Note these dates because, I assure you, when the time comes they will want to be at the right time and in the right place to watch the show. After more than a hundred years without having witnessed an event of this type, Spain enters a season of solar eclipses. Will have five in the next six years: two total, two partial and one annular. The most spectacular will take place on August 12, 2026. It will be the first total eclipse to be seen in these latitudes of the globe for more than a hundred years.
This spectacular astronomical event, during which the royal star will disappear behind the silhouette of the Moon for a few minutes, will come with a hitch. It can only be seen in all its glory from certain points on the peninsula. Tarragona will see it, but Barcelona will not. It will reach Zaragoza, Valencia, Valladolid, Oviedo and Palma but not Madrid, Seville or Tenerife. So, if you want to be careful, it is better to organize your agenda with time for eclipse season.
The day has come, the Sun will follow the following path. In fact, to prepare, the best would be to look for a vantage point that points northwest. At 7:35 p.m., as Earthlings will be able to see, the Moon will touch the edge of the Sun. first phase of the eclipse. At 8:29 p.m., Earth’s satellite will completely block out sunlight and for a few minutes it will be dark. Then the moon silhouette will move to the other side. From Spain, the show will be seen until 8:54 p.m.. From this moment, the sunset at these latitudes of the planet will hide the eclipse for the Spaniards. In other parts of the globe, the eclipse will continue until 9:20 p.m. This time, officially, the trajectory of the Moon and the Sun will definitely separate.
The last time Spain witnessed something like this was August 30, 1905. To watch the eclipse in all its glory we’ll have to head to the “lucky strip” from where you will see how the Moon manages to completely cover the Floor. From there, a total eclipse will be experienced (as Bonnie Tyler would say). In cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Cordoba, Seville, Pontevedra or Salamanca, which are excluded from the lucky zone, the astronomical event of August 12, 2026 will be experienced as a partial eclipse. At the height of the eclipse, it won’t be night, but we will see how the Moon “bites” a piece of the Sun.
eclipse season
The August 12, 2026 total eclipse will be the first of its kind in over a hundred years. But in order not to arrive at the event without training, in previous years there will be other eclipses to warm up the engines. The October 25, 2022 and the March 29, 2025 Europe will live two partial solar eclipses. The first (which will reach its peak around 1:00 p.m.) will only be visible from the northeast of the peninsula. From Barcelona, for example, you will only see how the Moon hides a small part of the Sun. It will be flashy, but not so spectacularr. The second (which will leave its most emblematic image around 11:47 a.m.) will be seen from all over the country. In this case, as in 2022, from Spain it is also expected that at the height of the event only a “bite” of the Sun will be seen.
The solar fair will go further in the following years. The August 12, 2026 we will have, as we have already said at the beginning of this chronicle, the first total eclipse of the last century and a year later the August 2, 2027, the event will be repeated. That of 2027 will leave the photo of the day at 12:06 p.m. Before closing the chapter on total eclipses in Spain, one more point. The October 2, 1959, the Canary Islands experienced a three-minute total eclipse. That day, all the more, the archipelago earned the name of “lucky islands”.
January 26, 2028finally, Spain will also be able to see an annular solar eclipse in which, at its peak, the Moon will cover the Sun, leaving its around a ring of light. Save this date because the photographs left behind by annular eclipses are always the most spectacular. In this case, in addition, the event will start around 4:40 p.m. and end after sunset, around 5:55 p.m. The impression can then be spectacular. The The last time Spain witnessed something like this was April 17, 1912.. Although, yes, according to the chronicles of the time, the climax lasted barely a second and “it happened with more pain than glory”.
On the eve of the start of the eclipse season, here is one last curiosity that deserves mention. Solar eclipses mean they never come alone. Two weeks before or two weeks after solar shows can also be observed lunar eclipses. In Spain you can see lunar eclipses in November 2022, May and October 2023, March and September 2024, March and September 2025, August 2026, February 2027, January, July and December 2028. The calendar is intense, yes, but rest assured, on these pages, we let us know when the dates get closer.
journey through the sun
Eclipse season will be the most obvious opportunity for us earthlings to travel to the Sun, if only for the sight. But since we are on vacation, can you imagine being able to actually travel to the Sun? To give you an idea of the magnitude of the odyssey, here is a fact. The light emitted by the sun takes a little longer than eight minutes on tour on 150 million kilometers that separate the star from our planet. If you are reading these lines during the day, and you are lucky enough to be in a naturally lit place, think that the light you see has traveled through space 300,000 kilometers per hour to reach you.
Traveling to the Sun is, technically, impossible for earthlings. And not just because of the time investment it would take to achieve the royal star. There are also disadvantages, such as the huge amount of radiation to which a future space traveler would be exposed. And of course, the high temperatures it would have to endure. The closest to our species came from “touching” the star It was December 15, 2021, when the “Solar Parker” space mission successfully entered the Sun’s atmosphere. it only remained on the solar perimeter for a few hours. He then returned to a safe distance to continue his observations.
Approaching a ball of hydrogen and helium what’s more 4.5 billion years old it is not easy. Even if, everything is said, the reality is that nothing could live in the sun and, in turn, without the light radiating from that star most life on earth would not exist. By the way, we also know that the fury of the Sun (via solar storms) can lead to catastrophic events in the blue marble (but this, for now only, is only posed as a long and remote possibility) . So for now, it’s best to watch the sky sway from afar. Travel to the Sun during Eclipse Season.