Skip to main content

Twitter joins the eclipse party with full coverage of the celestial spectacular

pacific solar eclipse
Image used with permission by copyright holder
We’re just days away from what for many people will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience — witnessing a total solar eclipse in all its majestic glory.

If you’re unable to make it to the totality path stretching from Oregon in the west to South Carolina in the east, or if you arrive to find a bunch of fluffy white clouds spoiling the show (though you’ll still experience that eerie darkness for a short while), then you have a bunch of options for watching it on TV or online as the giant shadow crawls across the country.

The latest outfit to get involved is Twitter, which has partnered with The Weather Channel to live-stream the stunning celestial event via mobile and desktop. You don’t even have to have an account — just head over to Twitter’s dedicated page on Monday at 9 a.m. PT to see the eclipse begin.

The coverage promises to immerse viewers in totalities from 10 locations across the United States. Live locations featuring in the stream include: Stanley, Idaho; Carbondale, Illinois; St. Joseph’s, Missouri; Alliance, Nebraska; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; McMinnville, Oregon; Belton, South Carolina; Nashville, Tennessee; and Casper, Wyoming.

And the cameras won’t all be stuck on the ground, with high-resolution and aerial drone footage also provided from The Weather Channel’s network of storm trackers, as well as live segments from NASA’s coverage, which is using cameras in space for what should be a spectacular view of the event.

There’ll be a few “fun” extras, too, including Red Bull cliff divers leaping under the shadow of the eclipse, an eclipse-based game show (the eclipse is probably going to be more interesting), and, what with it being Twitter and all, interactive social segments.

“We’re going to party like it’s New Year’s Eve,” The Weather Channel’s Neil Katz said in a statement, adding, “This eclipse is a celestial phenomenon and cultural moment that can’t be missed.”

For those in the U.S., Monday’s eclipse will begin on the shores of Oregon at 9:06 a.m. PT, moving east across 14 U.S. states before ending in South Carolina at 4:06 p.m. ET. The black band on the map below shows the areas from which a total eclipse can be viewed.

To find out how to view the eclipse without damaging your eyes, be sure to check out NASA’s webpage. And if you miss it this time around, you’ll have to wait until 2024 for the next total eclipse viewable from parts of the U.S. (from Texas to Maine), so head out Monday if you can.

Twitter’s latest live-stream deal follows a slew of others as the company broadens its strategy in a bid to win more users and keep advertisers on board.

nasa solar eclipse
NASA
NASA

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
How to go live on TikTok (and can you with under 1,000 followers?)
Tik Tok

It only takes a few steps to go live on TikTok and broadcast yourself to the world:

Touch the + button at the bottom of the screen.
Press the Live option under the record button.
Come up with a title for your live stream. 
Click Go Live to begin.

Read more
Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day
Bluesky social media app logo.

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.

In a post on its main rival -- X (formerly Twitter) -- Bluesky shared a chart showing a sudden boost in usage on the app, which can now be downloaded for free for iPhone and Android devices.

Read more
How to make a GIF from a YouTube video
woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Read more