A rare sunset total solar eclipse dazzles the sky for millions of people

By Ashley Strickland, CNN

(CNN) — The grand stellar spectacle of the year — a total solar eclipse — dazzled the skies over parts of Europe on Wednesday.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and Earth, casting a shadow on our planet that completely blocks the sun’s light from some areas of the world, according to NASA.

Prime viewing locations in parts of Iceland, northern Spain and a small corner of northeastern Portugal were in the path of totality, or the areas of Earth where the skies grew momentarily dark as the sun completely disappeared from view — creating a rare sunset eclipse for some, especially observers in Spain.

Meanwhile, a partial eclipse, in which only some of the sun’s light is blocked from view, passed over the northern US, Canada, much of Europe and northwestern Africa.

When viewing an eclipse, it’s important to remember to wear certified eclipse glasses or use a handheld solar viewer to protect your vision any time the sun’s light is on display before, during or after the eclipse, and follow these safety tips to protect your vision.

For those who live outside the eclipse’s path, the European Space Agency shared a livestream of totality from Spain’s Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre in Teruel. NASA also hosted a live broadcast sharing views from across the path beginning at 1:15 p.m. ET.

Here’s what happened during the eclipse.

When the eclipse took place

The excitement kicked off in a remote part of northern Russia where totality occurred midday local time. Sky-gazers in Greenland and Iceland experienced the longest duration of totality — about 2 minutes and 15 seconds — in the late afternoon and early evening.

But Spain and the northeastern tip of Portugal witnessed a rare spectacle as totality, which lasted just under 2 minutes, occurred right before sunset. In León, totality began at 8:28 p.m. local time and ended at 8:30 p.m.

Dr. Ryan French, solar astrophysicist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, Colorado, and coauthor of “Little Book of Eclipses,” planned to stay a few hours north of Madrid where totality was expected to last for 1 minute and 45 seconds. He opted for a shorter eclipse experience with the likelihood of less cloud cover.

“For pretty much the entirety of Spain, by the time the sun sets sort of over the horizon, the total eclipse will have happened, but the sun will set in a partial eclipse, a beautiful sight seeing the sun set as a crescent sun,” French said prior to the event.

And just as the eclipse excitement subsides, one of the best meteor showers of the year, the Perseids, will peak between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. NASA will host a live watch party with experts on YouTube beginning at 12 a.m. ET on Thursday.

What happened outside the path of totality

For those living outside of the path of totality, a crescent-shaped partial eclipse, rather than a total eclipse, was the main event.

The amount of exposed sunlight depended on how close viewers live to the path of totality. For example, people in the US only saw a small part of the sun covered by the moon, while Europe and northwestern Africa experienced a more dramatic cloaking of much of the sun, according to NASA.

“New York will see a 10% eclipse, so you know a very small slice of the sun missing,” French said ahead of the eclipse. “But if you’re in Europe, obviously that slice is much larger. In the United Kingdom, which won’t actually experience a total solar eclipse until the year 2090, they’re actually getting a 95% eclipse for this event.”

The partial eclipse occurred in the morning for those in Alaska and northern Canada, in the afternoon for the northern US and eastern Canada, and in the evening for viewers in the UK, Ireland, Africa and mainland Europe, where the sunset eclipse phenomenon took place.

How the eclipse unfolded

The moon didn’t suddenly appear between Earth and the sun — the event began with a partial eclipse, in which the moon appeared to take a “bite” out of the sun. Depending on the location, the partial eclipse lasted between 70 and 80 minutes on Wednesday, according to NASA.

As the time of totality neared, the sky’s appearance eerily darkened.

That’s because when the moon crossed in front of the sun, the star’s rays shone around valleys on the moon’s horizon, creating glowing drops of light around the moon called Baily’s beads. The phenomenon was named for English astronomer Francis Baily, who noted them during an annular eclipse on May 15, 1836.

As totality approached, Baily’s beads disappeared quite quickly and made way for the “diamond ring,” a nickname for how the eclipse looks when a single point of light remains — like a glistening, giant diamond ring.

The moment of totality, when the moon fully obscured the sun, was the only safe time to remove eclipse glasses. During totality, the sun’s corona, or ultrahot outer atmosphere, emitted a glow that could be seen around the moon, resembling white streams of light, according to NASA.

“The sky will have some sort of weird, twilighty, silvery glow about it,” French said before the celestial event.

French cautioned that wildfire smoke may have clouded the skies in the path of totality. In that case, the corona, which is a million times fainter than the sun’s surface, might have been too difficult to see through the haze, he added. But this should not have been an issue for those in the path of the partial eclipse.

“Wildfire smoke may even enhance the experience, turning the sun a reddish color and making it easier to photograph without specialist camera filters,” French said.

Spectators may also have been able to see a region of the solar atmosphere called the chromosphere, which would appear as a thin, pink circle around the moon.

Bright stars or planets such as Venus may have shone in the dark sky, and the air temperature was expected to drop as the sun disappeared. The sudden darkness can also cause animals to behave in unusual ways.

Outside the brief moments of totality, NASA advises not to look at the sun through any unfiltered optical device — camera lens, telescope, binoculars — while wearing eclipse glasses or using a handheld solar viewer. Solar rays can still burn through the filter on the glasses or viewer, given how concentrated they can be through an optical device, and can cause severe eye damage.

While everyone tries to photograph the actual eclipse, French prefers a different perspective if viewing the event with friends or family.

“Have somebody in your group position a phone pointing at yourselves and just get an authentic video,” French said prior to Wednesday’s celestial event. “Forget it’s there, set it up 20 minutes earlier and get a video of how your friends and family react. I think that’s a nice sentimental thing.”

If this awe-inspiring event already has you wanting more, mark your calendar and start making plans for August 2, 2027, when a total solar eclipse will cross southern Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen — and will last up to more than six minutes.

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