Field notes on the 2026 eclipse
Six dispatches on the terrain, the sky and the thirty years of weather behind the totality band — every figure traced back to the project's own datasets.
85 towns inside the band that won't see totality
Being inside the official totality band isn't enough. In 85 towns the terrain itself blocks the view — the west-facing horizon sits higher than the sun ever climbs on eclipse evening.
How to watch the eclipse without damaging your eyes
Certified ISO 12312-2 glasses, at all times except the exact seconds of totality inside the band. The rules are simple — what changes town to town is how short that unprotected window actually is.
The 100% trap: why Madrid and Barcelona don't count
The project's own dataset rounds Madrid and Barcelona's eclipse magnitude to a flat 1 — and still marks both cities as non-total. That gap between what the number shows and what the flag says is the whole story.
The sunset eclipse
Most total solar eclipses happen with the Sun high in the sky. This one doesn't. A Sun sitting between 2° and 12° above the horizon changes the geometry, the colour and — in several cities — even when the eclipse is allowed to end.
Thirty years of clouds: where to gamble and where not to
The eclipse happens at sunset, so clouds to the west matter as much as standing inside the band. Thirty 12ths of August of ERA5 reanalysis (1996–2025) draw a sharp line across Spain.
The top 20 places, by our own scoring
Our scoring model blends duration, horizon clearance and thirty years of climate into a single number. Here's the actual top 20 out of 3,963 towns — and the formula behind the ranking, reproduced in the open.