What do you do if you want to watch a total solar eclipse but you live in a sprawling urban jungle that isn't inside the path of totality? 

First of all, don't worry...at least not if you are in the United States. Researchers have come up with a novel way to “experience” the phenomenon.

A simulator, created by the Eclipse Megamovie Project, was unveiled this week which shows Americans what the late summer eclipse would look like from where they live.

The project, held by Google and the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), gathered together images of the 2017 total solar eclipse from over 1000 volunteer photographers and amateur astronomers to help people visualize the eagerly-anticipated August 21 event.  

The total solar eclipse on August 21 is expected to be one of the most anticipated events in a lifetime. / VCG Photo

Entering a zipcode or city name on the project’s website will allow Americans to see an animation of how the sun will move across the sky over a three-hour period of the totality and how big a bite the moon will take out of the sun. 

"There are lots of online animations of the 2017 eclipse, but you can't customize them from your city or zipcode like ours," said Dan Zevin from UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory. "Our simulation is what one might experience in a planetarium show."

People prepare to view a solar eclipse in Argentina. /VCG Photo 

As it happens, almost no one on Earth is able to see the whole process of a total solar eclipse. 

But thanks to the Eclipse Megamovie Project, images collected by the project's volunteers could be turned into a 90-minute eclipse movie, helping even more people experience this once-in-a-lifetime event. 

(Source: Xinhua)