Total solar eclipse returns to mainland Spain after more than a century

A wait for more than a century came down to barely a minute: the moon covered the sun over Spain, and a total solar eclipse returned to the mainland. Near sunset on Wednesday, crowds watched the sky darken almost to night before sunlight briefly returned, leaving one of Europe’s rarest celestial events over almost as soon as it had begun.

The rarity went deeper than Wednesday’s spectacle. Western Europe had not witnessed a total solar eclipse since 1999, while Spain’s own history carries an unusual qualification. News agency Associated Press reported that a hybrid eclipse produced only a few seconds of totality in 1912, leading some astronomers to regard 1905 as Spain’s previous full-scale total solar eclipse.

From St Petersburg to Berlin, millions outside the narrow path of totality experienced a different version of the eclipse. People gathered along the Gulf of Finland in St Petersburg, while Berliners watched through protective glasses at Tempelhof and near the Molecule Man sculpture as the moon steadily covered more of the solar disc without completely blocking the sun.

The effect grew stronger farther west. In Britain, more than 90% of the sun was obscured, leaving only a narrow strip of light visible at the eclipse’s peak. At Greenwich Park in London, spectators watched the sky turn grey as hilltops, parks and other open viewpoints filled with people following the changing light towards evening.

Cloud covered much of the sky over central Reykjavik, but it could not disguise what was happening below. Around Hallgrímskirkja, hundreds who had gathered despite the rain saw daylight fall sharply as totality arrived; many had only a limited view of the sun itself, yet the sudden darkness and the return of light drew cheers from the crowd. Conditions farther west gave a clearer measure of the eclipse. News agency Reuters reported that totality reached Iceland’s westernmost coast at about 5.44pm local time and lasted up to 2 minutes 13 seconds. Its maximum duration, about 2 minutes 18 seconds, occurred offshore west of Iceland before the moon’s shadow continued across the North Atlantic towards Spain.

After crossing the North Atlantic, the moon’s shadow reached northwestern Spain at around 8.28pm local time, bringing places including A Coruña and Bilbao into totality shortly before sunset. The timing created an extraordinary natural sequence: the sun disappeared completely, returned briefly as the moon moved on and then sank towards the horizon as evening took over.

Farther inland, totality lasted barely a minute in Buitrago de Lozoya, north of Madrid. Around 8.30pm, spectators saw Baily’s beads — separate points of sunlight appearing along the moon’s edge — form close to the horizon. Cheers followed as darkness lifted and sunlight returned, only for the approaching sunset to begin dimming the sky again.

In Medinaceli, spectators gathered across a Roman-era hilltop town well before the eclipse, while elsewhere in Spain people carried chairs and umbrellas into open viewing areas. The light weakened gradually before dropping rapidly as totality arrived, prompting applause and cheers from crowds watching across northern and central parts of the country.

The shadow briefly clipped northeastern Portugal before reaching Spain’s Mediterranean coast and the Balearic Islands at sunset. Yet Wednesday’s eclipse begins rather than ends an unusual run for the country: another total solar eclipse will cross Spain on August 2, 2027, followed by an annular, or “ring of fire”, eclipse on January 26, 2028. After waiting more than a century, Spain now has less than 12 months to wait for totality again.