Volume 53, Issue 4 —— Fall 2026
Ruth Kneale
So…. an attempt was made to see the 2026 total solar eclipse. Let me tell you about it!
On August 12, 2026, there was a total solar eclipse that fell across the northern part of Spain and the western part of Iceland. My family and I had always wanted to see Iceland, and this was a great excuse to go, so off we went! (We went ahead of time to explore Reykjavik and parts of the country, and if you ever have the opportunity, I highly recommend it.)
Reykjavik was expected to experience just under a minute of totality; the longest experience in the country was at Látrabjarg in the Westfjords, for 2 minutes 13 seconds. If you’ve looked at a map of Iceland you’ll see that the Westfjords are one of the most remote regions of the country. Between Reykjavik and the Westfords is the Snæfellsnes peninsula, considered “the place to be” for the Iceland Eclipse Festival, which was held August 11-15.
However, there were many concerns in Iceland, covered in online visitor articles, reddit posts, and Icelandic news; I read about them in The Reykjavik Grapevine, an alternative magazine and Iceland’s largest English-language publication. (You have to see their front page and read about the art… see below!) The biggest concern was the impact of the gigantic increase of traffic on roads, because the main road leading to the eclipse zones not only is just a two-lane road, it goes through a tunnel. It would have been awful to have been trying to chase the eclipse and instead get stuck in an hours-long traffic jam! There were also significant impacts to food and lodging. Hotels sold out ages ago, and the few rooms still available were going for more than $1000USD a night. People were renting spaces in fields to camp in – the gentleman in front of us at Customs at the airport was one of them. He’d tried finding a place to stay six months out, but there was nothing available!
Authorities and science communicators were telling the 80,000-plus eclipse visitors “if you can stay home [or at your hotel], stay home. It can be best just to experience the eclipse at home rather than trying to go somewhere,” said G. Pétur Matthíasson, spokesperson for the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration. We were lucky enough to have a hotel room on the 6th floor with a balcony, and that’s where we planned to watch the eclipse. Although we’d gone prepared, the National Library of Iceland was handing out eclipse glasses, so we snagged some of those, too. Of course, as happens with an eclipse, there’s always the chance the weather will interfere. The day of was grey and drizzly – but we weren’t giving up hope, because the weather can always change! But….despite that hope, it stayed overcast and raining.
Let me tell you, though. The power and weirdness and just sheer awesomeness still came through. When totality started, at 5:47pm, the skies abruptly got darker than they had been the entire rest of our visit. The seagulls all settled down. I swear, the wind died down, too. And the world just got quiet, except for the pattering of the raindrops. And a minute later – technically, 58 seconds – the clouds brightened back up to their stormy grey, the birds went “what?”, and it was hard to tell that anything had happened.
Even though we didn’t get to see what we’d gone for (or the Northern Lights, for that matter, we were just too early for them), our Eclipse 2026 trip was totally worth it. And I have to say again, if you have a chance to visit Iceland, go for it!
