THE NEW YORK TIMES: Sky watchers have flocked to places, from Iceland to Spain, where the moon will completely block the sun.
Continental Europe’s first total solar eclipse in decades will briefly turn day to dark across several countries on Wednesday, drawing armies of sky watchers.
The coincidence of Earth, the moon and the sun falling into perfect alignment — a fleeting celestial event known as totality — has created a frenzy. People are paying exorbitant hotel rates to be in the inner part, or umbra, of the lunar shadow. Along that path, if the sky is clear, the sun will seem to become a black disk ensconced in a hazy corona, surrounded by planets and stars.
In Spain, normally empty towns have filled up. Other people have trekked to far-flung North Atlantic destinations.
The eclipse will begin at about 6:08 p.m. Central European Time in the northernmost part of Russia, its shadow swooping over the Arctic Ocean, narrowly missing the North Pole. It will reach remote Greenland, then Iceland, where viewing parties are planned in Reykjavik for a totality that will last for one minute. » | Jason Horowitz | Reporting from Madrid | Wednesday, August 12, 2026
