A photomontage of the eclipse on 12 August 2026, taken from the village of Purroy in Spain.
At around 8.30 pm, the moon obscured the sun for over a minute. In Purroy del Jalón, where part of the Out of Pluto team was based, a number of set-ups enabled the fifty or so people present to make the most of this astronomical event: binoculars fitted with Mylar filters, a telescope with a projection onto cardboard, and a camera also fitted with a filter to create the composite image above. The Sun disappeared behind the mountains a few minutes after the end of totality, but this did nothing to spoil the magic of the moment, for children and adults alike.
The telescopic setup was a real success, allowing everyone to see a view of the solar disc approximately 8 cm in diameter. The image below illustrates this process and the enthusiasm of the public. Another, rather surprising reason made this setup particularly useful: several people were afraid to look at the sun through the glasses. The excessive coverage by the media, public bodies, influencers and countless other sources of varying quality led to two phenomena: a sense of fatigue and misinformation.
For all those who weren’t particularly interested in the eclipse, the media hype put them off any desire to witness the phenomenon. And for those who were hesitant and/or had little information about the conditions of the eclipse, fear was often the prevailing emotion. This blog post is not the place to go into detail about these social phenomena, but they were significant enough to warrant a mention.
All in all, it was a truly magnificent eclipse; the colours and the halo during the totality phase made for a moving moment, shared with the whole village.
Thank you to the villagers for helping to organise this viewing event!
Link: Instagram of Purroy (en Spanish)
Link: page of the eclipse on the website of the Spanish national geographic institute (IGN)
Link: rebacq / Solar total eclipses