The 12 August 2026 solar eclipse was always going to be a spectacular event in Spain. For those of us watching from the Gandia area, however, there was one rather large problem: clouds.

The eclipse was visible as a very deep partial eclipse around Gandia, with approximately 99.9% of the Sun obscured at the height of the event. While that fell just short of totality in Gandia, it was still an extraordinary sight — provided you could actually see the Sun through the clouds.

I had cameras ready to record the eclipse from the Gandia area, including close-up footage of the Sun and wider views showing the changing light. Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas.

The clouds almost ruined it

The frustrating part was that the skies weren’t completely cloudy everywhere. Instead, clouds repeatedly moved across the area at exactly the wrong moments.

There were periods when the Sun appeared through gaps, allowing the cameras to capture the increasingly thin crescent. Then the clouds would roll back in again.

That made filming the eclipse something of a waiting game.

The close-up footage shows the dramatically reduced crescent of sunlight moving across the frame as the Moon passed in front of the Sun. Wider shots show the changing light and the strange, muted atmosphere as the eclipse progressed.

Eventually, the Sun disappeared behind the mountains and clouds, bringing the main part of the spectacle to an end.

Please Subscribe to the Channel. Its free to subscribe and see more great videos !

It certainly wasn’t the clear-sky eclipse I had hoped to film — but sometimes that’s the reality of photographing astronomical events.

What actually is a solar eclipse?

A solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, temporarily blocking some or all of the Sun’s light from reaching parts of Earth.

During a partial solar eclipse, the Moon covers only part of the Sun. During a total solar eclipse, the Moon completely covers the visible disc of the Sun for observers within the narrow path of totality.

The Moon is much smaller than the Sun, but it also happens to be much closer to Earth. This coincidence means that, from our perspective, the two can appear almost exactly the same size in the sky.

That is what makes a total solar eclipse possible.

The 2026 eclipse was particularly significant for Spain because it was the first total solar eclipse visible from the Iberian Peninsula in more than a century. The path of totality crossed Spain from west to east, eventually reaching the Mediterranean and the Balearic Islands.

From Gandia, however, observers remained just outside the totality zone, meaning the event appeared as an exceptionally deep partial eclipse.

Spain gets another total eclipse in 2027

The good news for anyone who missed the 2026 event — or, like us in Gandia, spent much of it battling clouds — is that Spain gets another total solar eclipse on 2 August 2027.

This time the path of totality will be much further south. It will cross the Strait of Gibraltar and cover areas including Cádiz, Málaga, Ceuta and Melilla, with the eclipse occurring during the morning rather than around sunset.

That means 2027 could provide a much better opportunity for anyone prepared to travel for totality.

And there’s more.

On 26 January 2028, Spain will experience an annular solar eclipse, sometimes known as a “ring of fire” eclipse. The path of annularity will cross parts of southern and eastern Spain, including areas of the Valencian Community. Valencia is among the places where the annular phase will be visible, although the Sun will be relatively low in the sky.

So Spain is in an unusually good position over the next couple of years: a total eclipse in 2026, another total eclipse in 2027 and an annular eclipse in 2028.

For those of us around Gandia, the 2026 eclipse may have been partly hidden by clouds, but it was still an event worth watching — and a reminder that sometimes the weather becomes part of the story.