After months of work, the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) successfully concluded its scientific, outreach, and educational program in Palencia, where thousands of people enjoyed the total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026.

The program, designed jointly by the IAC and the Palencia City Council, filled the streets and theaters throughout the province. This historic event concluded with a high turnout. Thousands of people—including locals and visitors from all over the world—packed the viewing areas set up in Palencia to enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical spectacle live.

The event was not only a major public outreach milestone in the capital of Palencia and in towns such as Frómista, Carrión de los Condes, Osorno la Mayor, and Villalcázar de Sirga, but it also hosted a scientific experiment—NATE (North Africa Telescope Eclipse) experiment to measure the solar corona, led by the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (IAC) in collaboration with Mohamed VI Polytechnic University and the National Solar Observatory (NSO) of the United States.

Goals Achieved

During the minutes of totality, the IAC’s scientific and technical team stationed in Palencia successfully met the objectives set for the expedition. The researchers conducted operational tests of the NATE project’s equipment, successfully capturing high-resolution images of the solar corona, which are essential for studying the Sun’s behavior. Likewise, the historic 1905 telescope, recently restored for the occasion, functioned flawlessly, successfully recording the solar corona at the moment of totality.

Once the Moon’s shadow had passed, the NATE project team began comparing the preliminary computer simulation of the solar corona with the actual images obtained in the field, finding a similarity of more than 70 percent—a result that will require further analysis.

An exceptional event

Migdalia Machín, the Canary Islands Government’s Minister of Universities, Science, Innovation, and Culture, who traveled to Palencia, stated that “we have experienced an exceptional event that has allowed us to see, once again, science’s ability to spark public interest and bring us closer to knowledge,” and she thanked “the scientists at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics for their extraordinary work, as they now embark on an exciting new phase with the NATE project and with their sights set on the total eclipse of 2027 in Morocco!” “The Canary Islands have a world-class scientific community, and we have a responsibility to support their work and ensure that the knowledge generated here continues to reach ever farther,” Machín added.

The extensive educational program—which included talks by IAC Director Valentín Martínez Pillet, Deputy Director Eva Villaver, NSO physicists such as Kevin Reardon, and researchers such as Lindsay House, Jose Carlos del Toro Iniesta, Irene Puerto, Pablo Redondo, Juan Carlos Pérez Arencibia, Alejandra Goded, Jorge Pérez Gallego, and Gaia Lacedelli—thus brings the conference to a close and prepares for the next phase of the project in anticipation of the total solar eclipse on August 2, 2027, in Morocco.