A totally Spanish solar eclipse: espléndido!
- Toner Stevenson
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Report by Toner Stevenson
A small group of Skywatchers travelled to Spain for the 2026 total solar eclipse: myself, Ron Stevenson and Melissa Hulbert from SASI. Our accommodation for the eclipse was at Hotel Rural 3 Cabos, in El Vallin in Asturias, a mountainous region on the north west coast of Spain. As per its name we could view 3 capes and gorgeous scenery from the hotel, and hear and see cows, chickens and horsesfrom the neighbouring farms. The eclipse was due on Wednesday 12 August, with first contact at 19:30, second contact and the start of totality at 20:26, third contact at 20:28 and by 21:21 the Sun would again be complete with sunset soon after at 21:35.
There were a few days to find eclipse T-shirts, local eclipse glasses and enjoy the Bay of Biscay beaches, where we noticed exceptionally low and high tides that are typical to see before and after a total solar eclipse. We explored historic lighthouses, the quaint town and fishing port of Luarca and the dramatic rocky coastline where we met many other eclipse chasers from around the globe.
It was important to have time in the days prior to the eclipse to observe the setting Sun and log the compass location at 293 degrees West North West because the location of the Sun and Moon was not intuitive in the northern hemisphere from what we were used to seeing from Sydney. We made time to do test observations with our equipment on a sunny evening at the approximate time that we would be observing the eclipse and paid careful attention to the weather patterns.
As you can see in the images above, on the day of the eclipse we woke to clouds rolling in from the ocean (far left). Our experience of this typical weather pattern from the previous two days helped us to make a firm decision to head east for a better chance to see the eclipse, Ron was our expert driver. Possible locations were indicated by several weather sites, and a map of Spain indicating where mountains would block the view. Stacked with snacks and a full tank of petrol we left at 1:15pm to drive over the mountains towards Leon. Our first stop was the mountain town of Pajeres, 4,000metres above sea level.
At Pajeres there were almost no places to park off the main road, also the chance of low cloud concerned us, so we drove onto La Robla and were again disappointed as this small town had no-where obvious with a view west. We turned around at 3pm to return to Villamanin. This nice town was setting up an eclipse viewing site, and it had a visitor centre with good toilets, supermarket and a clear view of the sky with the mountains in the background, just what we were looking for! We drove to where we had space to setup our cameras and could easily park the car (and not get parked in).
At Villamanin we had the shade of a small tree, important as the temperature was now 36 °C, a clear view to the west at 293 degrees West North West across a ploughed field, railway line, and towards distant mountains. Due to our previous tests we knew we would see totality and the compass indicated that the Sun would then sink behind the mountains just before the end of the eclipse. With a group of Spanish people now lining the street who befriended Ron (as seen above right), we counted down to the start of the eclipse and, as predicted, the partial phase began at 7:29pm. Through the solar filter on my Canon EOS80 camera fitted with a 650mm lens I could see 4 individual sunspots and 5 sunspot groups on the lower half of the Sun and we projected the pinhole 'Solar Eclipse 2026' sign I had made on the car (below , right).
When Melissa stated '2 minutes to go' this attracted everyone's attention. Totality began at 8:26pm, and once it was safe to do so, Mel and I quickly removed our solar filters. Ron yelled out 'take off your glasses' to the group around us who still had their eclipse glasses on. I just managed to capture the first diamond ring, it was so bright, a burst of intense white light, as the intensity of light subsided, we could visually see a large pink prominence at 9am, and several small prominences created a pinkish glow between 3 and 6pm around the edge of the totally eclipsed Sun. The corona is a halo of super heat around the Sun, approximately a million degrees Kelvin, and it varies at each eclipse that I have seen. Today, as you can see on my image, it was compact with a gap at 6:30, this is called a coronal hole occurring at one of the poles, I am not yet sure whether this is at the Sun's North or South pole in this case
We could easily see Venus high in the sky, but as totality was 1 minute 48 seconds there was not time to closely observe stars even though the darkness should have made this possible. As the Moon slid across the face of the Sun the second diamond ring appeared, again very intense and obvious, but ending all too soon.
The Sun set before the eclipse finished and we saw the Sun, in partial eclipse, slowly sink behind the trees and mountains. This had been a most spectacular eclipse, breathtaking in its intensity, and our adrenalin was increased as we were truly eclipse chasers.
The traffic back to our hotel in Asturias was heavy but moving, particularly up and down the steep mountain passes, and we arrived back at midnight. The next morning we discovered that those who stayed at Hotel Rural 3 Cabos, and many others along the coastline and out at sea on boats, did not get to see the eclipse due to heavy cloud. We had made the right decision to move and at breakfast we shared our images. A few other parties had also traveled inland, and they too had stories of searching for a location and images to share. Our last day in Asturias was spent posting images and seeing the magnificent 'Cathedral Rocks' coastline south of Asturias.
Another Sydney City Skywatchers member, Adriano Massatani was on a boat and managed livestream and record the partial phases using his Seestar, this is well worth seeing: https://www.youtube.com/live/NHwZz_RSCuk?si=A_xUo0_vKsI2VZGQ.
You can also read Melissa Hulbert's report and see her images here.
Please note: All images in this post are copyright to Toner Stevenson. If you want to share or copy these images or the text please email: cityskywatchers@gmail.com.
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