Total Solar Eclipse of 12 August 2026

In the total solar eclipse of 12 August 2026 the Moon covered the Sun completely along a narrow band of totality that began in the Arctic and northern Siberia, crossed eastern Greenland and western Iceland, ran over the North Atlantic and reached northern Spain and the northeastern tip of Portugal.

A partial eclipse was visible across a much wider area outside that band — most of Europe, the northwest of North Africa, parts of North America (from Alaska to North Carolina) and most of Canada. Korea fell outside even the partial-eclipse range.

The eclipse drew attention because totality rarely crosses mainland Europe. The last total eclipse seen from mainland Spain was on 30 August 1905 — a gap of 121 years — and for Iceland the last was 30 June 1954, 72 years earlier; it is recorded as the only total eclipse crossing Iceland this century.

Taken across the European continent as a whole, the previous total eclipse was on 29 March 2006, making this the first in 20 years to cross mainland Europe. Spain is also due another total eclipse on 2 August 2027, so it will see two within less than a year.

The Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute listed the totality regions as the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland and Spain, and the partial-eclipse regions as North America, Africa and Europe — Korea appears in neither. Korean media likewise reported that the path ran over Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain and that the eclipse could not be seen from Korea.

Instead, the Gwacheon National Science Museum was reported to have run a YouTube live broadcast from 22:00 on 12 August into the early hours of 13 August, described as a relay linking Spain, the Mauna Kea observatories in Hawaii, Gwacheon and the Miryang Arirang Space Observatory.

The Perseid meteor shower peaked the same night and was directly observable from Korea. The peak window ran from the night of the 12th into the early hours of the 13th, and conditions were described as good because of limited interference from moonlight.

NASA's guidance is that the Sun may be viewed directly without protection only during the brief moment of totality, when the Moon covers the solar disc completely. During the partial phases, eclipse glasses meeting the ISO 12312-2 standard must be worn, or an indirect method such as pinhole projection used.

The core figures — the path and the timings — are drawn from official institutional material. However, as checked on 13 September 2026, the NASA eclipse guidance page listed in the sources returned 404 and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute page returned 500. Both bodies may have reorganised their material, but no replacement address was confirmed, so anyone who needs exact figures should look them up again on each institution's own site.

Separately, the maximum duration of totality and the Iceland-related records rest only on Wikipedia and astronomy information sites, so this document records them as reported rather than as confirmed fact.