Overview
- The solar eclipse, which unfolded on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, traced a narrow totality path from northern Siberia across Greenland and western Iceland to parts of northern and central Spain and the Balearic Islands while much of Germany experienced a deep partial eclipse.
- In Germany the partial phase began in the far north at about 19:11 local time and reached local maxima roughly between 20:05 and 20:15 with about 85–90 percent of the Sun covered before ending at sunset between about 20:30 and 21:00 depending on location.
- Huge public turnout filled planetariums, hills and parks—for example more than 3,000 people gathered at Berlin’s Zeiss Planetarium—producing traffic, crowd control by police and local shortages of certified eclipse glasses.
- Spanish authorities prepared for mass tourism in the totality zone by distributing millions of certified protective glasses, deploying tens of thousands of security personnel and managing packed hotels and heavy road traffic in Mallorca and northern Spain.
- Experts and agencies emphasized eye safety, urged use of EN ISO 12312-2/CE-certified viewers or indirect viewing methods, and major institutions including NASA and ESA streamed live images as the event coincided with the Perseid meteor shower peak later that night.