Total solar eclipse 2026: Astrophotography and birdsong

**Sarah Al-Ahmed** (0:04)
Europe experiences totality for the first time since 1999, this week on Planetary Radio.
I'm Sarah Al-Ahmed of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond. On August 12th, the moon's shadow will sweep across Iceland, Greenland and Spain, bringing totality to millions of people who have never experienced it before. This week, astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy joins us to talk about what made his 2024 eclipse image so extraordinary and what he's planning to do for this totally unique low horizon total solar eclipse. Then bioacoustics researcher and CEO of Haikubox, David Mann, shares the surprising results from the Eclipse Echoes project, which used a network of AI-powered bird monitors to listen in on how birds reacted to the 2024 total solar eclipse in North America. If you love Planetary Radio and want to stay informed about the latest space discoveries, make sure you hit the subscribe button on your favorite podcasting platform. By subscribing, you'll never miss an episode filled with new and awe-inspiring ways to know the cosmos and our place within it.
The day that this episode drops, August 12, 2026, a total solar eclipse is sweeping across the Northern Hemisphere. Depending on when you're listening, Totality is either just a few hours away or already behind us. Either way, this one is historic. The path of Totality sweeps through Greenland, Iceland, Northern Russia, the Atlantic Ocean, Spain and a small corner of Portugal, marking the first total solar eclipse visible from Western Europe since 1999 Those lucky enough to be on that path of Totality are going to get 2 minutes and 18 seconds of darkness as the sun's light is blocked by our moon. But the partial eclipse reaches much further than that. Parts of the Northern United States, from Alaska to North Carolina, most of Canada, much of Europe and Northwestern Africa, will all experience a partial eclipse today.
For many along the Western part of the path, in mainland Europe and Africa, the sun will actually set while it's still in partial eclipse, giving those viewers a rare chance to see a sunset eclipse. If you've been listening to Planetary Radio since 2024, you may remember our eclipse coverage before the last total solar eclipse in the United States. In one episode called Eclipse Tips, a Guide to Safe Observing and Astrophotography, I invited astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy onto the show. He talked about how to photograph and safely observe the total solar eclipse. Andrew is an astrophotographer whose work has captured everything from the sun's surface to the far reaches of deep space. And he's been chasing eclipses since 2017, when a total solar eclipse crossing the United States first inspired him to pick up a camera and point it at the sky. Today, he's back to tell us how that 2024 shot actually turned out, and to share what he's been doing since then, including an extraordinary collaboration with Artemis II's commander, Reed Wiseman.
Hey, Andrew. Thanks for joining us again.

**Andrew McCarthy** (3:21)
Well, thank you so much for having me.

**Sarah Al-Ahmed** (3:23)
So the last time we talked, it was about the 2024 eclipse. I was headed out for Texas to our Eclipsorama event, but I think the last time we spoke, you weren't even sure where you were going to be going yet to take that photo. So where did you end up?

**Andrew McCarthy** (3:36)
I ended up in Missouri.
The forecast in Texas, you probably remember, was a little dicey. Some people saw it, some people didn't, and the people that did see it still had clouds partially occluding this sun during the event. So I did want that. So I made the last-minute call based on the last-minute forecast changes to drive a couple of states north to Missouri, where I ended up setting up, where every forecast agreed there would be clear skies in this one little keyhole. It ended up working out. I got the great shot and it all worked out the way I wanted. It was just a lot of work, a lot of driving, ended up just driving just constantly. And then I live in Arizona, so it's just all over the country basically for this thing.

**Sarah Al-Ahmed** (4:23)
Oh, it ended up being phenomenal. That photo is just startlingly beautiful.

**Andrew McCarthy** (4:28)
Oh, thank you.

**Sarah Al-Ahmed** (4:29)
Can you tell us, you know, what were some of the things that you ended up bringing out in that photo? And how many photos did you end up stacking to produce that result?

**Andrew McCarthy** (4:37)
Well, since been a couple of years and a million projects ago, I might not have the exact numbers, but I did have five cameras and telescopes going at once. And the idea was I wanted to show you everything that was happening in the sky. Not just the sun, the moon, the corona, the prominences, but there was also a lot of stars that you couldn't even see visually, faint magnitude stars that I wanted to pull out. And I wanted to capture the full dynamic range that was present in the scene.