00:00Well, you may be aware there's a major celestial event on our way, and I'm with Andrew Lownd, esteemed space
00:08expert. Tell us all about it.
00:10Yeah, well, what we've got is in the UK, we've got a brilliant partial solar eclipse.
00:14There is a total solar eclipse, but you can only see that if you're in the west of Iceland or
00:19in northern Portugal and northern Spain.
00:22It runs through across Spain to a certain degree, but you'll see totality there.
00:27But you won't in England or in Scotland or Wales or Ireland. You'll see a partial eclipse, but it's a
00:32very big partial eclipse.
00:33It can be up to 90, over 95 percent if you're down in Plymouth.
00:38People should start getting out about six o'clock in the evening to get prepared for it.
00:43And then the eclipse begins. That's when the moon starts to go across the sun, sometime around about ten past
00:49six.
00:49With the maximum coverage in this country, somewhere around 13 minutes past seven, 16 minutes past seven, depending where you
00:57are in the country.
00:58And then the moon will slowly cross over and it'll be all over by about ten past eight in the
01:02evening.
01:03Are there any safety tips people need to do to look at this eclipse?
01:06There's a lot of safety tips you have to do.
01:09The principle is never, never, never, never look directly at the sun with your naked eye.
01:16It's extremely dangerous, especially during this eclipse.
01:18There's no opportunity to look directly at the eclipse in this because it's not a total eclipse.
01:23So the sun will still damage your eyes permanently.
01:26So what's the safest thing for the public to do is what's called projection.
01:29You can project the image through a telescope and you use a...
01:32Once you project your image, you project it onto a piece of white card or, in this case, foam, and
01:38that will be safe to do.
01:39You can project it through binoculars onto it as well.
01:41We recommend you cover one side of the binoculars over to make it very safe.
01:45That's a good safe method to do.
01:47Another way, you can use a colander.
01:51Use the colander so you can actually access a pinhole camera and that will project multiple images of the sun
01:57onto the card.
01:58And that will work just as well.
02:00The sun's angle, it's just going to be relatively slow in the west, so you might have a difficulty with
02:05the next one.
02:06But it is a bucket of water.
02:07Once the water surface is nice and steady, you can actually get a good image of the sun in that
02:12and use that.
02:13Or you can use these.
02:15Very dark.
02:16Now, the modern ones are very good.
02:17They're ultraviolet and infrared protected for the eyes.
02:20So they're very good.
02:21You get a bit of a green image, but they work.
02:24You can buy special solar protection glasses for eclipses.
02:27If you're going to buy these, buy them from a reputable dealer, a telescope supplier.
02:33People like that so you don't get dodgy ones off the net.
02:36And you put those on and you can look nice and clearly and safely at the sun.
02:39Not for a huge amount of time.
02:41Always remember to look away again.
02:43And that's the key to do that.
02:44But the trick is to be very, very safe.
02:46And as a bonus for everybody on August the 12th, once you finish the eclipse, get in, have something to
02:52eat, then go back out again.
02:54Because all through the night will be the Perseid meteor shower.
02:57So you get two celestial events for the price of one.
02:59All right.
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