Spain’s last full solar eclipse — not counting the Canary Islands — occurred two days before the Titanic’s sinking in 1912. Because that rare hybrid eclipse toggled between a ring-of-fire and just a few seconds of totality for Spain, some consider 1905 for the country’s last pull-out-all-the-stops solar eclipse. For the first time in more than a century, a total solar eclipse is coming to mainland Spain with an even longer encore next summer. An exceptionally long total solar eclipse is in store for 2027, yielding nearly three times more observation time. The southern tip of Spain will take center stage on August 2, 2027, with up to six minutes and 23 seconds of totality extending into Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. Then on January 26, 2028, a ring-of-fire eclipse will round out Spain’s celestial trifecta — “a lucky coincidence,” according to European Space Agency's (ESA) director of science Carole Mundell.
Solar Eclipse in August
Daytime darkness will descend August 12 across the Iberian Peninsula close to sunset — plus slivers of Greenland and Iceland — as the sun, moon and Earth align perfectly in the sky. Toss in a crescendoing meteor shower and a six-planet parade on the same day, and the heavens will be overflowing with awe.
Starting near the North Pole before tracking south, totality will last up to two minutes and 18 seconds, an appetizer for an even longer solar show next year — a 6 ½-minute extravaganza that will sweep from Spain to North Africa and the Middle East.
It will take 1 ½ hours for the umbra, or moon’s sun-blocking shadow, to race along the 5,130-mile (8,260-kilometer) course, most of it over an empty Atlantic. Maximum totality will occur off Iceland’s west coast. By the time it reaches a small patch of Portugal and then Spain with its massive crowds, totality will have dwindled to a minute or so. The spectacle will end in the Mediterranean.
Solar Spectacle
Hundreds of millions more on the sidelines are in for a treat as well. A partial eclipse will delight as far away as Alaska and Siberia, enveloping Canada, the northern U.S., and much of Europe and West Africa.
The closer to totality’s course, the more the sun will vanish behind the moon – 94 per cent coverage in Dublin and 83 per cent in Oslo, Norway. Montreal will see an 18 per cent bite out of the sun, tapering to 9 per cent in New York and 2 per cent in Norfolk, Virginia.
Special eclipse glasses are crucial. even if a morsel of sun is showing.
Adding to the cosmic wonder, the day begins with six of our neighboring planets forming an arc in the sky before dawn and end with the Perseid meteor shower peaking after nightfall under the new moon. Streaking meteors could photobomb totality, with some of the brighter planets and stars visible in the background.
The European Space Agency will host a live webcast from Spain’s Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre and a public celebration in Leon. NASA will provide its own coverage, as will the Italian-based Virtual Telescope Project and others.
Two of ESA’s space telescopes will observe the eclipsed sun and its corona, or outer atmosphere. Proba-3, the space agency’s artificial eclipse-making satellite duo, will be in the wrong part of its orbit during totality as seen from Earth, but will try to sneak in some before-and-after shots.
U.S. college research teams are also pitching in, launching more than 60 high-altitude balloons from Spain and Iceland to study Earth’s atmosphere and other changes during the eclipse when the temperature momentarily drops. They launched 10 times as many balloons during the 2024 total solar eclipse that captivated North America.
