The citizen Continental-America Telescopic Eclipse (CATE) Experiment was a new type of citizen science experiment designed to capture a time sequence of white-light coronal observations during totality from 17:16 to 18:48 UT on 2017 August 21. Using identical instruments the CATE group imaged the inner corona from 1 to 2.1 RSun with 1.″43 pixels at a cadence of 2.1 s. A slow coronal mass ejection (CME) started on the SW limb of the Sun before the total eclipse began. An analysis of CATE data from 17:22 to 17:39 UT maps the spatial distribution of coronal flow velocities from about 1.2 to 2.1 RSun, and shows the CME material accelerates from about 0 to 200 km s−1 across this part of the corona. This CME is observed by LASCO C2 at 3.1–13 RSun with a constant speed of 254 km s−1. The CATE and LASCO observations are not fit by either constant acceleration nor spatially uniform velocity change, and so the CME acceleration mechanism must produce variable acceleration in this region of the corona.

Reliable methods to measure intergalactic distances are a valuable resource in the field of astronomy. Periodic variables stars, such as RR Lyraes, can be used as standard candles to determine the distance to the stellar structures where they are located. For this reason, many different student groups observed and analyzed RR Lyrae stars through a research course offered by Our Solar Siblings, and the focus of this particular study was the star EZ Lyr. Images of EZ Lyr were taken by Las Cumbres Observatory and processed using tools provided for the research course. Light curves were produced in B, V, sdss-i and sdss-z filters that were analyzed to determine the star’s period and luminosity. The period-luminosity-metallicity relations described in Caceres and Catelan (2008) were used to calculate the distance to EZ Lyr in each filter. The final distance measurement, 1406±32pc was slightly closer (~100 pc) compared to results from the GAIA satellite.