Eclipse Eve: Totality Returns to Europe

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Anna: Good day and welcome to Astronomy

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AstroDailyPod. I'm Anna.

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Avery: And I'm Avery. And if you only listen to us

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once this year, make it the next

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Anna: two days, because tomorrow, the 12th of

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August, the moon does something it hasn't

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done over mainland Europe since

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1999. It slides

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completely in front of the sun, the one and

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only total solar eclipse of

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2026.

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Avery: And then, once the sun goes down, the same

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new Moon that made that eclipse possible

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steps out of the way entirely. Hands us the

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darkest Perseid meteor peak in about 20

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years.

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Anna: One new moon, two headline events

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roughly 24 hours apart. We'll set the

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whole thing up for you. Northern and southern

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skies both, Plus a

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Avery: rough morning for one Chinese rocket, a, uh,

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quieter question mark hanging over another,

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and Japan quietly finishing off its own

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answer to gps. Let's get into it.

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Anna: So let's talk about tomorrow properly,

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because this is a genuinely rare one. Uh, a

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total solar eclipse happens somewhere on

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Earth roughly 18 months or so. But the

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last time totality touched down anywhere on

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the planet was April 2024 over

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North America. That's more than two years

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ago. Tomorrow ends that drought,

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and the geography of this one is strange and

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beautiful. Most total eclipses

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race roughly west to east across the middle

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of the globe. This one goes over the top of

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the world. The Moon's shadow first touches

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down in the far north of Siberia, then

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arcs up and over the North Pole, drops

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down onto eastern Greenland, crosses the west

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coast of Iceland, including Reykjavik,

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and finishes across northern Spain and just

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clips the northwestern corner of Portugal.

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Totality itself is brief. At most

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about 2 minutes and 18 seconds right on

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the centre line. Blink and you miss it by

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eclipse standards. But the setting more than

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makes up for it, because in Spain, the sun

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is hanging low in the west, close to the

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horizon. In the last light before sunset,

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imagine the sun's corona flaring out over

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a Spanish skyline at dusk. That's

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the image people have been planning trips

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around for years now before anyone

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in the Southern Hemisphere gets their hopes

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up. Let me be straight with you, because we

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always are on this show. This eclipse is a

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Northern Hemisphere event full stop.

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Totality is only over Greenland,

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Iceland, northern Spain and that little bit

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of Portugal. A much wider slice of the world

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gets a partial eclipse. Parts of North

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America, especially eastern Canada and

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the northeastern United States, will see the

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sun take a bite low in the sky near sunset.

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But here in Australia, we see nothing at

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all. So southern listeners, stay with us.

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Your night is coming later in the show, and

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it's a good one.

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Here's the scale that gets me though, add up

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everyone who falls under at least a partial

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shadow tomorrow across Europe, North Africa,

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northern Asia and much of North America.

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And you're talking on the order of, um, a

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billion people who can in principle

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look up and see the moon and sun overlap.

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One event, a billion potential witnesses.

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And it's not just a spectacle, it's a working

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day for scientists. Those couple of minutes

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of totality are one of the only times we can

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study the sun's corona, that faint outer

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atmosphere directly from the ground.

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Space agencies and observatories along the

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track are gearing up. The European Space

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Agency, for instance, is running a live

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broadcast from the Havalambra Observatory in

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Spain, stitching together telescope feeds and

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drone footage so that even if you're nowhere

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near the path, you can watch totality as it

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happens. The ever reality is the

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weather, of course. It always is with

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eclipses. Greenland is remote and cold,

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but the air coming off the ice sheet actually

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tends to clear the skies, so the odds there

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aren't bad. Iceland is Iceland. It

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could be crystal clear or socked in with

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cloud, sometimes within the same hour.

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And Spain has the best of both worlds for

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most travellers. Reliable late summer skies

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and the roads, airports and towns to actually

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get people into the path. That's why the bulk

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of eclipse chasers are converging on Spain

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and Iceland tonight, watching forecasts

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like hawks. We'll give you the exact viewing

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times for the path and for North America, um,

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in the sky watch at the end. For now, the

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headline is simply, After 27

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years, totality is coming home to Europe.

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And whatever the sky is doing where you are

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tomorrow. It is worth a look, it really

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is.

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Avery: And from something rising to something that

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came down the hard way.

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So yesterday was by any measure an

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extraordinary day for launches. Four flights

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across three countries inside about 12 hours.

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And China opened it with a hard one to watch

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along March 7 a. That's a state rocket

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from the big state contractor cask,

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lifted off from the Wenchang launch site on

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the island of Hainan. And about 85 seconds

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into the flight, still climbing, still on

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that first main burn, it exploded.

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A large fireball, a cloud of debris, and

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effectively a total loss of the vehicle and

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its payload. The payload was reported to be

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a communications satellite, Zhongsheng 4B,

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heading for a high orbit China. Space

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authorities hadn't put out a detailed

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statement as of our recording, so we're

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holding the payload detail lightly. But the

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outcome itself isn't in doubt. The rocket was

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lost. There's a bit of history here too. This

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was the 18th flight of the long March 7th A

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and awkwardly, the very first one back in

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2020 also ended in failure.

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So this is a rocket that's flown a lot and

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mostly, well, having a very public bad day.

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The bigger question is knock on effects. The

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long March 7 family is the workhorse that

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carries cargo up to China's Tiangong Space

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Station. So depending on what the

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investigation finds, some upcoming missions

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could slip while engineers work out what went

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wrong. Now, here's where I want to be careful

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because these storeys get tangled. That

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failure is one rocket. There was a second

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completely separate Chinese launch on the

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manifest for the same night, and it's a

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storey. We've been following the private

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company Landspace and its Zhu K3.

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Different company, different launch site.

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Jioquan, well over 2000 kilometres from

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Wenchang and a very different goal.

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Zhu K3 is a reusable stainless steel

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methane fueled rocket and last night's flight

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was its second attempt to fly to orbit and

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then bring its first stage back for a

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propulsive landing. Legs touchsc. The Falcon

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9 trick. And I want to keep our facts

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straight from last week. This would be

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China's fourth orbital class recovery

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attempt, not its first. China already landed

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an orbital booster back in July when a long

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3-10-B was caught in a net. What makes

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ZK3 different is the method, legs

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and engine thrust setting down on a pad

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rather than being caught. That's the

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milestone Landspace is chasing as we record.

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We don't have a confirmed result on that z k3

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attempt. And honestly, that's worth a word.

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Landspace has form for going quiet. Its

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debut flight last year was scrubbed and then

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postponed for days with barely a word before

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it eventually flew. So the silence tonight

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could mean the outcome just hasn't reached

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English language press yet. Or it could mean

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the flight quietly slipped. We're not going

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to guess. When it's confirmed, we'll bring it

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to you properly.

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Anna: A, uh, rocket lost and another we're still

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waiting on.

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Meanwhile, the sky above all of it is about

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to put on a free show. The Perseids.

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Now everyone knows the Perseids. They're the

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reliable old friend of the northern summer.

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The shower people actually plan barbecues

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and camping trips around. But

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2026 is special. And I want to

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explain why. Because it's a lovely bit of

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cosmic coincidence. The peak lands

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overnight on the 12th into the 13th,

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the same date as the eclipse. And that is

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not an accident. A, uh, total solar

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eclipse can only happen at New Moon when

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The Moon is between us and the Sun. And

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this year that new moon falls almost

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exactly on the Perseid peak. So

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the very thing that darkens the sun by day

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leaves the night sky completely moonless.

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No moonlight washing out the faint meteors.

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It's the best set of conditions the Perseids

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have had in roughly two decades.

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The meteors themselves are debris from a

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comet. Comet 109P,

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Swift Tuttle, a big one on a

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133 year orbit. Every

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August, the Earth ploughs through the trail

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of dust it's left behind. And those specks

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hit our atmosphere and burn up as shooting

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stars. When Swift Tuttle itself last

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swung through the inner solar system in the

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early 1990s, the Perseids

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briefly went berserk. Hundreds of meteors

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an hour. The comet's long gone back out

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now, so we won't see that this year, in

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fact, and I'll be honest, because a moon this

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sky can raise expectations. The

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forecasters are being measured about the raw

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numbers this year. The textbook figure is up

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to about a hundred meteors an hour under

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perfect conditions. But the meteor

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specialists are quietly expecting something

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more like 30 to 50 an hour from a

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genuinely dark site this time around.

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Activity dips a little this year before

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picking back up in 2027. There

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is one tantalising wildcard, though.

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Models suggest the Earth might just clip a

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couple of older, narrow dust trails around

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the peak one laid down almost a thousand

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years ago. If that happens, you could get a

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short burst of extra meteors. It's not

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guaranteed. The timing has hours of

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uncertainty and even the models don't promise

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a storm. But it's the kind of maydy that

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gets meteor watchers out of bed. The next

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genuine outburst that forecasters are

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confident about isn't until 2028,

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and that one will favour North America. So

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the storey of these Perseids isn't really a

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hundred an hour. It's the darkest

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skies in 20 years. A rare same

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day pairing with a total eclipse and a

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small chance of a bonus. We'll tell you

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exactly when and where to look at the end.

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Avery: Love it. And from ancient comet dust to some

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very modern hardware. Staying with that busy

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launch day, because not all of it was

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fireballs.

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Over In Japan, an H3 rocket lifted off

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from the Tanegashima Space Centre carrying a

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hefty navigation satellite. And with it,

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Japan took a quietly strategic step. The

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satellite is called Michibiki no. 7.

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Michibiki, meaning guiding or showing the

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way. And it brings Japan's quasi

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Zenith satellite system up to full strength.

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That's a bit of a mouthful. So here's the

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idea. Most of us rely on America's

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gps. It's brilliant. But in a place like

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Japan, narrow streets, high rise

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canyons, steep mountains, GPS

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signals can get blocked or bounce around and

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throw your position off. Japan's fix is

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clever. These quasi zenith satellites fly

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in looping orbits that, that keep at least

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one of them almost directly overhead, near

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the zenith over Japan and the wider Asia

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Pacific at all times. A signal coming

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straight down is much harder to block than

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one coming in low across a skyline. So

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Michibiki sharpens and reinforces GPS from

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directly above, getting positioning down to

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remarkable precision. With this launch,

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Japan has the satellites it needs to run that

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system as a full standalone service.

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And the strategic point is resilience. Japan

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now has its own regional backbone that keeps

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working even if it can't lean entirely on

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someone else's system. In a world where

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navigation underpins everything from farming

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to shipping to your phone maps, quietly

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owning your own overhead layer is a big deal.

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And there's a neat little footnote. This

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satellite is also carrying a hosted American

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payload, a space surveillance camera built

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for the US Space force. So, ah, a Japanese

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navigation satellite is quietly doubling as a

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US space watching sensor. Which tells you how

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closely the two allies now work together up

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there. Not a fireball, but arguably the most

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consequential thing that flew all day.

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Anna: From satellites that tell us exactly where we

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are to the oldest navigation tool there

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is the sky itself.

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Let's get you outside. This is the practical

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bit and we're doing both hemispheres as

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always. Northern friends, you've got the

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doubleheader. Southern friends, hang on. Your

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turn is coming and it's all yours.

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First, the eclipse, the timings. The

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moon's shadow sweeps through in the late

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afternoon and evening European time in

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rough universal time. Totality begins up

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in the high Arctic a little before 17

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UT, reaches greatest eclipse around

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1746 UT and finishes

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over Spain and Portugal by about

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1834 UT. On the ground,

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that means Iceland sees totality in the late

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afternoon. Spain sees it in the early

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evening with the sun low and close to

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setting. North America, you're getting a

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partial, not totality, and it's uh, a low

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in the sky, near sunset affair for

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eastern Canada and the northeastern United

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States. The further northeast you are,

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the more of a bite you'll see further

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west. And it fades out. And now the rule

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we never, ever trim. A, uh, partial

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eclipse is not safe to look at with the naked

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eye, not for a Second, you must

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use certified eclipse glasses or viewers

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that meet the ISO

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123122

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safety standard or watch by indirect

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projection like a simple pinhole.

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Ordinary sunglasses, smoked glass,

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phone cameras, none of that protects your

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eyes. The only moment it is ever safe

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to look directly is during total totality

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itself. And that only happens inside

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that narrow path in Greenland,

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Iceland and Spain. Everywhere else

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glass is on the whole time. Please

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look after your eyes then after

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dark. The Perseids for the Northern

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hemisphere the peak is overnight on the 12th

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into the 13th and with no moon at all,

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conditions are as good as they get. Best

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viewing is after midnight from roughly 2am

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until dawn when the shower's radiant climbs

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high. Get somewhere dark, lie back,

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give your eyes 20 minutes to adjust and

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don't stare at your phone. Realistically

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30 to 50 an hour from a dark sight.

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More if that dust trail wildcard comes off

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now. Southern hemisphere, this is yours. Two

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bits of bad news then the good stuff. You

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can't see tomorrow's eclipse and the Perseids

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barely clear the horizon for us because their

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radiant sits low in the north. So don't

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stay up chasing them from Sydney. Instead

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look before dawn. The pre dawn eastern

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sky right now has a lovely lineup of planets

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strung along it. A genuine naked eye treat.

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No equipment needed and much better placed

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for us than for the north in M the evening.

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Brilliant. Venus is your beacon, low in the

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west after sunset. And for anyone with

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binoculars, Comet 10P Tempel

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2 is still tracking across southern skies.

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A soft little smudge that rewards a dark

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sky and a bit of patience. That's a

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southern hemisphere favoured comet, so make

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the most of it.

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Avery: So wherever you are on the planet there is

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something up there for you over the next 48

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hours. Northern skies get the once in a

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generation eclipse than the meteors. Southern

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skies get the planets Venus and the comet.

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Anna: If tomorrow sparks something for you, come

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and share it. TheNewAstronomyDaily

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IO has our full back catalogue, a

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00:16:39.570 --> 00:16:41.610
news feed we keep fresh through the day,

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listener reviews and a contact form. So if

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you catch the eclipse or a great Perseid,

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tell us and sign

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Avery: up for the daily newsletter while you're

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00:16:50.090 --> 00:16:52.210
there. So the next Big sky event lands

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00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:54.210
straight in your inbox. You can find us on

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00:16:54.210 --> 00:16:54.530
all the

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Anna: socials astrodaily Pod that's

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00:16:57.530 --> 00:16:59.970
Astronomy AstroDailyPod for Tuesday. Whatever

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your sky's doing M tomorrow. Glasses on for

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the sun, eyes up for the meteors from

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Anna and me.

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Avery: Thanks for listening.

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Anna: Clear skies.

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Mhm.

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Avery: We're told.