US troops in Europe have front-row seat for solar eclipse

VICENZA, Italy — The moon will block more of the sun Wednesday evening over places in Europe where U.S. troops are serving than it has in decades, though the totality will pass over the Continent’s mainland only in Spain and Portugal.

While it’s the first time in over a century that a total eclipse has been visible in Spain, it’s also the most extensive one visible from places like northern Italy, Germany and Poland since the late 1990s.

And it will be several decades before an event of a similar magnitude is visible from those areas.

The eclipse is just one of several reasons to look up this week. A meteor shower cascading across the night sky will also reach its peak brightness Wednesday.

And a parade of six planets — Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune — will be visible in the southwestern sky about an hour before sunrise the following day.

The eclipse won’t happen until late in the day, as the sun and moon approach the western horizon, so the best viewing will be at high points with unobstructed views.

The moon’s sun-blocking shadow, or umbra, will cross south and east from Siberia, near the North Pole, casting darkness over eastern Greenland and a slice of Iceland’s west coast as it makes its way to the Iberian Peninsula.

The full course of about 5,130 miles, mostly over the empty waters of the Atlantic Ocean and ending in the Mediterranean Sea, will take about 1.5 hours, the Associated Press reported.

A solar eclipse is seen from a C-130H during a training flight over central Arkansas on April 8, 2024. A total solar eclipse Aug. 12, 2026, will cross parts of Europe, whereas U.S. military communities in Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain will see the sun obscured to a lesser extent. (Alexander Chrisco/Arkansas National Guard)

U.S. troops in Spain at Rota or Moron will not see the totality, though about 95% of the sun will be covered when the spectacle reaches its peak at about 7:37 p.m. in those areas. The event begins about an hour before that.

In the northern Italian city of Vicenza, where hundreds of U.S. troops are based, a local stargazers group called Gruppo Astrofili Vicentini recommended the view from Piazzale della Vittoria on Monte Berico, a promontory overlooking the city.

The event will begin about 7:27 p.m. and reach its peak about 8:20 p.m., covering 91% of the sun a handful of minutes before it sets, the group said.

But because of the timing and because buildings obstruct the view from the group’s observatory in Arcugnano, a community just south of Vicenza, the organization said it would not open the facility to the public for viewing.

Other good spots in the area include the west side of the Berici Hills and open areas of the plains around Vicenza.

Viewers who want to watch the event directly are advised to use certified eclipse glasses or filters for telescopes and binoculars to prevent damage to their vision.

“Your eyes are irreplaceable. Protect them,” the Vicenza-based U.S. Army Garrison Italy said in a Facebook post sharing instructions for creating a pinhole viewer out of a cardboard box to view the eclipse indirectly.

Expectant eclipse watchers may want to check out the American Astronomical Society’s list of recommended iPhone and Android apps and other resources to assist in planning for their viewing or for capturing the perfect photo or video.

Near the German city of Kaiserslautern, which hosts the largest overseas American military community, the event begins about 7:20 p.m. and reaches its maximum at about 8:15 p.m., roughly 30 minutes before sunset, according to the Kaiserslautern Day Tripper Facebook page.

A post on the page recommends several sites in the area, including Humberg Tower and the hills near Landstuhl.

Another option is a two-hour watch party at the Ramstein Air Base bowling alley starting at 7 p.m. Glasses will be provided.

U.S. personnel in Poland will need to be on the lookout about an hour earlier, with the eclipse beginning around 6:15 p.m. and covering about 84% of the sun at its peak about 7:07 p.m., according to a tool on the website of Fred “Mr. Eclipse” Espenak.

An astrophysicist who worked at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and provided detailed descriptions of eclipse predictions, maps and weather information for decades, Espenak died in 2025.

But his website continues to host a JavaScript Solar Eclipse Explorer that computes the details for eclipses visible from various cities around the world from 1500 B.C. to the year 3000.

Those outside the prime viewing areas can tune in to a live webcast of the event that the European Space Agency will host from Spain’s Astrophysical Observatory of Javalambre.

NASA and the Italy-based Virtual Telescope Project will also provide livestreams.