IRAP[History of #eclipses (3/3)] From now on, there's no need to wait for the next total #Sun #eclipse and to travel the globe to observe it: the development, on the ground and in space, of #coronography - a technique invented in 1931 by Bernard Lyot - makes it possible to reproduce this celestial phenomenon.
ESA is currently developing the #Proba-3 mission, which will be capable of generating solar eclipses on the fly from space: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Proba_Missions/ESA_s_solar_eclipse_maker_Proba-3
Looking forward to the future! 😋
ESA's solar eclipse maker, Proba-3
Hundreds of millions of people will witness next week’s total solar eclipse across North America, and solar physicists from around the globe are flocking to join them. Eclipses offer a brief glimpse of the Sun’s ghostly surrounding atmosphere – the solar corona – normally kept invisible by the Sun’s sheer glare. But the corona will soon be opened up for more sustained study: today in Belgium ESA has unveiled the pair of spacecraft making up its new Proba-3 mission, planned to produce orbital solar eclipse events on demand.