The Moon is also in this shot albeit invisible, in the upper-left-middle moving towards the Sun 🌞🌑
And tomorrow evening our time, the Moon will pass in front of the Sun, totally or partially blocking it if you’re lucky enough to be in North America, Iceland, or the far west of Europe 🌎
I’ve seen one total solar eclipse, on Maunakea in Hawai’i in 1991 🌋
It’s one of the most truly awesome things you’ll ever witness 🙀
@markmccaughrean The Spain one will be very close to sunset, so the sun will be low in the sky. Watch an animated version of the map to see why that might be a problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_12,_2026#/media/File:SE2026Aug12T.gif
@markmccaughrean I can tell it was something worth the trip. I and other three friends were some of those crazy enough to drive 5 hours north to see totality. We stopped in Salzburg because it was on the 2 minutes totality line and also, why not Salzburg? Stuttgart would've been better, it was right at the center of the path but hey 🤷🏻♂️ I used this exact map almost 25 years ago 🤓
@ranx I flew round half the planet to see the 1991 one 🤪
But yes, absolutely worth the effort to get into the path of totality.
The irony in 1999 was that I had been hearing about & planning to see the it since I was a kid, as it was the next solar eclipse in my life that could be seen from the UK.
Perhaps I should have thought about that more clearly on the night our daughter was conceived, although I suspect I had other things on my mind 😬
@markmccaughrean We were in Cornwall for the 1999 Total. Typical British weather... 100% cloud coverage started about 15 minutes before the start and ended 15 minutes afterwards :-(
@markmccaughrean France, 1999 for me. I would like to experience it once more at least. And annoyingly, I'm in the US a week too late. If I had clocked that earlier, I'd made it a longer trip.
@markmccaughrean an eclipse from Maunakea sounds breathtaking. This year’s event has “not great” forecasts for most of US, unfortunately. Maybe the next one will be better.
@DrFerrous Fingers crossed for tomorrow: the next total solar eclipse in the contiguous US is in 2044 😬
As for 1991, absolutely. Most people went to the Kona coast & were clouded out. We were in Hilo though & drove up Maunakea early in the morning. It was cloudy & raining too, but started dispersing & we found a clear spot just in time.
We didn’t go to the summit – that was restricted & our observing run was only the next week.
@DrFerrous Reykjavik won’t see much totality, but the Westfjords should be better. And if it’s ever going to be clear in Iceland, August has to be a good time 🙂
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