A total solar eclipse swept across the Northern Hemisphere on Wednesday, August 12, as the moon fully blocked the sun and turned day briefly into night along a narrow path stretching from the Arctic to southern Europe.
The path of totality began in a remote region of northern Russia, crossed the Arctic, and continued on over Greenland, Iceland, Spain and an area of Portugal. Outside that band, a much wider stretch of Europe, North America and Africa was able to watch a partial eclipse, in which the moon covered only part of the sun's disc.
Footage captured the moment the sun appeared to vanish over the town of Leon in Spain as totality swept through.
A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes directly between Earth and the sun. Within the path of totality, the moon fully covers the sun's disc, and for those brief moments the sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona, becomes visible in the darkened sky.
Global maximum near Iceland's coast
The eclipse reached its global maximum point at 2:46pm Brasilia time near Iceland's west coast, where totality lasted about two minutes and 18 seconds, the longest stretch of darkness recorded along the entire path.
Shadow crosses Russia and Greenland
Totality began in a remote part of northern Russia, marking the start of the moon's shadow path across Earth's surface. According to calculations by the specialist website Time and Date, the total phase began at around 1:58pm Brasilia time and lasted only a few minutes over Russian territory before the shadow moved toward the Arctic on its way to Greenland.
In Greenland, the path of totality crossed mainly sparsely populated areas. Because the territory spans more than one time zone, the timing of the eclipse varied considerably by location. In areas using WGST, totality across the territory as a whole was recorded between 4:12pm and 4:40pm local time, equivalent to roughly 3:12pm and 3:40pm Brasilia time. That does not mean a single observer saw 28 minutes of total eclipse. The range reflects the time it took the moon's shadow to cross different points of the territory, while totality at any one location lasted only a few minutes.
Iceland's turn in the spotlight
After crossing Greenland and the North Atlantic, the moon's shadow reached Iceland, one of the regions most anticipated by eclipse watchers and photographers. Totality began there at around 5:43pm local time, equivalent to 2:43pm Brasilia time, hitting mainly the west of the country. It was near Iceland's west coast that the eclipse reached its global maximum, the moment the moon fully covered the solar disc.
Spain's first eclipse since 1905
This was the first total solar eclipse visible from mainland Spain since 1905. Totality reached the north of the country at around 8:31pm local time, or 3:31pm Brasilia time, near Spain's northern coast. The shadow band swept quickly across the country toward the Mediterranean and reached the Balearic Islands a few minutes later.
Partial views across Europe, Africa and North America
Well beyond the narrow path of totality, a far larger part of the planet was able to watch the moon cover only part of the sun. That included the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Morocco, as well as parts of North America and Africa.
In London, more than 90% of the sun's disc was covered at the peak of the eclipse, even though the British capital lay outside the path of totality.
According to Time and Date, about 980 million people, roughly 12% of the world's population, were in regions where some phase of the eclipse could be seen. Only about 15.2 million people, or 0.19% of the world's population, were inside the path of totality itself.
