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As when at the closing of an Olympic Games the host country passes the baton to the next, after the eclipse on April 8, North America has given its turn to Spain, the only country in the world where the next eclipse can be seen with guarantees. total, on August 12, 2026. The problem is that no Spanish authority has picked up the baton. The experts of the National Eclipse Commission remind the central and regional governments that there is still no plan to address this mass phenomenon, which can lead to collapses in the areas most conducive to viewing the astronomical phenomenon and speculation with the essential glasses. of protection.
It will be the astronomical event of the century: in a cosmic coincidence that breaks historical records, another total eclipse will pass through Spain on August 2, 2027, again in the middle of the high tourist season. And in January 2028, another great eclipse will arrive on the Peninsula, in this case annular. Joaquín Álvaro, president of the Federation of Astronomical Associations of Spain, considers that it is a great opportunity for Spanish science and dissemination, but issues a warning: “If it is not planned, it will be a disaster. There will be major traffic jams and the risk of forest fires will increase. This is a constant in total eclipses.”
José Jiménez, director of the astronomical tourism company AstroÁndalus, agrees that the first thing is to “avoid chaos, which is guaranteed if there is not enough foresight: in recent cases, in addition to road collapses, we have seen fuel shortages and outages. in telecommunications networks. And this total eclipse will be in August and in Spain: we are going to have half of Europe here.”
The most immediate planning challenge, experts say, is getting eclipse glasses. “It is very cheap protective equipment, which now anyone can buy for a euro or so. But there are no Spanish companies that manufacture them and we will need more than 50 million units, to make them available to the entire population and tourists that day," explains Alejandro Sánchez from the Department of Earth Physics and Astrophysics of the Complutense University of Madrid.
Avoid speculation with glasses
Sánchez assures that, without a massive purchase in advance, there will be shortages and exorbitant prices of these basic devices, which have a very low manufacturing cost but require approval to certify that they protect adequately. Comparisons with masks at the beginning of the pandemic are inevitable. “We knew for sure that the pandemic was going to happen, but we didn't know when; On the other hand, this trio of eclipses in consecutive years has been known for centuries,” says this astrophysicist, who considers the Spanish lucky, but they must be prepared to take advantage of it: “Spain has won the lottery with this astronomical carom.” .
Historically, in different cultures the eclipse was interpreted as a bad omen. This is no longer the case: it generates an illusion that reaches
eclipsemania
, but also problems of public order. In 1999, during the last trip across Europe, there was a shortage of glasses and traffic jams on the roads. In 2017, there were historic traffic problems in the United States, with a sharp increase in fatal accidents. For this reason, on April 8, a state of emergency was declared in multiple counties and even entire states and also on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The phenomenon triggered, throughout the totality band of the eclipse, rentals of tourist apartments and also Google searches about eye damage.
With the eclipse approaching in less than a week, over half of US cities along the eclipse's path are fully booked for the night of April 7th according to data from @airdna pic.twitter.com/SLVpyKu2Oe
— Jamie Lane (@Jamie_Lane) April 2, 2024
The second great challenge posed by a total eclipse is education and dissemination. In the United States, NASA is the federal agency of reference for information and recommendations related to eclipses, but in Spain there is no equivalent institution, with those functions, prestige and budget. The National Astronomy Commission, which depends on both the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility - through the National Geographic Institute - and the Ministry of Science - through the CSIC -, created in July 2023 a working group called the National Eclipse Commission . This commission, which brings together 14 experts and includes everything from professional observatories to amateur astronomers, does not yet have a website due to lack of its own resources. The coordinator of the working group and representative of the International Astronomical Union, David Galadí, regrets that they have not been granted the subsidy they needed for this.
The National Eclipse Commission has just prepared its first report, with which it seeks to raise awareness among public officials “of what is coming,” in the words of Galadí. This astronomer explains that they have begun to disseminate the document among local, provincial and regional authorities and that, through the Ministry of Transport, they are looking for the appropriate interlocutors in the central government. The report calls for planning and coordination well in advance and offers a network of representatives to advise the different administrations.
A challenge for Traffic and Civil Protection
“These phenomena will pose a challenge from several points of view: tourism, transportation, education, scientific dissemination and civil protection,” warns the group of experts. When consulted by EL PAÍS, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport assures that “all relevant aspects are being studied in order to observe the phenomena.” The National Eclipse Commission, explains the Transport spokesperson, ensures that it provides relevant information to the entire population and facilitates safe contemplation of eclipses. From the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, they highlight their participation in the commission - through the Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, the FECYT, the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia and the Spanish Space Agency - to promote the design and financing of informative and educational activities about eclipses.
Galadí emphasizes civil protection as the third great challenge: “A special traffic device would have to be set up, comparable in complexity to that of the Strait crossing, but concentrated in two days.” He also points out that these unusual concentrations of people, in the middle of August, increase the risk of forest fires and also heat stroke and dehydration. Sánchez agrees with this, who compares the foreseeable movements of millions of people with those that generate major sporting events: “It is like organizing a soccer World Cup, but with all the attendees witnessing the final. And until a few days before, you don't know where the final will be: the destination of many trips will be conditioned by last-minute weather predictions."
A working group of the commission is specifically in charge of contacting local authorities to identify optimal observation places in the band of totality, Transport assures: “It will be a phenomenon with a huge in-person audience, which should include the vehicles necessary to travel to areas where it can be observed; Once these places have been identified, the ministry will arrange its resources and the measures within its jurisdiction to facilitate orderly mobility to those areas with a high influx of people and vehicles.”
A gift to emptied Spain
All experts agree that finding ideal locations will be much more complicated in the case of the first of the three eclipses. The combination of factors involved means that "the ideal area to contemplate this total eclipse will be a triangle between the provinces of León, Palencia and Burgos," according to Galadí, who remembers that since the Sun is so low, not just any place will do. Look for locations with the horizon free of obstacles—buildings, trees and mountains—to the west. Everything points, therefore, towards some rural areas of emptied Spain: from the trajectory and particularities of the eclipse itself to the low probability of clouds and the flat orography, without great relief in the territory.
Those areas most favored by the astronomical event of 2026 will have to adapt their infrastructure and services to suddenly accommodate the crowds of visitors expected for several days. “This represents an obvious challenge from a tourism point of view, but also an opportunity, if there is the capacity to promote and adapt a versatile offer that takes advantage of these events and survives afterwards,” states the report from the National Eclipse Commission. To the complication of accommodating and supplying travelers who will spend several days in those privileged places in emptied Spain, is added the difficulty of managing the movement of hundreds of thousands of cars that, during the hours before the eclipse, will still be looking for the locations with better visibility. Neither this eclipse nor the next one will be able to be seen as totals from Madrid or Barcelona, which will further encourage travel.
The next eclipse, on August 2, 2027, will only be total in the extreme south of Andalusia: an area with much more tourist infrastructure, but which is already saturated with visitors on those dates. “The problems of crowds and monumental traffic jams will be much more concentrated, especially on the coast of Cádiz, and that will not be easy to manage either,” warns Sánchez. These types of problems will be much less in the January 2028 eclipse, because it will be annular—not total—and in the middle of winter, at dusk, the clouds are much more likely to ruin the phenomenon.
“The ideal would be to ensure that many of the millions of glasses that will be needed are manufactured in Spain, or that they are at least imported in a responsible manner. Finally, there should be a plan to recycle this waste,” explains David Galadí. The Ministry of Transport states that it is awaiting the final recommendations of the National Eclipse Commission to guarantee a sufficient number of protective glasses, “which must follow strict quality and environmental criteria”; Furthermore, according to his spokesperson, “the Ministry of Transportation will be involved in this supply.”
The astronomers consulted also ask the authorities to avoid serious mistakes of the past. By this they mean that, due to the lack of glasses and preparation, both professional optician associations and departments of Education gave the directive in 2005 not to let students go out for recess to see the annular eclipse, to avoid damage to their eyes. .
Although there is still no plan for the historic trio of great eclipses, experts point out an additional advantage for Spain. “Another eclipse, the partial one on March 29, 2025, visible throughout the Peninsula, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, will be an unbeatable opportunity to do a general rehearsal; At least, to see if we are able to get enough glasses,” says Sánchez. Less than a year left. It will be a first large-scale test of how to observe an eclipse and also a reminder of what is coming in 2026 and 2027.
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