Present

The Government kicks off the actions prior to the astronomical phenomenon of August 2026 with the day "Catalonia looks to the sky"

The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has closed the Catalonia looks to the sky event, which has served as a presentation of the Government’s strategy for the total solar eclipse of August 12, 2026, the first visible from our home in more than a century. During his speech, the President of the Generalitat has urged to turn this event into an “opportunity” for Catalonia. Specifically, “an opportunity for science, research and scientific dissemination” that takes place in Catalonia, as well as to highlight “the economic and strategic importance of space”.

The Catalonia looks to the sky event has highlighted the scientific and social dimension of the astronomical phenomenon of August 12 and has served to present the planning and actions that the Government will carry out focused on the collective observation of the eclipse. Cross-cutting actions that bring together aspects such as research, education, safety and health, turning the eclipse into a national project and an extraordinary opportunity for scientific dissemination and the dissemination of research values.

The conference was attended by prestigious scientific communicators, specialists in space research and representatives of scientific institutions and operational bodies. The four discussion panels addressed the different dimensions of the eclipse: from the opportunity it represents to bring science closer to the public to the individual and collective experience of observing eclipses. The dimension of coordinating an event of this magnitude from a safety and health perspective, as well as the potential of research in space, was also addressed.

Among other speakers, he has taken part in the various expert panels and prestigious figures such as the astrophysicist and former director of the Institut d’Estudis Espacials Catalunya, Ignasi Ribas; the deputy director of the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands (IAC), Eva Villaver; the former minister and astronaut, Pedro Duque, and the molecular biologist and reserve astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), Sara García Alonso