And the sky show didn’t end with the eclipse. The Perseid meteor shower peaked later that same night, and because a solar eclipse can only occur during a new moon, there was little moonlight to wash out the meteors. Under the right conditions, observers could even catch a bright Perseid during totality.
National Geographic photographers were stationed along the path to capture the eclipse as it unfolded. Here are some of the best images from across Europe—and the details that make each one worth a closer look.
Spain: A Total Eclipse at Sunset
Catalan photographer and National Geographic Explorer Wayra Ficapal had decided a year earlier that she wanted to experience the eclipse from Spain’s Ebro Delta, but she chose the exact location only a week beforehand. After realizing that the moon’s shadow would trace much of the Ebro River from northern Spain toward its mouth in the Mediterranean, she headed to the Illa de Gràcia bridge in Sant Jaume d’Enveja, hoping to photograph the eclipsed sun reflected in the water.
“I had read that experts advise not to look only at the eclipse, but to pay attention to your surroundings, the sky and the stars,” Ficapal says. “But during the minute and a half that it lasted, I couldn’t take my eyes off the Moon as it eclipsed the Sun. It was magical, like a scene from another planet. You feel that you are part of the cosmos.” As totality approached, she heard birds calling before they suddenly fell silent and felt the temperature drop sharply. When daylight returned, mosquitoes emerged in force.
For Ficapal, the experience was also deeply communal. “Experiencing a total eclipse is a collective experience that makes you realize that we are all part of something bigger.”