12-08-2026: The solar eclipse that promises to fill the empty Spain

A French television lands on August 12, 2024 in the municipality of Las Salinas archesat the southern tip of the province of Teruel. His 100 inhabitants wonder what those cameras do here. The countrymen, much of advanced age, are more surprised by the answer: they will return on August 12, 2025 and the 2026 to film How to live a total solar eclipse at the most privileged point of the planet and how it prepares this two years before, one and the day indicated in the calendar of the stars.

The French thing is just an example of what the Galactic-Observatory Astrophysical Tandem of Javalambre (in the peak of the vulture, more than 1,900 meters of altitude) is doing for science and its dissemination in this mountain range. The galactic center It is the only park in Europe that compact dissemination with solar and night observations, it has been open for a year and 10,000 people have passed. The facilities are from the regional government although the concessionaire is the company Astroandalusa collaboration that is paying fruit and that will explode – or that foresee – one day to one hour: on August 12, 2026; Between 20.29 and 20.31 there will be a minute and forty seconds in which the moon will completely align with the Earth and the Sun, will plug the sunlight, project the shadow on our planet and allow us to see details of the star. «Eclipse is an opportunity to conduct studies that go beyond astrophysics itself. Scientists are used to do studies on solar crown, meteorology, ionosphere or animal behavior, ”he says Luisa Valdivielso, Astrophysics Doctor of CEFCA (Physmal Studies Center of Aragon Cosmos).

In its tour of the Peninsula, the eclipse will travel from the north, in a strip of very wide totality, with a width calculated in 290 kilometers, will cross Castilla y León, Aragon and vanishes by Castellón and Mallorca. The sun will hide around 9.16. On that journey there is a coveted place for observation, also endorsed by several Starlight certifications, that which distinguishes the quality of the sky, explains Stylianos Pyrzas, scientific coordinator of CEFCA in galactic. For the province of Teruel, the event is unique and a challenge in its entirety.

Iberian eclipses trio

From the National Eclipse Commission (CNE), a working group formed by a fortnight of experts within the National Astronomy Commission, have called it “the Iberian trio of eclipses”, because the total of 2026, the total of 2027 ( It will be seen at the Andalusian tip of Algeciras) and the annular of 2028 will congregate thousands of scientists, astronomers and fans around the world in the Peninsula.

«There will be 2-3-4 days of events. For many, it will be once in life and will be unforgettable »

Nacho Pérez

Galactic coordinator

Valdivielso states that the last visible total lot was in 1959 and only in the Canary Islands; “In Spain there will be none more until 2053.” For many, this will be the only time in your life to see the earth in shadow. The next year is also for that commission – of which she is part – a “challenge and a great opportunity” for emptied Spain. The eclipse promises to fill it, with the arrival of “tens of thousands of people,” says Pyrzas. There is no closed figure, it is speculative, it clarifies, but from all instances it is considered that at least 50,000 people travel to this depopulated area. The mayor of Arcos and president of the region of Gúdar-Javalambre at the timeJosé Luis AlvirHe believes it is «to fall short. All expectations will be overcome ».

The same thing thinks from the company of Jaén concessionaire of Galactics. Its coordinator, Nacho Pérez, shares with the councilor some “clues” that make them suspect about the magnitude of the event. Calls from Princeton University, Harvard, Hong Kong and Beijing have sent delegations to look up … Good omen. Below, however, they collide with more earthly problems. The entire region houses – like a lot – 3,000 rooms. The mayor has 19 at his hotel ‘El Cierzo de Javalambre’ and already advances that prices will shoot and there will be “speculators” with the squares. “There will be anyone who wants to do on August” those daysthink.

For the first time in this region there is a specific strategic plan to manage tourism provided by an eclipse. The Ministry of Tourism has just taken it to tender, with Turolense Manuel Blasco in front. Good connoisseur that the sky has “a parameter that makes it unbeatable to observe a solar eclipse: sharpness,” Pérez describes. The complete executive already sees in the astronomical phenomenon a perfect occasion not only for science, but to exhibit its own gastronomy and attractions.

“We are lucky to do science here, with a sky with an ideal quality for observations”

Sylians pyrzas

CEFCA scientific coordinator in galactics

But like all ‘Business’, it also has a face B. «The challenges both logistics, transport, housing and services, as educational and dissemination that poses an event» thus they are colossal, the CNE warns. The experience of April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse paralyzed the roads and collapsed the services in villages of Mexico, Texas and especially Kansas is the reference point that the authorities have taken so as not to leave anything to improvisation. From there it is better explained that the French TV wants to record how a town of 100 inhabitants is prepared to house 30,000, 50,000, 100,000 professionals or amateurs.

Astrotourists are legion

The world of astrotourism is gaining adherents in the last three decades in a spectacular way. «Move flooded in a few hours, or vertiginous displacements to the hunting of the best eclipse for its social networks. Anyone with 500 euros of telescope can make these observations, ”describes pyrzas. Natural of Thessaloniki, he acknowledges that southern Europe is a magnificent field of land to play the universe game. Teruel has entered the Champions League, but, the Greek concises, he had the winning horse: «A very dark, very clean sky, far from light pollution and with large depopulated surfaces. It is the ideal candidate to observe the eclipse and now, in addition to the science we do in Javalambre – one of the 29 unique infrastructures of the Ministry of Science – we have the center that brings it closer to people, galactic ».

How is the science that is done here? «We triddimage the universe three -dimensionally. In November we announced the first results, which are public », agree Pyrzas and Valdivielso, responsible for the project. The doctor abounds: «We release the first 12 square degrees of the sky with more than 450,000 galaxies. The goal is to reach 8,000 square degrees ». 13.7 billion years of an unabordable universe whose secrets details Pérez before the schoolchildren from Alcorisa this icy and sunny morning.

«We wanted to have our stars’s dyopolis. With the eclipse, the challenge is great: we must cover the needs and guarantee the safety of thousands of people »

José Luis Alvir

Mayor of Arcos de las Salinas (Teruel) and president of the Gúdar-Javalambre region

In that synergy between tourism and science, Arcos has found the last of his shoe. “We wanted to have our stars’s dinopolis.” Alvir has seven legislatures in the town hall and remembers the first 27,000 euros that allocated a telescope; Many neighbors opposed that “strange” personal sent. For someone little given to look at the Milky Way, the commitment will crystallize in 2026.

It is yet to be completed, but tourist packages, cultural proposals are finalized, ‘glampings’, parking for caravans and lots will be conditioned. Many will bet on the slopes in front of galactic. In the minds of those responsible, a key commitment over: security. Personalities will come by helicopter. The Royal House will be invited, because «The King is a great astronomy fan Since childhood, ”says Alvir. It is also expected in Teruel to Bill Gateswho travels around the world in search of these events and fables with a macroconciente with a world -class figure on the esplanade of the airport. The roads are secondary and little busy. Basic services, such as urinary and food, must be covered. Everything has to be millimetrically thought. That is why the Regional Plan Includes army, civil protection, civil guard, traffic and forestryamong others.

The other stars

To those who move more prosaic reasons than to discover the reason for dark matter and energy, good food and the beach of the Malvarrosa at one hour will also join the tourist package. In the joint between Cuenca, Valencia and Teruel –o ‘The three kingdoms’, as the tourist complex was called by Adrián Garrido– This chef is already thinking about the cold dishes that will serve hundreds of diners waiting in two summers.

“We will offer good tourist packages and rich local gastronomy so that people know Cuenca, Valencia and Teruel and returns”

Adrián Garrido

Restaurador, owner of ‘The Three Kingdoms’ for the Aras de los Olmos (Valencia)

Garrido, 30, has returned from the best stoves of Norway for the sake of Los Olmos, in Alto Turia Valenciano. This entrepreneur is confident that the eclipse be a showcase that saves his business to languish among the void of his villages thanks to something very mundane: mouth to mouth.

Star tourism is the new signal of these regions Neighbors and the promotion is given: in the slang of eclipses hunters it is called 1.40 minutes, Teruel’26. The following “best” quotes: 6 minutes, Egypt’28.