Latest news with #solareclipse
Forbes
10 hours ago
- Forbes
To See The Next Total Solar Eclipse, Book Now — Here's Why
Chilean man in traditional hat watching total solar eclipse, Vicuña Chile The last total solar eclipse was 456 days ago in North America, and the next one is in 400 days in Europe. On Aug. 12, 2026, a short totality will darken the day as seen from eastern Greenland, western Iceland and northern Spain. There are fabulous travel experiences to be had, from the fjords of Scoresby Sun and a festival on Iceland's Snæfellsnes Peninsula to the plains of Spain and a sunset eclipse from the Balearic Islands. However, Why This Eclipse Will Be So Busy The total solar eclipse in 2026 will be the first in mainland Europe since 1999 when totality flashed across the globe from the U.K. to India via Eastern Europe and the Middle East. According to approximately 71 million people viewed it. Most Europeans have not seen a total solar eclipse in so long that they will travel — mainly to Spain, but also to Iceland. Here's why there will be so much demand for this eclipse: A map of the path of totality on Aug. 12, 2026. Why You Should Book Your Eclipse Trip Very Soon If the above reasons are driving demand, there's another very specific reason why you should try to book your travel arrangements as soon as possible. On August 12 this year, a number of articles will be published and a lot of fuss will be made about the one-year countdown to mainland Europe's first eclipse in a generation. Demand will spike for plane tickets, hotels and organized tours. If you can secure a spot before the one-year countdown, you may have a chance to book travel and accommodation. So book now — or risk missing one of nature's grandest spectacles. Total Solar Eclipse 2026: Spain On Aug. 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse will cross northern Spain, with key cities including León, Palencia and Burgos, where clear skies are likely. It's crucial to note that in Spain, the eclipse occurs just before sunset, which means a dramatic experience — but also an uncertain one. Sightlines must be checked out in advance using this new map from the Instituto Geográfico Nacional. Coastal regions may experience more variable weather, but August typically brings warm, dry conditions that are ideal for eclipse viewing. Total Solar Eclipse 2026: Iceland Reykjavík will lie within the path of totality for a rare total solar eclipse. Totality in the capital is expected to last approximately 1 minute. The moon's umbral shadow will move across the western part of Iceland, with Reykjavík, the Reykjanes Peninsula, the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, and Westfjördurprime views. Weather-wise, Iceland tends to have a lower chance of clear skies in August than Spain; however, a sunny day is still entirely possible. Eclipse chasers should read Iceland's excellent weather forecasts and have a vehicle to travel to this late-afternoon eclipse, Total Solar Eclipse 2026: Greenland A rare Arctic eclipse experience is available in Greenland, where a cluster of approximately a dozen cruise ships will gather on August 12, 2026. The favored location is Scorsby Sund, where there's a good chance of a clear sky, thanks to Greenland's topography. Disclaimer: I am the author of the Complete Guide to the Total Solar Eclipse 2026: Greenland, Iceland and Spain and editor of Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Centerville exhibit showcasing astrophotography through July
Video: 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Coverage. DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — Astrophotography will be on display in Centerville throughout July. The city announced that a new exhibit home to the work of Dudley Fields, Dr. Matthew Lopper and Dr. Brian Kent will be available to enjoy at the Centerville Art Gallery inside the lobby of the police department. The exhibit will display 42 prints of eclipses, planets, comets, galaxies, nebulae, the sun and the moon. 'This exhibit offers a unique glimpse into the universe with over 90 percent of the photographs taken in Greene and Montgomery Counties,' said a city spokesperson. Fields became fixated on the stars in 1957, after receiving his first telescope. Meanwhile, Dr. Lopper, a professor at the University of Dayton, developed a passion for astronomy after witnessing Haley's Comet in 1986. Dr. Kent always held an interest for outer space, but began taking pictures of the sky after retiring from his career as an electrical engineer. Call 937-433-7151 or click here for more information. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Travel + Leisure
25-06-2025
- Travel + Leisure
This Cruise Line Has 2 Sailings to Experience the 2027 Solar Eclipse
The next solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026, is still more than a year away. But one cruise line is already planning voyages for the next iteration of the celestial event that will occur in 2027. Holland America Line, a Travel + Leisure World's Best winner for midsize-ship ocean cruise lines, has unveiled two new itineraries for the rare sky event, which will take place on on Aug. 2, 2027. This eclipse will last around six minutes—almost two minutes longer than 2024's solar eclipse. Both Nieuw Statendam and Oosterdam will be anchored off the coast of North Africa to catch the eclipse's path of totality, as part of longer itineraries cruising the Mediterranean. The 28-Day Legendary Iberian Solar Eclipse & Cosmic Port Explorer departs from Rotterdam, Netherlands, on July 10, 2027. On this voyage, you can watch the eclipse from the 2,666-passenger Nieuw Statendam while it's anchored off the coast of Morocco on the 24th day of the sailing. The itinerary includes visits to ports in Denmark, the U.K., France, Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. Expect shore excursions that complement the astronomical theme, such as a visit to Stonehenge in England, a historic site believed to have been constructed to align with the winter and summer solstices. On the shorter 14-Day Solar Eclipse & Astronomical Discovery, which departs from Athens, Greece, on July 31, you can watch the eclipse from Tunisia during the cruise's third day aboard the 1,964-passenger Oosterdam . Afterwards, the ship will set sail toward other ports in Greece, Malta, and Italy. You'll also be able to look forward to activities like a visit to the astronomical clock of the Cathedral of Messina in Sicily, one of the largest of its kind. As solar eclipse tourism experiences a surge in popularity, many cruise lines are adding itineraries to ensure their vessels are in the right place at the right time to catch the moment the sun vanishes behind the moon's shadow. 'The excitement around viewing a total solar eclipse the past few years has been palpable and we jumped at the chance to create more itineraries that give our guests the incomparable opportunity of viewing the eclipse at sea,' said Paul Grigsby, Holland America Line's vice president of deployment, in a statement obtained by Travel + Leisure. 'When you're at sea, there is a greater opportunity to witness an eclipse in the clear because the ship can attempt to position itself away from cloud cover—and the view on the horizon means you get more of the shadow coming in and going out,' he said in the statement. No matter which sailing you pick, you can expect a busy onboard program of enrichment activities and expert-led lectures centered around eclipses. And don't worry about packing any special equipment—the ships will have eclipse glasses ready for passengers to wear. Reservations are now open for both sailings, with early booking offers currently available.
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Trailblazing Satellite Mission Delivers Its First Artificial Solar Eclipse
A solar eclipse is a marvel. This quirk of the complex interplay between Earth, the Moon, and the Sun doesn't just remind us of the wonders of the cosmos – it gives us a window into the Sun we rarely get to see. More specifically, with the Moon blotting out the main disk of the Sun, we can see details and features in the solar atmosphere, or corona, that are usually obscured from view. Now, a new satellite observatory has given us a way to watch an eclipse every single day. It's the European Space Agency's Proba-3, and it's a marvelous feat of engineering. It consists of two separate spacecraft, the Coronagraph and the Occulter, that fly in precise formation separated by a distance of 150 meters (492 feet) – about 1.4 football fields. In this configuration, the Occulter orients itself to block the disk of the Sun, while the Coronagraph snaps observations of the corona in different wavelengths using its ASPIICS instrument, which stands for Association of Spacecraft for Polarimetric and Imaging Investigation of the Corona of the Sun. After performing this magnificent feat for several hours without any input from ground control, the mission has now delivered its first artificial eclipse observations. "Each full image – covering the area from the occulted Sun all the way to the edge of the field of view – is actually constructed from three images. The difference between those is only the exposure time, which determines how long the coronagraph's aperture is exposed to light. Combining the three images gives us the full view of the corona," explains ASPIICS principal investigator Andrei Zhukov of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. "Our 'artificial eclipse' images are comparable with those taken during a natural eclipse. The difference is that we can create our eclipse once every 19.6-hour orbit, while total solar eclipses only occur naturally around once, very rarely twice a year. On top of that, natural total eclipses only last a few minutes, while Proba-3 can hold its artificial eclipse for up to six hours." The resulting images show different properties of the hot solar corona. An image colored dark green shows ionized iron that has lost electrons due to the high temperatures. This reveals the hottest parts of the corona, and the image captured a loop structure associated with a solar flare. An image colored yellow shows helium, and managed to snap a solar prominence, a large loop of plasma arcing out of the surface of the Sun. A third image, colored violet, shows helmet streamers in white light. Another image in lighter green shows what the Sun might look like from Earth during a solar eclipse. For another image, three spacecraft team up with simultaneous observations. Proba-2 captures the Sun itself in extreme ultraviolet light, while Proba-3 captures the corona and ESA solar observatory SOHO focuses on the outer atmosphere. The observatory has not yet commenced its true science observations. It's in the commissioning phase, in which its systems undergo extensive testing to make sure they're working as intended; although observations taken during this stage can be used for research and analysis. So this is just the beginning of Proba-3's journey, and a bold new realm of formation spacecraft. With a solar eclipse observable every 20 hours, we expect we're about to learn a lot more about our wild, beautiful Sun. NASA Teams Up With India to Launch First-of-Its-Kind $1.5 Billion Satellite Volcano Found Hiding 'In Plain Sight' Right Next to NASA Mars Rover NASA Satellite Glimpses Giant Volcano Peeking Above The Clouds of Mars
Al Arabiya
16-06-2025
- Science
- Al Arabiya
How Two Satellites Are Mimicking Total Solar Eclipses in Space
A pair of European satellites have created the first artificial solar eclipses by flying in precise and fancy formation, providing hours of on-demand totality for scientists. The European Space Agency released the eclipse pictures at the Paris Air Show on Monday. Launched late last year, the orbiting duo have churned out simulated solar eclipses since March while zooming tens of thousands of miles (kilometers) above Earth. Flying 492 feet (150 meters) apart, one satellite blocks the sun like the moon does during a natural total solar eclipse, as the other aims its telescope at the corona – the sun's outer atmosphere that forms a crown or halo of light. It's an intricate, prolonged dance requiring extreme precision by the cube-shaped spacecraft less than 5 feet (1.5 meters) in size. Their flying accuracy needs to be within a mere millimeter – the thickness of a fingernail. This meticulous positioning is achieved autonomously through GPS navigation, star trackers, lasers, and radio links. Dubbed Proba-3, the $210 million mission has generated 10 successful solar eclipses so far during the ongoing checkout phase. 'The longest eclipse lasted five hours,' said the Royal Observatory of Belgium's Andrei Zhukov, the lead scientist for the orbiting corona-observing telescope. He and his team are aiming for a wondrous six hours of totality per eclipse once scientific observations begin in July. Scientists already are thrilled by the preliminary results that show the corona without the need for any special image processing, said Zhukov. 'We almost couldn't believe our eyes,' Zhukov said in an email. 'This was the first try, and it worked. It was so incredible.' Zhukov anticipates an average of two solar eclipses per week being produced for a total of nearly 200 during the two-year mission, yielding more than 1,000 hours of totality. That will be a scientific bonanza since full solar eclipses produce just a few minutes of totality when the moon lines up perfectly between Earth and the sun – on average just once every 18 months. The sun continues to mystify scientists, especially its corona, which is hotter than the solar surface. Coronal mass ejections result in billions of tons of plasma and magnetic fields being hurled out into space. Geomagnetic storms can result, disrupting power and communication while lighting up the night sky with auroras in unexpected locales. While previous satellites have generated imitation solar eclipses – including the European Space Agency and NASA's Solar Orbiter and Soho observatory – the sun-blocking disk was always on the same spacecraft as the corona-observing telescope. What makes this mission unique, Zhukov said, is that the sun-shrouding disk and telescope are on two different satellites and therefore far apart. The distance between these two satellites will give scientists a better look at the part of the corona closest to the limb of the sun. 'We are extremely satisfied by the quality of these images, and again this is really thanks to formation flying with unprecedented accuracy,' ESA's mission manager Damien Galano said from the Paris Air Show.
