RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 34 sourcesStunning time lapse lets you relive the 2026 total solar eclipse
There's a reason humans have been obsessed with these celestial events for millennia—they are beautiful
This article is part of a special report on the total solar eclipse that offered the best views from the Arctic Circle, Iceland, Spain and parts of Portugal on August 12, 2026.
Photographer Lucie McCormick has chased eclipses for years, and she didn't let the 2026 total solar eclipse get away from her.
The August 12 eclipse swept across the Northern Hemisphere, traveling from Russia to Spain and passing over parts of Greenland, Iceland and Portugal. McCormick chose Spain as the best place to capture this eclipse—and the results are stunning.
In this time-lapse video, you can see the moment of totality in incredible detail. A red sliver of sun disappears behind the moon, only for a halo of white light to suddenly blink into view. That light is the corona, the sun's hot outermost atmosphere. Usually we don't see the corona, but during a total solar eclipse, it becomes visible to us. The corona is so hot that it can energize charged particles into plasma, which can sometimes become so powerful that it escapes the sun's gravity, shooting into space—a phenomena called solar wind.
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In the time lapse, on the left limb of the sun—that's the outer edge—we can see what is known as a solar prominence. This bright red structure is evidence of that plasma, which extends out from the sun's surface into the corona. Some plasma can extend thousands of kilometers into space.
To learn more about the eclipse, check out our special report .
Claire Cameron is breaking news chief at Scientific American . Originally from Scotland, she moved to New York City in 2012. Her work has appeared in National Geographic , Slate , Inc. Magazine , Nautilus , Semafor , and elsewhere.
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