Sky Goes Dark Over Iceland and Spain Today as First European Total Solar Eclipse Since 1999 Meets Peak Meteor Shower
A narrow band of totality sweeps from Greenland across Iceland into northern Spain this evening — Europe's first total solar eclipse in 27 years — arriving on the same night the Perseid meteor shower hits its peak.
The only total solar eclipse of 2026 sweeps across the Northern Hemisphere today, plunging a narrow corridor of Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain into daytime darkness for the first time Europe has seen totality since 1999 — and it's happening on the same night the Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak.
According to NASA, the path of totality begins over a remote stretch of Siberian Russia before crossing the Arctic to eastern Greenland, then the west coast of Iceland, and finally clipping northern Spain and a sliver of northwestern Portugal. Maximum totality lasts 2 minutes and 18 seconds, with observers on Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula — where the eclipse reaches its greatest point — seeing close to two full minutes of darkness.
A Once-in-a-Generation View
Timing varies wildly by location. In Greenland and Iceland, the sun goes dark in the late afternoon or early evening, around 5:45 p.m. local time as totality first reaches Iceland's western fringes, per CBS News. In Spain and Portugal, the eclipse doesn't arrive until late evening, just before sunset, when Zaragoza will see roughly 1 minute 24 seconds of totality low on the western horizon. Skywatchers in the U.S. may catch a partial eclipse anywhere from Alaska to North Carolina.
The rarity has astronomers especially excited: it's the first total solar eclipse to touch Reykjavík since 1433, and the first over Spain in more than a century, with the country's next total eclipse not due until 2027.
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME A TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE AND THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER PEAK HAVE COINCIDED IN THE 21ST CENTURY.
Adding to the spectacle, the Perseids — one of the year's most reliable meteor showers — peak overnight into Thursday, with a new moon on eclipse day guaranteeing dark skies for anyone hoping to catch a shooting star during or after totality. EarthSky forecasts 50 to 75 meteors per hour at a dark-sky site once rates peak after midnight.
Eclipse chasers have booked out hotels along the path for months, and space agencies including NASA are streaming live coverage from Iceland and Spain for the billions of people outside the narrow path of totality. The next total solar eclipse won't arrive until 2027.