Flocks of sky-watchers around Europe turned their gazes upward on Wednesday for the rare chance to witness a total solar eclipse, the continent’s first in decades.
The eclipse began just after 6 p.m. Central European Time (around 12 p.m. Eastern time) in the northernmost part of Russia. The shadow of the moon swooped down to Greenland and Iceland, then farther south across parts of Spain. By 9 p.m., the eclipse ended as the sun set in the Mediterranean.
From the far-flung edges of Iceland to coastal Spain, locals and millions of visitors settled in for the event. The possibility of a couple of moments cloaked in darkness during daytime felt welcome during a summer when Europe has been baked by endless solar heat. But cloudy conditions, wildfire smoke and storm systems put a damper on the celestial show in some locations.