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Introduction

On October 3, an annular solar eclipse will be visible from a narrow band covering a part of the Iberian Peninsula and Africa. Nevertheless, observers located in a wide region next to that band will enjoy a partial eclipse of the Sun.

That day, the Group of Astronomy of Seville will organize an expedition to a place located inside the annularity band. In this way, we will observe and study the eclipse and will broadcast it live on the Internet.

This GIF animation, by A.T. Sinclair, shows how the annular eclipse evolves. It will start on the Atlantic Ocean and will progress from west to east. You may find fore information (eclipse times, eclipse elements, maps, etc.) by following the links below:
 

	Orthographic map of the eclipse.
	Interactive map of the eclipse.
	Path of the annularity band (Iberian Peninsula).
	Fred Espenak's website (NASA).

Important: it is a must to use proper techniques to observe the Sun. On the contrary, your eyes may suffer severe damage, and even irreversible blindness. This comprehensive article from Sky&Telescope describes how to observe the Sun safely.

Observation techniques

The eclipse will be recorded by means of video and photo cameras. The corresponding images will be sent to this website in order to broadcast them live on the Internet. The exact observation place will be determined shortly.

The equipment used for the observation will include digital cameras connected to a computer and telescopes provided with solar filters. Most of these telescopes will have small focal distances, so that the whole solar disc can be imaged with them. However, the use of other equipments with much higher focal distance is not discarded (e.g., a Celestron C11).

One of the telescopes is a H-alpha Coronado PST refractor, endowed with a SolarMax 40/T-Max filter to increase contrast and resolution. The other telescopes and camera objectives will be used together with Baader solar filters.

Coronado PST H-alpha telescope		Coronado SolarMax 40/T-Max dobule-stacking filter
Baader Solar Continuum filter, for 1.25" eyepieces		Baader AstroSolar Film filters, for telescopes and photo-objectives
Orion ED 100 mm f/9 apochromatic refractor		SkyWatcher 102 mm f/5 achromatic refractor

On the other hand, the evolution of environmental parameters during the eclipse will be also registered. These will include temperature and luminosity. Sensors connected to a computer will be used for this purpose, in order to record the value of these variables automatically:

Live broadcasting

The Group of Astronomy of Seville will broadcast live the eclipse on the Internet from the observation place. The images will be shown on this website and also on others that will be specified shortly.

Results

Once the eclipse takes place, the observation results will be shown on this web page. These will include photos and videos.

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