My first experience with a total solar eclipse
August 16, 2026 
6 mins  Outro II | |
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(Credit for cover image: CC-BY-SA ZarlokX)
On August 12th of this year, the first of a set of three consecutive solar eclipses visible from Spain occurred, and was the first total eclipse visible from mainland Spain since 1912.
Although rare, these events can be predicted decades ahead of time where and when they will happen. Having limited mobility, I was looking forward to this astronomic spectacle for more than 10 years.
Preparation is key
I can’t stress how important was to prepare ahead of time for this moment. In the modern era, what was used to be feared became a sensational event, and millions of people from all over the world travel just to experience the day suddenly becoming night for a short time.
This eclipse in particular was especially concerning in this aspect because of the path of the totality, a narrow band from which the full eclipse could be seen.
While the polar areas of Iceland and Greenland could have caused aurorae to appear alongside the eclipse, but clouds seemed to have covered most of the sky anyway, as it is typical in the polar regions.
That left with Spain (and a sliver of Portugal) as the most viable locations for watching the eclipse. You can easily tell that millions of people would flock to those places.
In anticipation for clouds, I prepared to go to two locations half a year before the actual eclipse:
- My main plan was to go to Valencia, where a friend of mine would pick me up to southern Teruel which was nearby.
- I also had a backup plan in a camp at Valladolid.
| The only problem with planning so far ahead is that your plans could be thrown off for certain reasons, or replaced by others… I was willing to make changes of plans, of course. But the weather reports had so much uncertainty for my main one that I wasn’t sure about going through it. In hindsight, maybe I should have gone through plan B to begin with. | ||
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Fortunately, I had enough spare time and money to afford changing locations. We got to our viewing spot pretty early, so much so that we were the first. I was expecting about 30 or so people to show up, but it ended up being more like 150, so arriving first to get the most ideal spot proved to be great.
Oh, but one thing that I completely underestimated was the need for water. Even if we had a nice place at the shade, the heat and the trough was too much and ran out of bottles before the eclipse even began. I think I ended up drinking about 4 one litre bottles that day!
Having set up my camera and a nice spot to sit on, I was then ready to watch the show.
Watching the eclipse
I will be honest: Watching it with your eyes beats watching it from a camera or TV, hands down. Among other things, your eye has a broader dynamic range than your typical camera on a smartphone, and even professional DSLR cameras.
This allows you to see way more details than a camera could. So even though I set up my camera for a timelapse, I was there mainly to take the moment in. The temperature dropped, everything turned as if it was somehow plunged into dusk, and even traffic lights and positional lights from things like air turbines turned on — as it should.
I was able to watch Venus, but I couldn’t see any other stars. At the time, Sirius wasn’t in view, so maybe it was just bad luck on that part.
| I was really surprised to see the corona with such detail! It looked like silk petals coming out of the black circle of the eclipse. And the color was something that got me confused for a bit. Since it was happening close to sunset, I was expecting it to be golden or orange in color. But it was white! The strangest thing is that most photos I saw did pick it up as orange. | ||
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I researched why this was the case, but the only conclusion I could reach was that the white balancing in our eyes adjusts automatically during totality in a way that most cameras don’t.
The size of the sun being eclipsed by the moon was also surprisingly large. Being so close to the horizon, the Moon illusion was surely the main cause, but I also learned that at the time of the eclipse, it had been about 2 days since the Moon reached the perigee, the point at which it is closest to Earth —though this isn’t as significant.
Video: August 12th, 2026 total solar eclipse timelapse
The next eclipses
Spain has hit a pretty lucky streak, and two big solar eclipses will come in the next two years.
The second eclipse is another total one, visible from the southern tip of Spain as well as the cities of Ceuta and Melilla. My aunt happens to have an apartment in Málaga, where I’m expected to experience totality for almost 2 minutes, much like this last one. But I’m probably going to visit Ceuta or Cádiz for this eclipse for a whopping 4 to 6 minutes of totality. The conditions for that one couldn’t be any better: High up in the sky, and in a nearly guaranteed sunny summer. Plus, both Mercury, Venus and other stars like Sirius would be visible as well. No wonder they call it the eclipse of the century!
The third eclipse is an annular one. Although I’ve experienced the one in 2005, I was still a kid and obviously couldn’t afford going to the annularity zone. But this one’s annularity band will happen to pass through my hometown! Although it will be in January, so that probably means a cloudy sky. Still…
| I’m determined to take a bunch of cool pictures! | ||
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