrying scientific instruments will be launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, toward the electronically charged portion of the atmosphere near the edges of space, the ionosphere.

The San Francisco Exploratorium museum’s website will feature live telescopic images of the Sun from Junction, Texas, and Torreón, Coahuila.

Researchers and students at the University of Maine will launch atmospheric balloons as part of an experiment that will be beamed down from the stratosphere. Time and Date will show images of the Sun from several telescopes.

The Slooh robotic telescope service will transmit from Texas and will rely on a network of allied telescopes along the way.