Musification of the 2026 total solar eclipse

Video: 00:05:08 [English] Experience a musical simulation of the 12 August 2026 total solar eclipse as seen from the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre (Spain). Click here for information about ESA’s live broadcast from this observatory, or visit esa.int/solareclipse for an overview of all ESA eclipse activities & resources. This is a ‘musification’ – an artistic interpretation of a set of data. In this case, the eclipse determines when and how much of each sound is heard. The music is simply the way those data are presented. This musification is a collaboration ESA’s CESAR team and Rubén García Benito from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC). It uses nine parameters extracted from a Stellarium simulation of the total solar eclipse: Arpeggio (the rapid succession of notes): Visible sunlight. Its rhythm, range (spanning almost four octaves), and volume are determined by the light itself; the chord follows the colour of the sky. It fades out as the Sun sets. (The data determine the behaviour; the scale and pattern are artistic choices.) Pad (background chord): The colour of the light; the redder and warmer the light becomes, the darker the chord. (The colour is t