Heavenly spectacle: Total solar eclipse has begun in Spain

A Coruña/Madrid. In Spain, the highly anticipated total solar eclipse has begun. Thousands of people in the port city of A Coruña, in the far northwest of the country, watched as the moon slowly moved from the bottom right in front of the sun. At 20:27 and 41 seconds, it was time. For the first time since 1905, the sun completely disappeared behind the moon in Spain.

For one minute and 18 seconds, day turned into night. This spectacular celestial event of a total solar eclipse can be seen in a strip approximately 300 kilometers wide from northwest Spain in a southeast direction to the Balearic Islands, including Mallorca. A small corner of Portugal is also brushed by the moon's umbra. Since the sun is already low on the horizon, it wasn't enough to simply step outside and look up at the sky with a certified special pair of glasses.

Hundreds of thousands of people had to go to observation points where no buildings, trees, or hills obstructed the view of the horizon. Solar eclipse enthusiasts traveled from all over the world. The last point on land in Spain from which the complete darkening of the sun can be observed is the small island of Formentera, south of Ibiza.

It begins at 20:33 and 16 seconds and ends 41 seconds later at 20:33 and 57 seconds. If you continue to look at the sky, you can experience another cosmic spectacle after the end of twilight: a meteor shower. The Perseids reach their peak in this night, with up to 100 meteors per hour expected.