22/08/2026
No prizes for originality with this one. Having missed seeing the 1999 Cornwall eclipse by standing under blanket cloud outside Helston, there was no way I was going to miss the 2026 one. Therefore, our holiday to Northern Spain was booked as soon as we could secure accommodation. The plan was to stay in the Picos de Europa in the north to be able to take an environmental image, the eclipse smallish in the sky with mountains as a silhouette making up a unique landscape shot.
Well, the northern Spanish coast gets notoriously cloudy and, in the days leading up to the big event we were getting nervous. One clear day was followed by a cloudy one. Then a clear one. We had scouted out viewpoints but were worrying about missing two eclipses in a row. If that had happened, Mrs L would only just be talking to me again a week and a half later so I was beginning to get nervous for two reasons.
Anyway, the decision was taken out of our hands by a wildfire that filled the air around Las Arenas de Cabrales with smoke the day before the big event. So we jumped in the car and headed inland, eventually finding ourselves perched on a hilltop outside of Herrera de Pisguerga about 2-3 hours drive away at a free event organised by the local council.
Six hours later – we had turned up extra early to bag our spot – the excitement built, the light became dimmer and eventually totality hit. Nothing could have prepared me for that. It was a goosebumps on goosebumps moment. I had decided to follow the advice I’d read online for my first eclipse – just enjoy and experience the thing and not waste it by faffing with the camera. Especially as it was only a minute and 45s of totality.
I only took 4 photos during totality because, frankly, I was staring at the eclipse in wonderment. Turns out that the settings I’d dialled in to the camera were a little low and the resulting image was a little underexposed, so I’ve had to rescue this a little in post-processing but I don't care too much.
