Scientists ready new instruments for Wednesday’s total solar eclipse over Europe

As a total solar eclipse approaches on Wednesday, August 12, research teams across Europe are racing to deploy new scientific instruments and broadcast technologies, turning the celestial event into both a research opportunity and a public spectacle — one that will coincide with the peak of the Perseids meteor shower for the first time in recorded scientific history.

A New Eye on the Sun's Corona

Italian scientists from Padua have finalized a state-of-the-art device known as the Circular Slit Spectrometer (CISS), designed to deliver faster spectral analysis of the Sun's light than current technologies allow. The instrument will undergo its decisive trial at Spain's Javalambre Astrophysical Observatory during totality on Wednesday, with researchers hoping it will provide new insights into the solar corona — the Sun's outer atmosphere, visible only when the Moon fully blocks the solar disk.devdiscourse

The CISS is not the only instrument being tested. The Canary Islands Astrophysical Institute (IAC) will use the eclipse to trial the NATE project, a coordinated network of telescope stations being developed with Morocco's Mohammed VI Polytechnic University and the NSO ahead of a permanent installation in Morocco for the 2027 total eclipse. The IAC will broadcast the eclipse live on YouTube from Cerro del Otero in Palencia, featuring connections to telescopes capturing the solar corona in real time.lavozdelanzarote

Live Broadcasts and New Imaging Techniques

The Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics (IAA) will also stream the eclipse live on YouTube and ESA Web TV. Researcher Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel said the team will attempt to capture the eclipse in high dynamic range (HDR) video and record the polarization of the solar corona using a system of moving polarisers — a technique he previously achieved in still photography during the 2017 eclipse but has never attempted on video.surinenglish

For viewers in the UK, where the Moon will cover roughly 91 percent of the Sun in London and up to 97 percent along the western coast, the Royal Observatory Greenwich has organized its own live stream. "The last total solar eclipse for the UK was 1999, and the next total eclipse will be 2090," astronomer Jess Lee told IFLScience.iflscience

A Historic Double Feature

Adding to the occasion, IFLScience reported that after analyzing 5,000 years of eclipse data from NASA, it found no prior instance of a total solar eclipse falling on the same day as the peak of a major meteor shower. The Perseids, which produce 100 to 150 meteors per hour at their peak, will reach maximum activity on the night of August 12-13, hours after the eclipse.iflscience

Sánchez de Miguel called Wednesday's eclipse "a dress rehearsal" for the total eclipse on August 2, 2027, which will cross southern Spain, and encouraged the public to enjoy both the eclipse and the Perseids on the same day.surinenglish