The Goal:
To make a continuous 90 minute movie of the solar corona during the 2017 total solar eclipse. The sequence will have roughly 1 second cadence, with 2 arcsecond pixels (or smaller) covering a field-of-view of about 4000x4000 arcseconds, and the pointing will be centered on the center of the Sun.

The Science:
The time evolution of the inner corona is not well understood, and there are several unknowns such as the “plasmoids” seen in 1991 (Zhukov et al., 2000) and the behavior of newly discovered “magnetic bubbles” (Druckmuller, Habbal & Morgan, 2014). These observations will provide context data for all other eclipse experiments .

The Plan:
Observers at 61+ locations across the continental USA
Digital images of the totality phase are taken:
- centered on the Sun
- covering about 1x1 degree field of view
- about 2000x2000 pixels across
- images taken as rapidly as possible
Calibration data is taken:
- GPS location of the site
- the time of each exposure
- solar disk drift scan to determine pointing

The Data:
- Data sent to NSO and cloud storage
- Images rotated, translated, filtered
- Single time series constructed
- Research papers: cite all contributors
Calibrated data: publicly available

Qualified participants must attend mandatory Citizen CATE training program in April, 2017 in order to have their data accepted into the experiment. Participating individuals and groups must acquire their equipment package prior to attending that April training meeting. Equipment will be delivered AT that meeting.

Fully qualified equipment package cost is:  $3645.00
This package can be purchased directly from Daystar Filters.
Kit contents are described in detail below and on the online cart. Due to the nature of the 'equipment replication' needs of the experiment, no substitutions are allowed for participation in project CATE experiment. Kits are sold as a whole and will not be split piece-by-piece.

Some components are subject to variation as ultimate equipment decisions are made by the principal investigator prior to final shipping from NSO.  However, specifications shall meet those stated in descriptions.
Equipment will ship to state coordinators for delivery at training - only after final modifications and decisions by the team are made.

All equipment purchased for participation in this experiment remains the property of the purchaser afterwards.  Ownership of data submitted to Citizen CATE shall be public domain.

$7010.00

Includes
• Full Citizen CATE equipment suite

• Daystar Instruments Liquid Crystal Variable Retardance Polarimeter

Electronically driven and controlled LCVR polarimeter capable of
3 Stokes polarization states. Includes programmed state modes including 'blink' and 'scroll' modes. 12VDC powered, USB controlled.

$3285.00

*This package does not qualify for participation in the Citizen CATE Experiment. The equipment packages are modeled after the core instruments used in Citizen CATE, but with additions or exclusions based on package variation.

This package is designed for individuals or groups who wish to image the eclipse with the same telescope, mount and camera used by Citizen CATE, but who do not wish to train and/or submit data to participate in the experiment.

Includes: 
Daystar 80mm ED80 APO telescope OTA
Celestron CG4 equatorial mount and tripod
Celestron CG4 motor drives
80mm image quality white light solar filter
Pt Grey Camera Grasshopper3 monochrome 5 megapixel camera with SONY Pregius IMX250 2/3" chip
Unmodified USB and ethernet cables
Unmodified Dual core, SSD, USB3 Laptop

.

*This package does not qualify for participation in the Citizen CATE Experiment. The equipment packages are modeled after the core instruments used in Citizen CATE, but with additions or exclusions based on package variation.

This package is designed for individuals or groups who wish to visually observe the eclipse in partial and/or total phases in Hydrogen Alpha Light. No camera is included, so all observations will be visual only.

Includes: 
Daystar 80mm ED80 APO telescope OTA
Celestron CG4 equatorial mount and tripod
Celestron CG4 motor drives
Daystar Quark Chromosphere Hydrogen Alpha filter
2" Diagonal mirror and plossl eyepiece.

*This package does not qualify for participation in the Citizen CATE Experiment. The equipment packages are modeled after the core instruments used in Citizen CATE, but with additions or exclusions based on package variation.

This package is designed for individuals or groups who wish to visually observe the eclipse in partial and total phases. No camera is included, so all observations will be visual only.

Includes: 
Daystar 80mm ED80 APO telescope OTA
Celestron CG4 equatorial mount and tripod
Celestron CG4 motor drives
80mm image quality white light solar filter
2" Diagonal mirror and plossl eyepiece.