On Wednesday, the Moon's shadow will sweep across the Arctic and the North Atlantic, bringing a total solar eclipse to mainland Europe for the first time in 27 years. The path of totality begins near the North Pole over Siberia, crosses the open ocean, and reaches land at Greenland and Iceland before ending at sunset over northern Spain and a corner of Portugal, according to NASA's eclipse tracking page.
Totality will last up to two minutes and 18 seconds for observers on the center line in Greenland, Iceland, Spain and Portugal — brief next to the nearly four-minute eclipse that crossed North America in 2024, but the longest total eclipse most of Europe has seen in decades. Reykjavík will see totality around 5:48 p.m. local time; in León, Spain, the Moon will fully cover the Sun for roughly two minutes starting at 8:28 p.m., just before sunset, according to a global path map published by the European Space Agency.
It is the first total solar eclipse visible from mainland Europe since August 1999 and the first to cross the Iberian Peninsula in more than a century. A much wider partial eclipse will be visible across the rest of Europe, northwestern Africa, and parts of North America, from Alaska — where roughly 28 percent of the Sun will be covered around 8 a.m. local time — to the U.S. East Coast, where cities including Boston will see about 16 percent coverage in the early afternoon.
Brief window for science and safety
The few minutes of totality give researchers a rare chance to study the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, which is normally too faint to see against the glare of the solar disk. Ground teams and instruments in Iceland and Spain are expected to make coordinated observations during the brief blackout. Outside the path of totality, viewers need eclipse glasses certified to the ISO 12312-2 safety standard at every stage except the seconds of full totality itself, when the Sun's disk is completely blocked.
NASA plans to stream the eclipse live beginning at 1:15 p.m. EDT on August 12, with views from multiple locations along the path and commentary from agency scientists. European broadcasters and the ESA are also coordinating public viewing and safety guidance in Iceland, Spain and Portugal, where local governments have prepared for an influx of eclipse tourists along the narrow path.
The next total solar eclipse follows almost exactly a year later, on August 2, 2027, when a much longer path of totality — up to six minutes and 23 seconds — crosses southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. For now, skywatchers across two continents are bracing for a shorter but rare alignment: a total solar eclipse over the Atlantic and mainland Europe that will not be repeated for years.
