Brno scientists chase total solar eclipse to Iceland and Spain
Scientists from Brno University of Technology are preparing to observe Wednesday’s total solar eclipse from Iceland and Spain. Five teams equipped with cameras, dozens of lenses and special filters will have just two minutes to collect crucial images and data. While their colleagues in Iceland are battling rain and wind, one of the Spanish teams has already faced insects and a nearby wildfire.
Two minutes to capture the Sun
For more than two decades, scientists from Brno have travelled around the world to observe one of astronomy’s most spectacular phenomena. Their latest expedition has now reached its final preparations, with equipment being assembled and tested at five observation sites – two in Iceland and three in Spain.
Mathematician Jana Hoderová from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Brno University of Technology, or VUT, is among the researchers preparing specialised photographic equipment on Iceland’s western coast. Researcher Pavel Štarha is setting up and testing the mounts and cameras that will be positioned beside a fjord.
But it is not enough to prepare the equipment. Every member of the expedition must know exactly what to do when totality begins. The scientists will have only about two minutes to take the images they need. “You switch the camera to autofocus, aim at the edge of the Sun and try to focus. It has caught it here,” Štarha told Hoderová during one of their final rehearsals. Weather, however, is something the team cannot control. While Czechia is experiencing summer heat, conditions at the Icelandic observation sites have included temperatures of just nine degrees Celsius, rain and wind.
“Iceland is a place where the weather changes very quickly,” expedition leader Miloslav Druckmüller says. “Generally speaking, the weather there is bad. It is a big gamble.” The gamble is worthwhile because a total eclipse provides an opportunity that scientists cannot normally reproduce from the ground. When the Moon completely covers the bright disc of the Sun, the dramatic reduction in scattered light in the Earth’s atmosphere allows researchers to observe the solar corona. “There is a delicate plasma envelope around the Sun which normally cannot be observed from Earth without a total eclipse,” Druckmüller explained ahead of the expedition.
Flies, smoke and fire in Spain
The researchers in Spain have encountered a very different set of challenges. “We are at the foot of Mount Pico Trigaza,” said Václav Široký, head of the Technika photography club at VUT’s Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. “We are staying in an abandoned cottage which we are now using as our base.”
Although local authorities had cleared the building for the researchers, it was not quite as deserted as expected. “On the day we arrived, there was an infestation of small flies inside, so we spent our first night outside on the terrace,” Široký said. “But we solved the problem quickly, and from the following morning we were operating completely normally.”
Later another, potentially more serious, problem emerged. The sky began to grow hazy, although clouds were not to blame. “We thought it was cloud cover,” Široký said. “In the afternoon we went up to the top of the mountain to have a look around and saw that there was a fire nearby, towards the west, which is also where the eclipse will be.” The smoke subsequently dispersed and Spanish firefighters brought the blaze under control. Conditions at the observation site have since improved considerably. “So far it looks very good,” Druckmüller said. “If the weather stays as it is today and the smoke disperses, the conditions look almost ideal.”
The expedition leader said conditions at another of the Spanish observation sites appeared even better because there had been no fire there. Unique filters reveal the solar corona Good conditions at all five locations would be particularly valuable because the expedition is about much more than producing spectacular photographs.
The scientists are carrying dozens of lenses and specially adapted instruments. Among the most important pieces of equipment are narrow-band filters designed to reveal different temperatures within the solar corona. “At all our observation sites we have special filters that allow us to observe nine-, ten- and thirteen-times ionised iron,” Druckmüller said.
“That enables us to determine the temperature in different parts of the solar corona and so on. It is unique equipment that nobody else in the world has – only our team.” The Brno researchers have been building an archive of eclipse images for more than 20 years. The resulting material allows scientists to compare the Sun at different points in time and investigate the structure and temperature of its corona, as well as processes associated with the solar wind.
People in Czechia will not experience totality on Wednesday. Instead, they will see a substantial partial eclipse, with the Moon covering approximately 85 percent of the Sun. Even then, observers need proper eye protection. Druckmüller has warned against looking directly at the Sun and recommends using suitable eclipse glasses or watching the phenomenon at an astronomical observatory equipped for safe solar viewing. For the teams in Iceland and Spain, meanwhile, weeks of preparation – and years of experience chasing eclipses around the world – will ultimately come down to roughly two minutes in which to capture the normally invisible atmosphere of the Sun.
