For the first time in more than a century, a total solar eclipse will reach mainland Spain on Aug. 12, with the path of totality also clipping Iceland and Greenland close to sunset.
Daytime darkness will sweep across the Iberian Peninsula as the sun, moon and Earth align, according to astronomers. The track begins near the North Pole and heads south, offering up to two minutes and 18 seconds of totality at its peak. It sets the stage for an even longer event next year, when a roughly 6 1/2-minute eclipse is forecast to arc from Spain into North Africa and the Middle East.
It will take about 1 1/2 hours for the umbra, the moon’s central shadow, to traverse a roughly 5,130-mile, or 8,260-kilometer, course largely over the Atlantic. Maximum totality is expected off Iceland’s west coast. By the time the shadow reaches a small portion of Portugal and then Spain, totality will have dropped to around a minute. The track will end over the Mediterranean.
Eclipse chasers gear up for the solar spectacle
Millions outside the narrow path of totality will still see a partial show across wide swaths of the Northern Hemisphere. Partial phases will be visible as far as Alaska and Siberia, covering Canada, the northern United States, much of Europe and parts of West Africa. Closer to the centerline, the sun will be more obscured, with estimates of 94% coverage in Dublin and 83% in Oslo. Montreal is expected to see about 18%, tapering to 9% in New York and 2% in Norfolk, Virginia. Observers are advised to use proper eclipse glasses at all times when any part of the sun remains exposed.
The same date brings additional skywatching highlights. Before dawn, six planets will form a gentle arc, and after nightfall, the Perseid meteor shower will peak under a new moon. Meteors could streak through the twilight sky near totality, and some bright planets and stars may be visible during the brief darkness.
Eclipse cartographer Michael Zeiler plans to view his 13th total solar eclipse from a cruise ship in a Greenland fjord, serving as a guest lecturer. He intends to film the northern horizon during totality in hopes of catching auroras, should solar activity surge. “What gets me excited is viewing rare phenomena,” he said in an email.
See who’s hosting solar eclipse watch parties and science experiments
The European Space Agency will stream a live program from Spain’s Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre and host a public event in León. NASA, the Virtual Telescope Project in Italy and other groups also plan coverage. ESA’s director of science, Carole Mundell, called the moment both scientific and profoundly human, describing it as a connection between people on Earth and the wider cosmos.
ESA said two space telescopes will observe the eclipsed sun and its corona. Proba-3, the agency’s twin-satellite mission designed to create artificial eclipses, will be out of alignment during totality as seen from Earth, but engineers hope to capture images before and after.
In the stratosphere, U.S. college teams will launch more than 60 high-altitude balloons from Spain and Iceland to examine fleeting atmospheric changes as temperatures drop during the eclipse. The same program released about ten times as many balloons during the 2024 total solar eclipse over North America. “A couple of minutes isn’t a lot of time, but it’s still plenty to affect the atmosphere and to make that cold, dark shadow of the moon on Earth,” said Montana State University’s Angela Des Jardins, who leads the NASA-funded effort.
From the air, Southwest Research Institute’s Amir Caspi plans to record the solar corona in nine wavelengths from a NASA high-altitude aircraft flying near 460 mph, or about 740 kph. The jet’s speed will stretch totality to nearly three minutes, during which he expects to collect thousands of images per camera. “It’s true the eclipse is short, but it’s still incredibly valuable,” he said.
And there’s more to come
An unusually long total solar eclipse is forecast for Aug. 2, 2027, delivering up to six minutes and 23 seconds of darkness from Spain’s southern tip into Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. On Jan. 26, 2028, an annular ring-of-fire eclipse will complete Spain’s run of major events, which ESA’s Mundell described as a lucky coincidence.
Spain last experienced a full solar eclipse on the mainland more than a century ago. A rare hybrid event occurred two days before the Titanic sank in 1912, though some point to 1905 as the nation’s last widely accessible total eclipse. Meanwhile, ESA’s Proba-3 science team, led by researchers including Andrei Zhukov at the Royal Observatory of Belgium, has generated more than 60 simulated total eclipses using twin satellites flying in formation, with the longest lasting five hours and 38 minutes. “We’re looking forward to more eclipses,” Zhukov said, “natural or artificial.”
Total solar eclipse viewing tips and visibility
The total solar eclipse will be best seen along the narrow path of totality in Greenland, Iceland and Spain near sunset. Partial phases will extend across North America, Europe and West Africa. Observers should use certified eclipse glasses whenever any part of the sun is visible.
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