Full totality is really hard to describe and impossible to forget
this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2026
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It's breathtaking; one understands why the sun was worshipped in ancient times.
That was my first thought the first time I saw a full eclipse. It's just indescribably awing, ethereal... the lighting change, the mood, the animals reacting, everything. I'd have worshipped that shit too if I saw that in ancient times. I've been lucky enough to see two in my life, hoping to at least see a 3rd in my lifetime
Never experienced a full, but even partials can feel "off". It's the same sense when the weather's about to get ugly. Nothing's obvious, but the lighting, creature sounds, and even the wind isn't right. And the wind does change during enough of an eclipse, since it's like dusk cooling.
This was one of the first things that struck me today. Without eclipse shades, the sun looked normal brightness even at 90% but you could obviously feel that its heat output had greatly diminished suddenly.
Partial eclipse is cool, but total is qualitatively different. A shadow sweeps over you and you can now look at the sun, as a ring of light, the corona dancing around it. In contrast to auroras, it's munch more vivid in person than in photos or videos. It's absolutely breathtaking and I think more people would travel to see it if they realized.
Even this picture doesn't do it justice. It gets way darker outside than that picture shows, and kind of all of a sudden.
This is an annular eclipse, not the same as a total eclipse.
Annular eclipses are never safe to stare at because the moon isnβt close enough earth at that time, to fully block the sun.
No, if the picture was taken on the 12th of august 2026, then it was a total eclipse. The camera was just not good enough to properly capture it.
Yes, the photo was taken yesterday on the twelfth of August in Galicia, what you see is the solar corona, with a smartphone camera, it was taken by a friend with whom I went to see the phenomenon and I think he has an iPhone 16, it is not a professional camera and where we saw it the eclipse lasted 28s, no one is a professional or amateur photographer, so we didn't mess around with the settings, it was taken in automatic mode
the sun was worshipped in ancient times.
1986?
The pic above could have been taken on any Mediterranean beach this weekend, full of Germans and English as red as crabs.
Where I was it was 90% covered and the lighting got really weird. Cameras couldn't really capture it.
Exactly. The shadows start looking weird, too
It was a dim light, yet sharp shadows. It was so odd. We had a bit of cloud cover, but even then the darkness was very noticeable.
when we got it, i didn't expect the sky to be dark for hours. the partial eclipses i'd seen were over in 15-30 minutes.
90-92% from my backyard in Flanders.
backyard in Flanders
Now I don't know if this comment is serious or not.
Itβs where the poppies grow
You just made me look directly at an eclipse! This should be hidden with a spoiler! I'll never see again!
During totality (the moment of this photo) you can look at it without protection, so don't worry, you can enjoy your next eclipse without missing anything
yes, indeed
the fire fades
I traveled to the absolute totality spot in 2024 and a fucking cloud blocked the moment. Still wouldn't trade the experience.
I'm sorry, if you have the chance try again, it's well worth the effort.
I'm going to have to travel to Spain for next year's eclipse because we only got 80% here and I've never experienced totality but god damn housing is expensive for those dates
Furthermore, next year's is a really small corner in the south of Spain (then I think it continues through the north Africa and Arabia) but also the moment of totality is longer than this one, where I saw it it was 28s, next year there are areas that reach 4min
Yeah I was looking at Marbella as the location to go, I suppose Luxor would be even better but I feel like staying in the EU is less hassle for a 3-4 day trip.
Never been to Spain, but this would make for a very special first trip there
ok, but keep in mind that Marbella is a very expensive place at all times, it is basically for gangsters and Arab sheikhs, if you want something a little more affordable you will have to look for another place
Are you from Spain or familiar with the different areas? I'd love to pick your brain perhaps.
One advantage of that area for me is that I can get a direct flight from Tallinn to Malaga and that area is supposed to be good for the totality anyway.
However I'm neither King Fahd nor a gangster so if there's a cheaper place that's still fairly easily accessible for me and will have totality, I'd love to know
The eclipse in 2027 is at 8am ish.
You could stay 1h north of Malaga, get up at 6am, drive and avoid a lot of costly accommodation.
I know the north of Spain, from the southernmost region (Andalusia) I have only been to CΓ³rdoba, which is beautiful but far from the eclipse.
I would look for any place that does not live exclusively on tourism, Cadiz or Algeciras, or rather some town that is not on the coast, like Jerez de la Frontera or Ronda, also El Ejido, which lives on greenhouses, but I think it has a little less time for totality.
I can't help you about the flights from Tallinn, but in any case that whole area is not very big, with a rental car from the airport you should be able to get around in a very short time.
I kinda like the music.
What music do you mean?
Funnilly enough, this year it was as a really small corner in the north-east of Portugal and was mostly visible as full eclipse in Greenland, Iceland and Spain.
was it bigger and more whoa space looking in person vs photo? I tried to photo an eclipse once and it came out tiny and looked like just the sun through regular forest fire smoke. I want to see for real again before I die from billionaires undermining my efforts to merely live.
Yes, in person it looked much bigger and more overwhelming. As I put in another comment, the photo was taken by a friend with an iPhone, we don't understand much about photography and he had everything in automatic mode, I suppose the cell phone would compensate for the lack of light or something because in person the sky was totally dark
Our moon moggs the fuck out of other moons so hard.