Partial Solar Eclipse, 12th August 2026

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Otley Science Festival and the Institute of Physics (Yorkshire branch) will be at the Kids Free Fun Zone in Otley Market Square (Wednesday 12th, 10am – 1pm) to talk about viewing the partial eclipse safely and hand out some eclipse glasses (while stocks last!). Certified eclipse glasses, courtesy of Go Stargazing, will be available free of charge along with hands-on activities including making colourful UV bead solar bracelets.

You can find advice on viewing the eclipse here. The bottom line is that you should never stare directly at the Sun under any circumstances!

The peak of the eclipse will occur shortly after 7pm, so you’ll want to find a safe place to stand with clear view of the western horizon – no tall trees.

Update

We were literally overwhelmed by the interest shown in the eclipse and our offer of glasses. We ordered some time ago what we thought would be a reasonable quantity of eclipse glasses but an unanticipated level of publicity combined with the unusually fine weather (and the difficulty of buying them at short notice) led to an astonishing level of demand. Sadly, as a result many people left disappointed.

Arriving to set up for a 10am start we found a queue already stretching around the market place. The first 2 photos below were taken at just after 9.30!

We are really sorry that we had to disappoint so many people but there was no way we had anticipated anything like this. Then there is the other side: we ordered many weeks ago, the glasses are not on “sale or return” and what if it had turned out to be a rainy day…

If you don’t have glasses there are still ways to experience the eclipse, follow the advice at ukeclipse.com and have an enjoyable evening.

Otley Science Festival Is Taking A New Shape

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For 2026/27 we have decided to have a change of approach for the Otley Science Festival. For the main Festival instead of packing everything into a single week in November it will now be split between this November and March 2027.

In November we will have a variety of events, including speakers, the usual Science Café and the popular family oriented Science Fair from Thursday 12th to Saturday 14th.

Then in March 2027, to coincide with British Science Week (6th – 15th) we will run our schools shows and other events as well as our March Science Café.

Science Cafés will continue as usual, 4 a year, with one in June and one in September as well as the ones within the two Festival times.

We hope everyone will enjoy this new approach and that local schools will appreciate our support for British Science Week.

Festival 2025 is [on its way] here!

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We’re there!

Kicking off on Sunday 9th November Otley Science Festival 2025 is going to be another great week with something for everyone. We begin with with an exciting daytime family friendly show then run through the week with a range of evening events, a Friday matinee and the popular Science Fair on the final Saturday plus daytime schools events for KS1 and KS2 students and a supporting art exhibition running alongside.

Here’s what happening:

  • The Science Viking, a show for all the family
  • Art Exhibition Launch of “An Exhibition By Numbers”
  • Festival week Science Café
  • Film: David Attenborough’s Ocean
  • The Science of Wine with David Lawson of Otley wine merchant Chez Vin
  • The Cost of Blood with Dr Jack Gann of the Thackray Museum of Medicine
  • A Climate of Truth with Professor Mike Berners-Lee
  • the ever popular, family oriented Science Fair
  • The Hidden Mathematics of Knitting with Alison Kiddle

You can find all the details here on the Festival 2025 page

On the other hand if you would like to jump straight to a page where you can buy tickets for the shows you can find it here.