The duration, path, & geometry of totality of this eclipse is notso hotso. Still, the worst possible total eclipse is still pretty neat.
It starts up in the Arctic along the central part of the north coast of Russia, heads north to swing around the North Pole, then south grazing first eastern Greenland then western Iceland where it peaks. It then continues southeast across the Atlantic, then across northern Spain and emerges into the Med. There to end.
I just booked a cruise that will park in the Med directly under the path centerline and catch the latter bit of the eclipse. I have seen other cruises that intend to catch it near Iceland. There may be some tourist ships available to watch the show from the Bay of Biscay as well. For (reasons) I did not make an exhaustive effort before choosing my cruise.
Land-based viewing opportunities of totality pretty much seem to be northern Spain. The area seeing a partial eclipse beyond the edges of the totality envelope is of course far wider, encompassing much of western Europe. But that’s totally not the same experience as seeing totality itself.
Is anyone else considering traveling to see it? Does anyone have a better article with better maps and timelines? I found a few astronomy sites, but none with serious details. I also did not try real hard. Yet.
Well, the function of the threads is different. I’m asking for travel advice around the area after the eclipse, not about the eclipse itself. Your thread here is asking specifically about traveling to see the eclipse proper. I think they can and should coexist separately. But you did ask, is anyone else traveling, and my answer is Yes.
Great resource on eclipses with detailed listings of time and place as it says over thousands of years.
Travel to see an eclipse can be a zoo. It really helps if there are major cities with infrastructure in the path of totality. The one back in April 2024 was great. A cruise ship seems like a good idea for this one as you will need to be in a place where you can see the sun set into the ocean. At totality in Spain, people’s shadows will be about 50 feet long. Trees and buildings will be big problems.
I think that the photographing the eclipse as the sun sets into the Atlantic could be spectacular. Alas, we couldn’t figure out how to deal with the devil dog.
I’ll be bobbing around on the Med with a couple thousand of my close personal friends. My idea of astrophotography is “aim my phone at it.” But I’ll do what I can and share what I get.
From as far east as we will be, it’s unclear just how much of the eclipse will be above the horizon. It’s not a long-duration totality to begin with.
I was in Matanza on the beach for the last one in Apr 2024 and it was close to local noon at totality. Just about ideal geometry in every way. Shame about the thin cirrostratus. But for that it’d have been one for the ages. For us goons watching or for the pros photographing.
But seriously, thanks for the ref. I can sure hit a range of plausible locations and get a plausible range of values. Which suggests we’ll settle in someplace where all 90 seconds of totality are ~20-30 minutes before sunset.
A risk with eclipses occurring near the local horizon is that you’re looking through hundreds of miles of atmosphere. So even if the odds of a cloud being in view straight up are low, the odds of a cloud looking that far sorta horizontally across the atmosphere and out to space approaches 100%.
I couldn’t afford to go to Spain, so I’m taking the opportunity of a new moon during the peak of the Perseid meteor shower to go camping on the Hood Canal.
I predict some photos of the eclipse with a meteor streak off to the side.
