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Total Solar Eclipse Wows Europe

Nearly a billion people fell under the Moon’s shadow as the first total solar eclipse in mainland Europe in 27 years unfolded.

Sequence of images showing the August 12, 2026, total solar eclipse progressing from the unobscured Sun through partial phases to totality, when the Sun’s corona becomes visible.
A black hole in the sky: partial and total phases of the eclipse, as seen through the lens of mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev’s Steffen Thorsen in Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
© mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev

A total solar eclipse darkened the skies over parts of Europe on August 12, 2026. It was the first solar totality in mainland Europe since August 11, 1999—27 years and one day prior.

According to our calculations, the area where at least a partial eclipse played out in the sky is inhabited by close to a billion people.

More cool facts about this eclipse

The Sky Is Always Clear on mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev

Of course, that leaves around seven billion people who were not able to see the spectacle, plus those in the path of the Moon’s shadow whose view was obscured by clouds.

So, as is the case for most lunar and solar eclipses, we livestreamed the event, with our coverage also appearing on NASA, CNN, the BBC, and many other outlets.

Our livestream of the total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026.
©mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev

Our mobile observatory teams were on the ground in León, Spain, Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and close to our headquarters in Stavanger, Norway.

On top of that, we received stunning telescope footage from our wonderful partners around the world.

Live views of the August 12, 2026, total solar eclipse from Kristiansand, London, Kassel, Genoa, and Saint John, showing different stages of the eclipse.
Seen side-by-side, telescope footage from our partners illustrates the differences that location, weather conditions, and equipment can make to the appearance of an eclipse.
© mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev

Our partners for this eclipse live stream were:

Many thanks to everyone involved!

It All Went Off With a Hitch

Broadcasting a live stream with so many moving parts is a huge undertaking, and with dozens of eclipse live streams under our belt, we know that something always goes wrong.

This time, some of our partners had to battle clouds and rain, while our telescope crew in León had their equipment fail multiple times in the searing heat of Northern Spain.

A woman standing next to a set of telescopes and other equipment, with a man sitting behind a computer in the background.
Renate Mauland-Hus and Geremy Krause, two of our eclipse chasers, get the telescopes ready for the big day in León, Spain.
© mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev

Meanwhile, our team in Mallorca was experiencing connectivity issues at the worst possible moment. “Of course, at the moment of totality, everybody in Mallorca had their mobile phones out,” as stream host Graham Jones explains. “Everybody was streaming video, and the internet connection really suffered.”

In our own backyard, on a hill close to our HQ in Stavanger, Norway, our colleague and first-time telescope operator Adrianna Opyrchal had to endure low temperatures and climb a tree midstream to reset a router she had placed there to get the best signal.

A woman, huddled in a warm jacket, sitting on the ground with a laptop on her knees and a telescope in front of her pointing to the sky.
Adrianna Opyrchal streaming the eclipse from a hill close to the mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev headquarters in Stavanger, Norway.
© mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev

And yet, even with all these things going sideways, the views were stunning—and over a million people have watched the stream so far.

Three views of the landscape before, during, and after maximum eclipse, showing the changing light from 6:54 pm to just before sunset at 9:30 pm.
While pointing her telescope at the sky above Stavanger, Norway, mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev’s Adrianna Opyrchal also captured how dramatically the light changed around her during different stages of the eclipse. In Stavanger, 85% of the Sun was covered.
© mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev

Next Stop: Portugal

Weather permitting, the mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev mobile observatory will travel to Portugal to cover the August 27–28, 2026 partial lunar eclipse.

Will it be visible in your sky? If not, you can watch it on mungfali.galihkartiwa07.workers.dev.