Planning for this year's solar eclipse

I decided long ago that I'd be there in Spain for this year's total solar eclipse, but I'm only just starting to finalize my plans for it because I kept putting it off. Not a smart thing to do, mind you, because the global interest around such an event is sure to bring lots of people to the country, making it harder to book a flight or find accommodation the longer you wait. General laziness on my part played a role in this of course, but also this event is also just not that easy to plan for. Even within Spain not all areas are gonna experience totality, and its duration will heavily depend on how close you are to its direct path: 1 minute 45 seconds at its center, which decreases the farther you go, dropping below 1 minute about 140 kilometers away from the center. Might not seem like a big difference but given the rarity of this event, it makes sense to me to try to get the most out of it.

Another thing to consider is the surroundings at the viewing site. Since the eclipse happens just before sunset, the Sun will be very close to the horizon, so nearby buildings, hills or mountains can easily block the view. Looking into this is how I discovered a site called peakfinder.com that lets you plug in any GPS coordinate and it will project the terrain over a 3D sky using elevation data, and even show you the Sun's position for any time and date you set. Very useful not just for this specific case, but for stargazing in general.

“Easy, just go to the Atlantic Coast on the west side of the country, no?” Well, no, because although there is no guarantee for a clear sky no matter the place, we can look at historical data and it shows the coast isn't really a safe pick. timeanddate.com shows 50-60% avg. cloud cover on the coastline, as opposed to just around 20% farther east.

As a third requirement, it also wouldn't hurt for the site to be at, or close to, a place worth visiting for more than just the eclipse. Getting there isn't cheap, and you might still not get to see it thanks to the weather, so planning a holiday around it is probably a must to avoid or at least mitigate the potential disappointment.

Thinking about this I realized I really didn't wanna make things complicated for myself, so I decided on what's — in my opinion — the easiest option: Mallorca. It just so happens it's exactly in the path of the eclipse, it's great for tourism and I can just fly there and not worry too much about the transport. It's avg. cloud cover is at around 30%, which is pretty good.

The main downside of flying (instead of driving) there is not being able to take my scope with me, meaning no close-up shots of the completely eclipsed Sun, but perhaps this is for the better, because then I won't have to fumble around with it during the very short minute and half we're given and can just enjoy the moment. Not to mention the potential risk of sunlight directly hitting the scope and the precautions I'd have to take to avoid that, which I would then have to undo for totality and apply again before it ends, all within that short period of time... Not as much flexibility and potential for last-minute location changes on Mallorca than on the mainland, but something for something. I'm praying for good weather.

Learn about eclipse safety here!