Weather permitting, we will be holding a eclipse-viewing event on the grass outside of the Isaac Newton Building on 12th August to observe the near-total eclipse of the Sun occurring roughly between 6 and 8pm. Everyone welcome! Maximum eclipse (90.5% obscuration, that is area of the Sun covered) should occur in Lincoln just after 7:10pm BST. The next time we will see such a high percentage of obscuration from Lincoln will be in 2090, and that will be incredibly close to the horizon at its maximum eclipse. The closest before that will be in 2065 with over 80% obscuration, so this really is a special event!
We are organising this event in collaboration with Prof Edward Hanna’s group at the School of Natural Sciences, whose work includes studying the effect of solar eclipses on the weather. We will have several telescopes fitted with solar filters for safe viewing and solar-eclipse glasses to borrow.
Of course, we shouldn’t need to remind you to never look directly at the Sun or through a telescope or binoculars without a proper solar filter fitted at the input aperture (not the eyepiece!). For more information on how to view the eclipse safely, see here. For visualisations of the eclipse shadow as it moves across the Earth, see here. You can also watch the eclipse live streamed from Greenwich observatory on 12th August here. Dr Sutton has also posted a video on his channel about the eclipse here.
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