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Today we are going to talk about the eclipse. We will very quickly deal with the August 12th total solar eclipse from here in Ireland. The sky will get darker and then brighten up again before the Sun sets. That is the partial eclipse that we will get from here in Ireland.

As I’ve mentioned in numerous posts this year, in a couple of pieces recently, in at least one this month, the eclipse will begin just after 6 o’clock, so starting to get ready at about 6 o’clock would be a good idea. At just about 6:13, the Moon will start moving in front of the Sun, we’ll have our first contact. Then the Moon will progress to cover as much of the Sun as it’s going to cover from here in Ireland, up to about 96.4% at just about 7:12, and then the Moon will begin to move off the face of the Sun. That last part won’t be visible from many locations in Ireland simply because the Moon and the Sun are going to get too low in the sky. Our last, or fourth, contact is at just about 8 o’clock, and technically the Sun is still above the horizon, so from some locations in Ireland you will get to see the entirety of the eclipse, but by the time the eclipse is ending the Sun will be so low in the sky that it could be blocked out by trees or buildings.

For us, the beginning of the eclipse is really the part to catch, try and watch it as far through to the center as you can before it gets obscured, and of course, if you can see it all the way to the end, great, I hope you do get to see it all the way to the end. Just make sure that you’re wearing eclipse glasses or some sort of eye protection. We are not seeing a total eclipse from here in Ireland, but this eclipse is a total eclipse from other locations. I am going to find some of these locations and discuss what the eclipse will looks like from there.

The eclipse will actually travel across practically the North Pole, beginning near Siberia and coming down across Greenland. One of the first parts of Greenland to get the eclipse is Independence Fjord up in Northern Greenland. The shadow of the Moon, or the path of totality comes all the way through to south-east of Greenland and then across to Iceland before coming down through Spain and into the Mediterranean. Unfortunately, Stellarium doesn’t know about the couple of small settlements and towns, such as Ittoqqortoormiit, that exist in the south-eastern part of Greenland, so we will base this on Independence Fjord. This is very far north in Greenland and not many people are going to be watching the eclipse from this location, but it does get a 100%, perfect total eclipse, The bright disc of the Sun is blocked and the corona of the Sun is visible. The eclipse is going to last two minutes from this location, which is great. Two minutes of the eclipse is fairly long, sometimes it’s only a minute, but shorter than the possible 6 to 7 minutes that occasionally occur. Two minutes is pretty great, and because of the position of the Sun in the sky, Jupiter and Mercury are visible to the west, as well as Venus to the east. They would be pretty much below the horizon when the eclipse is happening for us here in Ireland, but Greenland gets the eclipse much earlier, peaking closer to 4 o’clock rather than 7.

The shadow of the Moon will pass across the earth to from Greenland, down next to Iceland and then down towards Spain. It is just off the coast of the northern edge of Iceland that will actually have the perfect maximum of this eclipse, lasting almost 2 and half minutes. We’re going to take a look at it from Reykjavik. The eclipse is partial from just outside of Reykjavik, but total in all of Reykjavik proper. Reykjavik is a big city, it is the capital city of Iceland, and I thought originally that some of it “stuck out” from the path of totality, but it seems to be fully covered. This is the kind of extra accuracy you get as a reader compared to viewers of my videos! From Reykjavik the eclipse is 100%, and it lasts for just under two minutes from at least some locations of Reykjavik. Of course, there’s plenty of tall buildings in Reykjavik, there’s skyscrapers, so the eclipse may be blocked out from some locations. Ideally, you want to be as much to the east of the city as possible, and it could be a little bit better from slightly further north as well. The eclipse will still be fairly early, peaking at around 5:45, meaning Jupiter and Mercury may be above the horizon.

Using Stellarium, the map of the world provided is pretty small, so it’s tough to pinpoint exact locations unless they’re listed as nearby locations. The south of Spain does provide me with many more names than Iceland, but of course, we’re very close to Northern Africa here as well, so there are many names from there as well. Thankfully, I can search and skip the list, because I happen to know it should look very good from Valencia. Valencia is a city in Southern Europe that is very close to the path of the eclipse. Again, it’s going to be 100% from the entire city, but not the whole region around Valencia. The whole eclipse should be visible, unless the Sun goes behind something . From this location, now that we’re through to the other end of the eclipse from Greenland, we’re seeing it very close to sunset, peaking at about 8:30. It’s also shorter, closer to just 1 minute of totality. Getting rid of the ground, it’s visible as an actual total eclipse just as the Sun goes down, the corona of the Sun is visible around the Moon.

We will use our zero horizon to see how low it occurs. I often say that a zero horizon, a completely perfectly flat horizon, is almost unachievable unless you’re on the big salt flats like Uyuni in Bolivia, and even then there’s mountains in some directions, so it’s not completely perfect. We’re looking west from the coast of Spain, so we’re looking out over the Mediterranean and that means a flat horizon is a little bit more achievable. With the zero horizon, if you are looking out over the ocean, the Moon and the Sun will still be fairly above the horizon as this eclipse occurs, but it is happening as the Sun sets, giving the whole sky that twilight colour.

We will also take a look a little further north in Spain, and again there are so many towns and cities in Spain, it’s easier to just type in a location. I guess Stellarium knows Spain just a little bit better than it knows Iceland. In northern Spain, from Bilbao in this case, we’re going to get to see the eclipse a little bit earlier, but still after 8 o’clock, closer to 8:25. The duration of the eclipse is also in between, over a minute long but still under two, around a minute and a half of totality. It’s still quite low in the sky, but high enough that Jupiter and Mercury are above the horizon. You probably won’t see Mercury because of the extinction of the atmosphere, but you may see Jupiter. The only issue now is that we’re still looking into the west. We’re looking west from Bilbao, which means we’re looking towards the mountains, either the end of the Pyrenees or the start of the Cantabrian range. That means it’s more likely to be blocked out by terrain, but it also means if you can get up on one of the mountains, you may be able to see it, but we’re not going to be looking over the ocean, we’re not going to be looking out over the Mediterranean, which will make things a little bit harder.

Moving back down to just off the coast of Spain, we are going with Palma, which is a city on one of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca. Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza will all get to see this eclipse. However, they’re also getting their maximum at around 8:30, with the sun setting before the partial end of the eclipse finishes. The totality is still about a minute and a half from close enough to the path of totality, but drops off the less than a minute further from the direct centre. It will be happening very low in the sky, but this should give you an idea of the kind of area that this eclipse is visible over. All through from Bilbao down to Valencia, off into the Mediterranean to Palma, but also all the way up in the other direction to Reykjavik and to the fjords in northern Greenland. All of this area is going to get to see this eclipse, in Iceland for over two minutes, down here in Spain, a little under two minutes.

There is a Guadalajara in Spain, but I think, maybe it’s just because of television, that the Guadalajara in Mexico may be slightly more famous, at least in the English speaking world. There is a Guadalajara in Spain as well, in central Spain. There’s one in Southern America, Central America and Southern Europe, we’re going for the one in Southern Europe because it is in between Bilbao and Valencia, it is closer to the middle. Again, we will get rid of the land because it is too low in the sky, peaking at about 8:30 again. As you can probably tell, although we’re not seeing this eclipse at 100%, we’re not seeing this eclipse at totality from here in Ireland, the 96% we’re seeing is pretty high in the sky and less likely to be obscured by buildings and trees than the 100% that is visible in a large portion of Spain. Of course, Iceland’s really getting the best of it, Iceland’s really getting the best view of this eclipse. Guadalajara will get a fairly brief totality at the edge of the path, just over a minute. Closer to the center at the same latitude it lasts closer to a minute and three quarters.

That is a little bit about the eclipse, a little bit more about the eclipse that we’ve spoken of so much this year. You can take a look at some of my previous posts, I talk about the shadow of the eclipse moving across the surface of the Earth for example. I hope that you get to see the eclipse. It will be visible over larger regions of Europe, but those just mentioned are the regions in Europe where it will look best, where we’re going to get 100% totality. Again, make sure if you are observing the eclipse, that you use some sort of protective eyewear like eclipse glasses or use a pinhole camera to observe the eclipse. Most importantly, I hope that you enjoyed this piece. If you did, please do like it. If you like this kind of content, then please subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Thank you very much for reading and hopefully I’ll see you back here next time.