Spain has won the astronomical lottery. After the total eclipse that crossed North America on the 8th, the attention of astronomers from around the world will focus on the north, south and east of Spain, which will receive three eclipses of the highest category in three consecutive years, from 2026 to 2028; The first two will be total and the last, void. If being able to see a total eclipse passing by a location is something that normally happens, at most, once in a person's life – on average, it must take almost 400 years for it to be repeated—, the coincidence that we will see in the coming years is something unprecedented in modern history.
The expectation will be maximum on the first, on August 12, 2026. “It is the next total eclipse in the world, the first in Europe since 1999 and, in addition, Spain is the only country where it can be seen with guarantees,” explains Alejandro Sánchez, a researcher at the Department of Earth Physics and Astrophysics at the Complutense University of Madrid, who in the last 25 years has traveled the world behind this phenomenon and has managed to see six total eclipses.
After starting in the Arctic, pass through Greenland and touch the western tip of Iceland, the total eclipse of 2026 will enter the Galician and Asturian coast at 7:30 p.m., according to current summer time, and will begin to be total almost an hour later. The band of totality will cross northern Spain towards the Levantine coast and pass through the Balearic Islands, just before dying in the Mediterranean Sea. The National Astronomical Observatory points out that The total eclipse will cross numerous provincial capitalsbut also points out a drawback: “Spain is located at the end of the total eclipse, so this will happen when the Sun is setting, and already very close to the horizon.”
David Galadí, representative of the Spanish node of the Office for Dissemination of the International Astronomical Union, points out the two difficulties that viewing this eclipse will have: “On the one hand, the totality phase will be short, just under two minutes on the line. of centrality [que marca la duración máxima del eclipse total y pasa muy cerca de Oviedo, Soria o Palma de Mallorca]; and furthermore, as it occurs at a low altitude above the horizon, it will be easy for any obstacle, low clouds or a slight haze to prevent the view of the Sun.”
From the Complutense University, Alejandro Sánchez and his team have developed interactive maps that take into account multitude of factors that affect the visibility of the eclipse at each point through which it passes. From the probability of cloudiness or clear skies to areas where it cannot be seen because the Sun will have already hidden behind mountains, trees, buildings or hills when the total eclipse begins. Sánchez hopes that his map will help “to be able to anticipate which locations will be good to contemplate both this and the other large eclipses that will pass through Spain in the coming years.”
The next total eclipse, on the morning of August 2, 2027, will also occur in the middle of summer. But compared to 2026, it will have the advantages that its totality phase will be longer and that it will occur at a higher altitude above the horizon, when the Sun is still rising. In Ceuta, the Spanish point closest to the centrality line, the maximum duration will occur and will reach 4 minutes and 48 seconds, according to calculations by the National Astronomical Observatory. “In the Iberian Peninsula, Cádiz will have privileged places to observe the total eclipse for more than two minutes,” explains David Galadí. The band of totality also passes through the coast of Malaga, Granada and Almería, but it will be more focused on northern Morocco and, this time, the peak of the eclipse will occur in Egyptwith a total phase of more than six and a half minutes in Luxor, where it will be seen with the Sun at the highest point in the sky.
To those who envy the conditions of that eclipse in Egypt, Joaquín Álvaro, president of the Federation of Astronomical Associations of Spain, reminds them that “the fact of seeing a total eclipse, whether higher or lower, changes your life.” For Alejandro Sánchez, the natural spectacle and the sensations with 100% of the Sun eclipsed have nothing to do with seeing it at 99%. For this reason, “everyone will want to move to the zone of totality during the eclipses of 2026 and 2027, although in the rest of Spain they can be seen as partial eclipses.”
As a culmination of this trio of great eclipses, on January 26, 2028, an annular eclipse will take place; a very particular case, almost equal to a total one, but as the Moon is further from the Earth, it looks smaller: it covers the entire Sun except the edge, leaving a slight ring visible. It will cross the south of the Iberian Peninsula again towards the northeast of Spain, to die just before reaching Barcelona and Mallorca. Once again, it will occur very close to sunset, which will make it difficult to contemplate from cities and mountainous areas, but the view of the ring of fire characteristic of an annular eclipse, almost touching the Mediterranean Sea, will leave a multitude of photographs for the memory. On this occasion, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil will also be able to enjoy the annular eclipse before it crosses the Atlantic Ocean.
A once in a lifetime occasion
To find a phenomenon similar to these three great chained eclipses in Spain, we must go back to the totals of 1900 and 1905 and the hybrid—mixture of total and annular—of 1912. But let them occur in three consecutive years, and only a century later of that already exceptional trio, makes it something even more unusual. Looking to the future, it is also a fortunate coincidence that the next total eclipse in Europe will be in 2053 and will have a path through the Strait of Gibraltar very similar to that of 2027.
And from there, “no one now alive will ever see a total eclipse in Spain again, nor a succession of eclipses so close together in Europe,” warns Alejandro Sánchez. We will have to wait until 2081 for a total eclipse to cross the old continent, with a trajectory very similar to that of 1999. The next one, in 2088, will cross Greece and in 2090, the last European total eclipse of the century will pass through the southern tip of the United Kingdom and the northwest of France. And throughout the 22nd century, our descendants They will only be able to contemplate two total eclipses in Europewhich will pass skimming Scandinavia.
This precise knowledge of future eclipses—we know the exact date and time they will happen in the next thousand years— will attract crowds of tourists and astronomy fans from all over the continent and also from the rest of the world to Spain. The high season of European eclipses of the 21st century will also coincide in 2026 and 2027 in the middle of August. “This will be like hosting a soccer World Cup, but with a big difference: the unpredictability of the weather conditions will mean that we will not know where the grand final will be held until a few hours before. And everyone is going to want to go see it,” Sánchez concludes.
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