This month I’m giving a little news update, and I’ll start with the anticlimax of the eclipse. For most of us in this area the much vaunted eclipse was a huge disappointment, with it happening so late in the day cloud ruined our view of it. Don’t worry though, there will soon be another one. It’s on August 2 2027 in the morning. Totality will be all along the southern Andalusian coast from Cadiz in the west to Almeria in the East. The exact time will depend on where you are, but around 10.45 will be the middle of the whole event.
Next comes another eclipse, the one I’m waiting for, It’s called an annular solar eclipse. This is on the 26 January 2028 quite late in the day but it’s winter so there is a greater chance of clear skies at sunset.
What is an annular eclipse? It’s where the disk of the Moon doesn’t quite cover the disc of the Sun. The Moon isn’t a constant distance from the Earth, it varies by about 50,000 kilometres, this is because the moon orbits Earth in an elliptical orbit, not a circular one. If an eclipse happens when the moon is further away than normal, the disk appears smaller to us. This is an annular eclipse. I’m looking forward to it because it will give us a chance to see details of the Suns circumference that are not normally visible.
How do we use a telescope to look at the Sun? After all the news reports recently about the massive dangers of looking at the sun with the naked eye, (excellent advice), you would be right to suppose that using an ordinary telescope or binoculars would be much worse, and you’d be correct. It conjures up thoughts of smoke coming from your head where your eyes used to be. Most of us use a very special kind of filter that is attached to the objective or big end of a telescope, this cuts out nearly all the light and protects us. Anyone can buy these from a decent astronomy store on line. If using one for the first time don’t forget to cover the little finder scope to prevent accidents. Next is pointing the scope at the Sun, you can’t use the finder scope, so put a low power or wide field eyepiece in and use the shadow of the sun made by the ‘scope to get it close to correct. Lastly, take very good care of your filter, even a pin hole will make it dangerous to use.
I seem to have run out of space for more news so we’ll have to wait for next month.

Charles Oates, Vega Baja Astronomy Group.

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