The sky goes out
over Spain

1. −56 min

   First contact

   The Moon takes its first bite out of the Sun's upper right edge. Nothing looks different yet — daylight barely dips until well over half the disc is gone — so the only way to follow this hour is through a certified solar filter.

   Certified filter required

2. −20 min

   The light goes wrong

   Colours flatten, shadows turn unnaturally crisp, and the air cools by a few degrees. With the Sun already low in the west, the whole sky takes on a metallic quality that photographs never quite capture.

   Certified filter required

3. −2 min

   The approach

   Turn around. The Moon's shadow is closing on you out of the west at close to two kilometres per second, and from high ground you may see it arrive as a wall of darkness. Venus is already bright in the south-west. Watch pale walls and pavements for rippling shadow bands.

   Certified filter required

4. −10 s

   Baily's beads, then the diamond ring

   The last sliver of Sun breaks into separate points of light shining through valleys on the Moon's limb. They wink out one by one until a single brilliant bead remains, set against the first faint glow of the corona.

   Certified filter required

5. Totality

   Totality

   Filters off. The corona appears as a pale, structured halo, with pink prominences along the lunar edge. The horizon glows in every direction because the shadow is only a couple of hundred kilometres wide, and because the Sun sits just a few degrees up, the eclipsed Sun and the sunset colours share the same patch of sky. You have between half a minute and just under two minutes.

   Safe to look with the naked eye

6. +1 min

   The second diamond ring

   Sunlight returns on the opposite limb, and it returns fast. Filters go back on the instant the first bead reappears — this is when most eclipse eye injuries happen, in the excitement of the moment.

   Filters back on immediately

7. +30 min

   Sunset, then the Perseids

   The partial phase resumes, but across most of the eastern half of the country the Sun sets before the Moon finishes crossing it — so the day ends with a visibly notched Sun dropping into the horizon. Stay put: the Perseid meteor shower peaks the same night, with no Moon in the sky.

   Certified filter required

Offsets are relative to the start of totality at your own location, because the clock time differs by up to seven minutes across the country.

Not listed, or unsure whether a ridge is in the way? The IGN's interactive viewer answers both questions for any point in Spain, including whether local terrain blocks the Sun at that moment.

• Get an open western horizon

  Coastlines facing north-west, ridge tops, and the western edges of high plateaus all work. Check the exact spot in the IGN viewer's terrain layer rather than trusting the map — at 2–12° the relief behind the horizon does the deciding.

• Aim for the centre line if you can

  Totality is longest along the centre of the band, which the IGN places close to Avilés, Oviedo, Aranda de Duero, Soria, Peñíscola and Palma de Mallorca. The difference is real: 110 seconds in western Asturias against 31 seconds in Bilbao, near the northern edge.

• Weigh cloud against altitude

  Mid-August favours clear evening skies inland; the Cantabrian coast is the gamble, where low cloud at that hour is common. Inland Castile and Aragón trade a slightly lower Sun for much better odds of seeing it. Check AEMET in the days before, and keep a second site in mind.

• Arrive absurdly early

  The band crosses the country in 7 min 14 s and cannot be rescheduled. Spain expects a large volume of eclipse travel on narrow roads to viewpoints; being stationary an hour before first contact costs you nothing and protects the whole trip.

• Stay for the Perseids

  The eclipse falls on the peak night of the Perseid meteor shower, and because a solar eclipse requires a new Moon, the sky afterwards is as dark as it gets. The same open site serves both.

• Watch, don't only photograph

  You get one to two minutes. Set a camera on a tripod and leave it, or skip it entirely. A low Sun near landmarks and ridgelines makes for unusually good wide shots, so a fixed wide-angle frame costs you nothing and captures more than a fumbled telephoto.

1. 30 August 1905

   The last total eclipse over the Spanish mainland

   Its band crossed the country on almost the same diagonal. Observatories from across Europe set up camps in Burgos, Palencia and the Balearics; the campaign is still held in the Observatorio Astronómico Nacional's historical archive.

2. 12 August 2026

   This one

   Totality from Galicia and Asturias to the Balearics, minutes before sunset — and on the peak night of the Perseid meteor shower, with a new Moon leaving the sky dark.

3. 2 August 2027

   A second total eclipse, in the south

   The band crosses the Strait of Gibraltar and the Alborán Sea. The IGN gives up to 4 minutes 48 seconds of totality in Ceuta — more than twice what 2026 offers, with the Sun high in the sky.

4. 26 January 2028

   An annular eclipse — the ring of fire

   The band of annularity runs south-west to north-east across the peninsula and out over the Balearics, again close to sunset.

Videos load from YouTube only once you press play.