{"id":995541,"date":"2026-08-12T06:12:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995541\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T06:12:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T06:12:28","slug":"total-solar-eclipse-visibility-when-to-see-it-and-what-to-expect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/995541\/","title":{"rendered":"Total solar eclipse visibility: When to see it and what to expect"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The grand stellar spectacle of the year has arrived. A total solar eclipse will be easily visible over parts of Europe <\/strong>on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and Earth, casting a shadow on our planet that completely blocks the sun\u2019s light from some areas of the world, according to NASA<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Major viewing locations in parts of Iceland, northern Spain and a small corner of northeastern Portugal will be in the path of totality, when the skies go momentarily dark as the sun completely disappears from view \u2014 creating a rare sunset eclipse for some, especially observers in Spain.\n <\/p>\n

\n Meanwhile, a partial eclipse, in which only some of the sun\u2019s light is blocked from view, will pass over the northern US, Canada, much of Europe and northwestern Africa. Check Time and Date<\/a> to see when it will occur in your area.\n <\/p>\n

\n Remember to wear certified eclipse glasses or use a handheld solar viewer<\/a> to protect your vision any time the sun\u2019s light is on display before, during or after the eclipse, and follow these safety tips<\/a> to protect your vision.\n <\/p>\n

\n For those who live outside the eclipse\u2019s path, the European Space Agency will share a livestream<\/a> of totality from Spain\u2019s Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre in Teruel. NASA is also hosting a live broadcast<\/a> sharing views from across the path beginning at 1:15 p.m. ET.\n <\/p>\n

\n Here\u2019s what to expect during the eclipse.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n The excitement kicks off in a remote part of northern Russia where totality occurs midday local time. Sky-gazers in Greenland and Iceland will experience the longest duration of totality \u2014 about two minutes and 15 seconds \u2014 in the late afternoon and early evening.\n <\/p>\n

\n But Spain and the northeastern tip of Portugal will experience a special spectacle as totality, which will last just under two minutes, occurs right before sunset. In Le\u00f3n, totality will begin at 8:28 p.m. local time and end at 8:30 p.m.\n <\/p>\n

\n Dr. Ryan French, solar astrophysicist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado, and coauthor of \u201cLittle Book of Eclipses<\/a>,\u201d is staying a few hours north of Madrid where totality will last for one minute and 45 seconds. He opted for a shorter eclipse experience with the likelihood of less cloud cover.\n <\/p>\n

\n The partial eclipse phase that lingers after totality won\u2019t conclude until 9:22 p.m. local time in Le\u00f3n.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFor pretty much the entirety of Spain, by the time the sun sets sort of over the horizon, the total eclipse will have happened, but the sun will set in a partial eclipse, a beautiful sight seeing the sun set as a crescent sun,\u201d French said.\n <\/p>\n

\n And just as the eclipse excitement begins to subside, one of the best meteor showers of the year, the Perseids<\/a>, will peak between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. <\/strong>NASA will host a live watch party<\/a> with experts on YouTube beginning at 12 a.m. ET on August 13.\n <\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

\n For those living outside of the path of totality, a crescent-shaped partial eclipse, rather than a total eclipse, will be the main event.\n <\/p>\n

\n The amount of exposed sunlight depends on how close viewers live to the path of totality. For example, people in the US will only see a small part of the sun covered by the moon, while Europe and northwestern Africa will experience a more dramatic cloaking of much of the sun, according to NASA.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNew York will see a 10% eclipse, so you know a very small slice of the sun missing,\u201d French said. \u201cBut if you\u2019re in Europe, obviously that slice is much larger. In the United Kingdom, which won\u2019t actually experience a total solar eclipse until the year 2090, they\u2019re actually getting a 95% eclipse for this event.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The partial eclipse will occur in the morning for those in Alaska and northern Canada, in the afternoon for the northern US and eastern Canada, and in the evening for viewers in the UK, Ireland, Africa and mainland Europe, where the sunset eclipse phenomenon will occur.\n <\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

\n The moon doesn\u2019t suddenly appear between Earth and the sun \u2014 the event begins with a partial eclipse, in which the moon appears to take a \u201cbite\u201d out of the sun. Depending on your location, the partial eclipse can last between 70 and 80 minutes, according to NASA<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n As the time of totality nears, look for changes in the sky\u2019s appearance as it begins to eerily darken.\n <\/p>\n

\n When the moon starts to cross in front of the sun, the star\u2019s rays will shine around valleys on the moon\u2019s horizon, creating glowing drops of light around the moon called Baily\u2019s beads. The phenomenon was named for English astronomer Francis Baily, who noted them during an annular eclipse on May 15, 1836.\n <\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The best photos from the total solar eclipse in April 2024<\/p>\n

\n As totality approaches, Baily\u2019s beads will quickly disappear and make way for the \u201cdiamond ring,\u201d a nickname for how the eclipse looks when a single point of light remains \u2014 like a glistening, giant diamond ring.\n <\/p>\n

\n Then, it\u2019s time for totality \u2014 the only safe time to remove eclipse glasses. The corona is the sun\u2019s ultrahot outer atmosphere, and it emits a glow that can be seen around the moon during the eclipse. During the total eclipse, the corona will resemble white streams of light, according to NASA<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe sky will have some sort of weird, twilighty, silvery glow about it,\u201d French said.\n <\/p>\n

\n If wildfire smoke persists in the path of totality, the corona, which is a million times fainter than the sun\u2019s surface, may be too difficult to see through the haze, he added. But this should not be an issue for those in the path of the partial eclipse.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWildfire smoke may even enhance the experience, turning the sun a reddish color and making it easier to photograph without specialist camera filters,\u201d French said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Spectators may also be able to see a region of the solar atmosphere called the chromosphere, which will appear as a thin, pink circle around the moon.\n <\/p>\n

\n Bright stars or planets such as Venus may shine in the dark sky, and the air temperature will drop as the sun disappears. The sudden darkness also causes animals to behave in unusual ways<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Remember to put your eclipse glasses back on immediately after totality ends. The diamond ring and Baily\u2019s beads will briefly reappear before the partial eclipse returns as the moon slowly moves across the sun.\n <\/p>\n

\n NASA<\/a> advises not to look at the sun through any unfiltered optical device \u2014 camera lens, telescope, binoculars \u2014 while wearing eclipse glasses or using a handheld solar viewer. Solar rays can still burn through the filter on the glasses or viewer, given how concentrated they can be through an optical device, and can cause severe eye damage.\n <\/p>\n

\n While everyone tries to photograph the actual eclipse, French prefers a different perspective if viewing the event with friends or family.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHave somebody in your group position a phone pointing at yourselves and just get an authentic video,\u201d French said. \u201cForget it\u2019s there, set it up 20 minutes earlier and get a video of how your friends and family react. I think that\u2019s a nice sentimental thing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n If this awe-inspiring event already has you wanting more, mark your calendar and start making plans for August 2, 2027<\/a>, when a total solar eclipse will cross southern Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen \u2014 and will last up to more than six minutes.\n <\/p>\n

\n Sign up for updates from CNN Science<\/a> on the upcoming total solar eclipse and whenever there\u2019s a must-see, out-of-this-world expedition. Plus, take deep dives into the future of space exploration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grand stellar spectacle of the year has arrived. A total solar eclipse will be easily visible over…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":995542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8],"tags":[109111,159,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-995541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-eclipse","tag-science","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117081065440839338","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=995541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/995541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/995542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=995541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=995541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=995541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}