Eclipse chasers, tourists and astronomers searching for the clearest skies to watch the two minutes of totality<\/p>\n
The online forums are abuzz as people debate potential cloud cover and trade tips on the best viewing points. Hours before wide swathes of Spain were set to experience the country\u2019s first total solar eclipse in more than a century, the excitement was palpable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be spectacular,\u201d said C\u00e9sar Gonz\u00e1lez, an astronomer and science communicator at the Madrid Planetarium. \u201cA total solar eclipse is one of the best spectacles in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
He planned to wake up early on Wednesday and drive north towards the Spanish city of Burgos. \u201cAnd the first isolated field I find, where I can see the horizon and the sky is clear, that\u2019s where I\u2019ll stay. I\u2019ll spend the whole day there waiting,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are no words to describe it to another person who has never felt or seen a total solar eclipse.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials have estimated that as many as 6 million people could flock to the eclipse path on Wednesday, which stretches about 200km from A Coru\u00f1a in Spain\u2019s northwest to the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. A small strip of Portugal and parts of Greenland and Iceland will also experience the rare total eclipse.<\/p>\n
Tens of millions more will be watching across western Europe, with the path of the eclipse virtually blocking out the sun in many countries including the UK, France, Belgium, Switzerland and northern Italy.<\/p>\n
But Spain is poised to experience some of the best views in mainland Europe, said Gonz\u00e1lez. \u201cThe band of affected land [to watch the totality] is very small,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will also be seen in parts of Greenland and Iceland, where the visibility conditions due to the weather are much worse. So the only country in the whole world where it is possible to contemplate the total eclipse in good conditions is Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n
An estimated 460,000 have travelled to the country to take in the celestial alignment, with hotels reporting bookings made months in advance from as far afield as Japan and the US. More than 300,000 of them are expected to head to the towns and villages of rural Spain as they seek the best spot to view the less than two minutes in which the moon will cast a shadow on the Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so excited to see it,\u201d said Angela Jones Rieksts from the eastern Canadian city of Halifax. She spoke to the Guardian as she was making her way to Burgos with her 21-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n
Her first experience of a total solar eclipse had been around two years ago and closer to home, in the Canadian city of Miramichi. \u201cI was just absolutely awestruck,\u201d she said. \u201cIt felt almost like God\u2019s eye was staring back at me from heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience brought her to tears and turned her into a self-professed eclipse chaser, she said. \u201cWhen it was over, I said to myself, \u2018I have to see this again\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her enthusiasm was echoed across much of Spain; most opticians and pharmacies reported being sold out of solar eclipse glasses while the Spanish airline Iberia said it would share live images from a charter flight aimed at viewing the eclipse from 10,000 metres above sea level. Even Madrid\u2019s Prado Museum sought to get in on the action, publishing a video that used AI to reimagine how the eclipse would transform the light of its masterpieces.<\/p>\n
Officials across Spain have long worked to prepare for the event, readying for up to 1.5 million additional car journeys. With weather alerts forecasting temperatures of up to 40C and a high risk of wildfires, more than 24,000 police officers are to be deployed.<\/p>\n
For France\u2019s St\u00e9phanie Racco, the journey to see Wednesday\u2019s eclipse had been months in the making. \u201cI read the news around December,\u201d she said. \u201cI said, \u2018OK, I have to go\u2019. Because the last eclipse I saw was in 1999, north of Paris. And it was fantastic and something I want to share with my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last Thursday, she and her eight-year-old twins set off from the C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur, leisurely making their way to Salou, a resort town south of Barcelona.<\/p>\n