The City of Arts and Sciences holds astronomy events for the annular eclipse of the Sun on the 3rd October

The programme commences next Saturday, the 24^th of September, with the workshop “Observing the Sun with your telescope”, open to the public and free of charge. It will be held at the Science Museum prior to observation of the phenomenon and led by specialist staff that will show participants how to observe the Sun safely. The workshop begins at 11am with a brief talk in the Sala Polivalente of the Science Museum and will continue with the setting-up of telescopes and observation of the Sun from the terraces of the building.

For school parties, L´Hemisfèric has prepared live planetarium sessions of the “Annular eclipse of the Sun” from the 28th to the 30th of September. These sessions will include a simulation of the eclipse on the 900 square metre semi-spherical screen to teach more about this kind of phenomenon. An astronomer will speak directly with the children so that they understand how, when and why eclipses occur.  

And for the general public, on Thursday the 29^th of September at 8pm, Professor Jay Pasachoff will be at the screen room of L´Hemisfèric to give a lecture on "Eclipses, transits and how to watch them" open to the public until capacity limit is reached and following on-line registration at www.cac.es. Pasachoff, PhD from the University of Harvard and Director of the Hopkins Observatory in Massachusetts is a world expert in these phenomena, which he has been studying since 1959 from different places all over the world.

On Monday the 3rd October, the annular eclipse of the Sun will occur starting at 9:42 am with the first contact of the spheres of the Sun and the Moon, a phenomenon that will go on for approximately two hours and 45 minutes. Valencia is inside a very specific margin in Spain where one can observe the annular eclipse, in which the moon will gradually cover the sphere of the Sun until there is only a thin ring of sun. This ring will be at its most perfect between 10.59 and 11.03 am.

The City of Arts and Sciences is offering its complex free of charge to anyone who is interested in this phenomenon so that they get the chance to see it first-hand, weather permitting, using telescopes placed on the terrace of the Science Museum. During the observation, qualified staff from the Science Museum and the Valencia Astronomy Association will help the public observe the sky themselves, handing out protective glasses so that they can match the phenomenon properly and safely.