Total Eclipse 2026 from Villasinta, Spain
A report on the total solar eclipse of 12 August 2026, as observed and photographed in Villasinta, Spain: see how plans made with TPE worked out on the day.
Hello from León in northern Spain. We travelled here for the week to try to observe and photograph yesterday’s total eclipse, and I’m happy to report that we enjoyed clear skies and great conditions in a perfect viewing location.
Visiting León with my aunt, who was born and grew up here, we got a good location recommendation courtesy of my aunt and family friends, who suggested viewing from just outside the bar in the village of Villasinta, just a few miles north of town. This looked very promising when planning (link), with open views up a valley with gentle hills around and clear views to the west:
It was a very hot day, with temperatures reaching 35°C. Scattered clouds cleared by 5 pm, well ahead of First Contact at 7:32 pm local time. We gathered at the spot around 7:10 pm, finding only one other family of photographers there and a handful of locals. It never became busy or crowded, with maybe 30 people at most around for totality – a far cry from our tour group to Torreón in 2024, where there were 700 on a football pitch!
Partial Solar Eclipse to Second Contact (C1 to C2)
The first phase of the partial eclipse passed uneventfully, other than for some heat-induced stress ahead of the big moment, trying to ensure we hadn’t forgotten anything in the set-up and had completed all the required checks. There were very few sunspots in evidence, the largest being at around 10 o’clock:
Baily’s Beads at Second Contact
The seconds before C2 showed some very nice Baily’s beads, with the greatest number of beads appearing 2.8s before C2:
The big bonus was the large prominence at 9 o’clock, which happily sat outside a single bright bead right on the solar limb (above). This proved an excellent match to the TPE eclipse simulator predictions – we had used those to determine that we should be shooting continuously from 10s before C2 to capture the most interesting bead evolution:
Maximum Eclipse
With a short duration (1 minute 44.6 seconds, limb-corrected), maximum eclipse came very quickly. This single exposure has been processed to try to bring out some of the structure. The outward flow at around 6 o’clock was particularly nice:
Third Contact
And all too quickly, totality ended at Third Contact at 8:29:59.1 pm (limb-corrected, 1.4s earlier than the classical smooth-limb contact time). More nice prominences and chromosphere were visible at C3′:
And more beads just a second later:
Here’s a 20x sped-up view from before C2 to after C3, showing the sweep of Earth’s shadow over the land:
Setting into Fourth Contact
The Sun continued to descend towards the horizon, and we lost sight of it shortly before C4 because of a distant ridge line. A passing cloud and trees on the visible horizon provided additional interest to the last moments of the eclipse:
Afterwards, we had a late-night supper with family and friends, feeling very relieved that we appeared to have captured what we wanted!
Want to Plan for the Next Eclipse?
Here are some great resources to guide you through how TPE can help you create a unique plan for 2 August 2027:
