A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Wednesday, 12 August 2026, with a magnitude of 1.0386. Totality occurred in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 2.3 days after perigee (on 10 August 2026, at 11:18 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.
The total eclipse passed over northernmost Siberia, the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic Ocean, northern Spain, a small part of northeastern Portugal, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Balearic Islands. The points of greatest duration and greatest eclipse were just 45 km (28 mi) off the western coast of Iceland around 65°30' N and 25°25' W, where the totality lasted 2 minutes and 18.2 seconds. The first part of the total eclipse path unusually passed from east to west from Russia to Greenland, passing about 100 km south of the North Pole. A partial eclipse covered more than 90% of the Sun in Ireland, Great Britain, and northern Italy, and to a lesser extent across much of the rest of Europe, North Africa, and northern North America. The total eclipse passed over northern Spain from the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean coast, as well as the Balearic Islands. The total eclipse was visible from the cities of A Coruña, Valencia, Zaragoza, Palma, and Bilbao, but both Madrid and Barcelona were just outside the path of totality.
This was the first total eclipse to be visible in Europe since 20 March 2015, and the first one to cross over Mainland Europe since 11 August 1999. It was the first total solar eclipse visible in Iceland since 30 June 1954, also solar saros series 126 (descending node), and the only one to occur in the 21st century; the next one visible over Iceland will be in 2196. It was also the first total solar eclipse visible from the territory of present-day Spain since 2 October 1959 in the Canary Islands, and the first from the Spanish mainland since 30 August 1905. The next total eclipse visible in Spain will happen less than a year later on 2 August 2027.
Observations
The eclipse path proceeded from North Siberia throughout the Arctic Region, Iceland, the eastern Atlantic to Spain, and the Mediterranean.
Solar eclipse below the horizon
The considerable eclipse gamma (more than 0.8) gave observers—where the totally eclipsed Sun was just below the horizon—an opportunity to observe the lunar shadow in the high atmosphere as well as shortened civil twilight and extended nautical twilight. The darkening of the twilight sky improved the chances of observing the inner zodiacal light.
Bright planets and stars visible during totality
Far northern Russia was treated to a dawn eclipse. In the east of the Taymyr Peninsula (north-east of Krasnoyarsk Krai) the maximum of total phase occurred on 13 August at 00:00 local time during the midnight sun.
In Iceland, the eclipse was a mid-afternoon event occurring about 4 hours before sunset; it started in Reykjavík at around 16:47, with totality being reached at 17:48.
In Spain, the eclipse occurred about 1 hour before sunset. Mercury and Jupiter, west of the eclipsed Sun, were therefore very low below it. Venus was brilliant well up in the southwest, with Spica to its east. Arcturus was high in the south, and the Summer Triangle was well up in the east. Lower in the south, Antares was minutes away from transit.
News and tourism
The longest the eclipse lasted on land was in Látrabjarg, in the remote Westfjords of Iceland. Plans were made to ensure safety in the area, but many of the roads to Látrabjarg are very narrow and dangerous. There was talk of closing the area to car traffic and ferrying people by bus. Work had started on repairing parts of the road to Látrabjarg, partly as routine maintenance but also because of the eclipse.
All locations where the eclipse was likely to be better seen experienced a surge in hotel room prices.
Roscosmos and Yandex Weather organized a live broadcast of the partial eclipse (up to 79% obscuration) in Saint Petersburg from the top of Lakhta Center, the tallest building in Russia and Europe. Astronaut Pyotr Dubrov also captured the eclipse from the ISS, at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers.
In Spain and Portugal, there was a surge of eclipse tourists moving towards locations that social media and news reports identified as the best spots to see the eclipse. In Spain, 660 official viewing sites were selected by regional governments to handle the expected influx of more than 440,000 people. Authorities estimated between 1.5 million and 6 million people could be on the road during the day to head to viewing sites, which prompted the deployment of 24,000 police officers around the area of the eclipse. In Portugal, news outlets outlined the use of eclipse glasses, pointed out a Perseid meteor shower would happen after the eclipse, and explored the history of the last time a total solar eclipse was seen in the country (17 April 1912) and the fact that the next one will only be seen in 118 years.
Euronews reported on the hat-trick of solar eclipses that Spain will experience in the next three consecutive years.
On 13 August, the BBC published an article about how to check for eye damage caused by the Sun during an eclipse, citing that 70 people were left with permanent damaged sight after the 1999 eclipse.
Research
NASA flew one of its WB-57s to chase the eclipse's shadow over the North Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, allowing more time to conduct coronal research. The aircraft flew at an altitude of 50,000 feet (15.2 kilometres) to avoid cloud cover and reduce atmospheric effects, and its planned speed of 460 miles per hour (400 kn) aimed to extend its view of totality from 2 minutes and 18 seconds to nearly 3 minutes. On board the aircraft were four cameras to capture the corona in various wavelengths of visible and infrared light. Data captured aims to help researchers better understand the corona's temperature and the causes of solar wind.
Eclipse parameters
The first table outlines times at which the Moon's penumbra or umbra attained the specific parameter, and the second table gives various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.
Eclipse season
This eclipse was part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.
Eclipses in 2026
Metonic
Tzolkinex
Half-Saros
Tritos
Solar Saros 126
Inex
This eclipse is a member of Inex series 70.
Triad
Solar eclipses of 2026–2029
This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.
The partial solar eclipses on June 12, 2029 and December 5, 2029 occur in the next lunar year eclipse set.
Saros 126
This eclipse is a part of Saros series 126, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 72 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on March 10, 1179. It contains annular eclipses from June 4, 1323 through April 4, 1810; hybrid eclipses from April 14, 1828 through May 6, 1864; and total eclipses from May 17, 1882 through August 23, 2044. The series ends at member 72 as a partial eclipse on May 3, 2459. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.
The longest duration of annularity was produced by member 11 at 6 minutes, 30 seconds on June 26, 1359, and the longest duration of totality was produced by member 45 at 2 minutes, 36 seconds on July 10, 1972. All eclipses in this series occur at the Moon’s descending node of orbit.
Metonic series
The metonic series repeats eclipses every 19 years (6939.69 days), lasting about 5 cycles. Eclipses occur in nearly the same calendar date. In addition, the octon subseries repeats 1/5 of that or every 3.8 years (1387.94 days). All eclipses in this table occur at the Moon's descending node.
Tritos series
This eclipse is a part of a tritos cycle, repeating at alternating nodes every 135 synodic months (≈ 3986.63 days, or 11 years minus 1 month). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee), but groupings of 3 tritos cycles (≈ 33 years minus 3 months) come close (≈ 434.044 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.
Inex series
This eclipse is a part of the long period inex cycle, repeating at alternating nodes, every 358 synodic months (≈ 10,571.95 days, or 29 years minus 20 days). Their appearance and longitude are irregular due to a lack of synchronization with the anomalistic month (period of perigee). However, groupings of 3 inex cycles (≈ 87 years minus 2 months) comes close (≈ 1,151.02 anomalistic months), so eclipses are similar in these groupings.