True awe, a sense of wonder and insignificance in the face of something enormous and grand, is rare in our lives. But when you experience it, it's powerful. Awe dissolves the ego. It makes us feel connected. Indeed, it promotes empathy and generosity.
—David Baron, You owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse
On August 21st, 2017, a total solar eclipse occurred in my hometown of Greenville, SC. I was immediately captivated by its wonder and beauty.
Shortly after, my friend and I started The Eclipse Company. In a world increasingly online, we wanted to help empower others to experience offline moments of interconnected grandeur. We believe these moments can change lives.
Turns out, we weren’t the only ones who cared about this mission. The Planetary Society, founded by Carl Sagan and led by Bill Nye, caught wind of what we were doing and wanted to join in on the pursuit.
With their partnership, we set out to create an interactive map and day-of companion app to help users get the most out of the 2024 eclipse.
Several months prior to the total eclipse we built a stylized interactive map that highlighted the path of totality along with the best places to view the eclipse. We partnered with Hipcamp to surface camping sites nearby.
The Eclipse Map served as an excellent opportunity to educate the general public on the 2024 eclipse. More than 350k users used the map leading up to the eclipse.
The Eclipse Map was built on Mapbox and Next.js. It used custom components built with Tailwind and integrated with Airtable to power its listing data.
The Eclipse Map zoomed out
The Eclipse Map zoomed in
Press release for The Planetary Society and The Eclipse Map
2024 Total Eclipse Map — The Eclipse Company
In addition to an interactive map, we wanted to provide a companion app to empower people get the most out of the day of the eclipse.
In three months, we launched The Eclipse App on Android and iOS. It was built with React Native and Expo. Features included a directory of viewing areas in the path of the eclipse, detailed information around contact times, cloud cover chances, and a guided countdown. The app used realtime location information to give the most accurate data possible.