Follow the solar eclipse of June 10, 2021

An annular solar eclipse will take place on Thursday 10 June 2021 and will be partially visible in Belgium. In Uccle, the eclipse will be visible between 11:17 (first contact) and 13:25 (last contact), and its maximum will take place at 12:19 in Belgian time (UTC + 2 h). At that moment, in Brussels, about 26% of the Sun’s diameter will be covered by the Moon.

Attention: never look directly into the Sun but use eclipse glasses to observe it.

For the visibility of the eclipse in other regions of Belgium, you can consult our web page: http://robinfo.oma.be/en/astro-info/eclipses/eclipses-2021-en/#eclipse-10-june-2021

Solar instruments operated by the Observatory will observe the solar eclipse of June 10, 2021. This is the case with the SWAP camera and the LYRA radiometer on board of the PROBA2 satellite. These instruments have also observed many other eclipses since the launch of PROBA2 in 2009.

Weather permitting, the eclipse will be broadcast live by the solar telescopes at Uccle via this link: https://wwwbis.sidc.be/uset/Eclipse2021/index.php. The live images will be made in different wavelengths (‘White light’, ‘H-Alpha’ and ‘Calcium’). Besides the beautiful spectacle of the partial eclipse, various structures related to the magnetic activity of the Sun, such as sunspots or solar flares, may be visible on the solar disk. The solar telescopes of the Royal Observatory of Belgium, located in Uccle (USET: http://sidc.be/uset/) are used daily to monitor and study solar activity.

On that day, an eclipse challenge will also be organised by the team of the PROBA2 Data Center of the Royal Observatory of Belgium. For more information, visit this webpage on June 10: https://proba2.sidc.be/EclipseChallenge