What to know about Wednesday's total solar eclipse

The only total solar eclipse of 2026 will have people looking to the skies as darkness falls on its path across part of the Northern Hemisphere on Wednesday.First, if you've never had the opportunity to see a solar eclipse, what you are watching is the moon passing in front of the sun. It occurs somewhere on Earth about every 18 months, but in any one particular spot on the globe they could happen hundreds of years apart.Here's what to know about when and where to see the total solar eclipse:Where will the solar eclipse be visible?Many of the best places to view totality are not inhabited, like northern Greenland. But western Iceland and northern Spain are also on the path of totality for a peak eclipse experience.In Spain, they have not experienced a total solar eclipse since 1905.This animation from NASA shows the path of totality for the eclipse, along with the time when it will cross those areas: Your browser does not support the video tag. Even though totality will be visible in only a few populated regions, a partial solar eclipse will be visible in a much wider area. About 230 million people will be able to see 90% totality, according to population data from the Center for I...