How to safely observe the partial eclipse
On Wednesday 12 August 2026 there will be a partial solar eclipse visible in the UK. Over 90% of the solar disc will be occulted! The next time 90% or more of the solar disc will be occulted in the UK will be in 2090, which will be a total solar eclipse (but alas, I will not be around for that one). We’ll get a good 80% eclipse in 2050, and 60-70% in 2036. There are a few other smaller partial eclipses coming up.
Viewing an eclipse can be very dangerous. Ideally, you will wear eye protection (ISO 12312-2). If you are using a telescope with a solar filter then aligning it can be tricky (the trick is to align the scope so its shadow on the ground is as small as possible). You can use a telescope with a screen to project the image of the solar disc – I will be trying that myself on Wednesday.
The cheapest (and also safest) way to observe an eclipse is by using a pinhole camera. This way, your back is to the Sun! In this video, I demonstrate how to make a pinhole camera. It takes about 15 minutes.
Microblog
I must issue an apology. While I was testing a few different ways of making a microblog, one of my test “tweets” accidentally snuck out and everyone who is subscribed to my blog got a notification of my test message. Whoops! I am sorry.
I have got my microblog up and running now though. It can be seen here: https://physicswithkeith.com/microblog/
I made a microblog because sometimes I want to share a sentence or too, and it isn’t worth writing a full blog post. Instagram seems to want pictures or videos. Facebook is becoming like a graveyard populated mostly by AI generated slip. LinkedIn… well… exactly. It seems X is bogged down by political noise and Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky don’t have many users. I decided to make my own microblog service and if you are an enrolled tutee, you’ll get a notification on your course dashboard if there’s a microblog post you’ve not viewed. It’ll also give you a notification for the full blog too.
Other news
I’ve been making quite a few improvements behind the scenes on my website, and creating some web apps that I can use to enhance my teaching. I’ve also been recording the Whiteboard Physics A-Level lessons. They’re nearly done now; they should be completed by the end of the Summer Holiday.
Waiting List
The waiting list now has 30 people in it, and there are 30 spaces (spread over the three courses: 10 for GCSE Physics, 10 for GCSE Astronomy and 10 for A-Level Physics). I’ve had quite a few people asking me about the tuition sessions, you can learn about them here: https://youtu.be/y1a-2S6zXxI. People on the waiting list will get the enrolment link on Thursday 27 August 2026, and the enrolment link will go live publicly on Saturday 29 August 2026. The first tuition session of the year is on 12 September 2026 so that enrolment links will have a discount code to ensure you don’t get charged until the sessions start (and those on the waiting list will get an extra discount too!) To join the waiting list, go here: https://physicswithkeith.com/september-2026-waiting-list/
A-Level Results
Thursday is A-Level Results Day. I would love it if my A-Level tutees who are collecting results could update me on their achievements! Just drop me an email or a message on one of the many social media platforms I am on.
