August 12, 2026 Solar Eclipse in Photos

Yesterday much of Europe enjoyed a solar eclipse. The path of totality swept across Greenland, Iceland, and Spain, along with a tiny corner of Portugal. For those not in the path, the partial solar eclipse was still an exciting event.

I live outside of Lisbon, which experienced a deep partial eclipse with 95% coverage. In the days leading up to the eclipse, certified eclipse glasses sold out in nearly every pharmacy and vision center. I turned to online shopping and managed to have some delivered overnight, ordering a box of 50 to do so. Though I only needed four, the other 46 pairs were quickly claimed through my local running club, and I was happy to play a small role in their enjoyment of the event.

My family headed to a local park during the afternoon to let the kids run off some energy, then we walked to the nearby coastline, where we had a clear view of the sun. We carefully used our eclipse glasses and spent time using our kitchen colander to project shadows onto the concrete and a park bench. My daughters were particularly fascinated with this trick. We were awed by how the sun "set" during the eclipse and then set again on our drive home. Even though we weren't in the path of totality, this was the most coverage I've seen, and it was an experience to remember. 

I've added a few of my event pictures here, although I'm not a photographer, so I don't have any true eclipse photos. I also added links to photos from other sites for those of you not able to see this one. And mark your calendars, since next year's eclipse on August 2, 2027, will include a partial eclipse in the U.S. (Maine) and Canada, and the path of totality will once again cross part of Spain and into North Africa and the Middle East. Time to start planning now!

Find professional photos of the eclipse at Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, NPR, and NASA. 

Eclipse viewers walking back after the peak and sailboats on the Atlantic viewing the eclipse in Cascais, Portugal.
Photo: Kimberly Mitchell

Getting ready for the eclipse.
Photo: Kimberly Mitchell

Colander moons
Photo: Kimberly Mitchell

CSWA blogger Kimberly Mitchell
Photo: Kimberly Mitchell

Solar eclipse shadows
Photo: Kimberly Mitchell

Astronomy in Color

A group of astronomers started a new blog last week: Astronomy in Color.  The blog consists of members of the astronomy community committed to increasing diversity by recognizing, confronting and removing the barriers to racial equity and inclusion. They are committed to an intersectional feminist approach combined with a framework of cultural materialism to understand the past and present repercussions of systemic oppression of marginalized groups on our ability to study the Universe.

Astronomy in Color kicked off the blog with two great posts.  One which is an introduction to the lingo of the social justice movement with definitions of commonly used social justice vocabulary words.  The second is a statement of support for Ahmed Mohamed, the Texas high schooler who was arrested for bringing a home-made clock to school.  

We at the Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy, and the Women in Astronomy Blog are very excited at the formation of Astronomy in Color, and look forward at ways to collaborate and support each other in increasing inclusion and equity in the Astronomy community.

How this is Related to Astronomy?

As part of my role as Blogger-in-Chief for Women in Astronomy, I cross-post blog articles to groups on various social networks. Cross-posting has been great at getting wider exposure for this blog, and our readership has increased dramatically since I've started doing this.

However, with increased readership and exposure, we also get increased feedback, criticism, and frustrating responses to our posts. As the person who posts these blog articles to these communities, I get notified when people comment, and its been very interesting to see how many people don't believe that discrimination, harassment, or biases exist in scientific communities, or don't think information about these issues is relevant to them.

Below are some examples of these discussions, with links to the threads on Google+ and Facebook. I encourage those of you who read this blog to participate in these discussions (mostly in the Facebook Astronomers Group and the Google+ Science Community although there is also discussions in the LinkedIn Groups Association for Women in Science, APS Physics, Women in Physics, and American Astronomical Society.  In my opinion, the fact that people vocalize these views means that we have much more work to do.