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CNN Live Event/Special

Total Solar Eclipse. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired August 12, 2026 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Boris Sanchez alongside my friend Brianna Keilar here in Washington.

And welcome, everyone, to our special coverage of a spectacular cosmic event, a total solar eclipse sweeping across the northern part of the globe. Greenland, Iceland, Northern Spain, Portugal, and as many as (AUDIO GAP) people's path.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: This is big, because Europe has not seen a total solar eclipse in 27 years. Spain actually has not seen one in 120 years.

But if you're not one of the lucky ones to see the moon cross in front of the sun in person, well, you're in luck because CNN is giving you a front-row seat. We have a team of reporters here. They are who have, let's be real, a pretty awesome assignment to party with eclipse watchers.

We're in the U.K., France. We're in Majorca. We're on a cruise ship.

But, first, let's get to Iceland, where we are just minutes away from a total eclipse.

Mitch Morales is the founder of the Iceland Eclipse Festival, and he's made his way to a beautiful waterfall in far Western Iceland to watch this incredible site.

Because, Mitch, that's where you have to go. You have to go far to the west. Describe where you are, what you're seeing.

MITCH MORALES, FOUNDER, ICELAND ECLIPSE FESTIVAL: Yes, so we're here at the foot of the Svodufoss Waterfall, very Western tip of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in Western Iceland.

SANCHEZ: And, Mitch, what was the thinking behind gathering folks together for this event and putting together a festival? I understand you have got a deejay, some other festivities. Tell us about that. MORALES: Yes, so we have gathered about 5,000 people here for the

Iceland Eclipse Festival. We're here at a special activation at the waterfall, just a few hundred of some of our closest and most important community.

We have got a waterfall -- or a helicopter flying over, I'm sure trying to get maybe a different perspective from the air. And, yes, we have got people from 75 countries all gathered here, music, art, talks, panels, workshops, and there's a big meditation ceremony happening in the festival as well right now.

KEILAR: It's just an amazing chance for people to gather and to watch something in wonderment, Mitch. I will note it does appear to be a little bit overcast where you are, but Boris and I were lucky enough a couple years ago to see a total eclipse, and with some of our friends who were across the U.S. doing it, and even folks who were in places that were overcast said it was just amazing.

So talk to us a little bit about what you're expecting, what people are saying about why they're there, and just how excited they are.

MORALES: Sure.

So, yes, we're still a little optimistic here. It does -- it has gotten a little brighter. The rain has stopped. So we're still holding -- holding hope for getting to see at least a partially obscured eclipse.

I think we still also have so many senses that are going to be activated as our planet, our star, and our moon are all in perfect alignment and we're in alignment underneath that. Yes, I think it's just something that we find a really amazing group of people want to be a part of this experience that's bigger than themselves, connecting back with nature, connecting with the cosmos.

SANCHEZ: I understand, Mitch, that you're a bit of an eclipse chaser. What is it about these natural phenomena that make you feel, as you put it, aligned, that make you feel like you're witnessing something special and feeling closer to nature?

MORALES: Yes, with all of our modern technology, we still cannot make the sky go dark in the middle of the day. It's -- it's truly one of the most amazing natural wonders. We're here in Iceland.

We also have the Northern Lights as well in this part of the world. Yes, I just think it's something that reminds us where we are, all one on this planet. And I'm friends with a lot of astronauts that say that it's the closest thing that they have been able to observe to the overview effect and seeing the planet from space.

KEILAR: Yes, we're full-on eclipse converts, Mitch. So you're sort of preaching to the choir here.

But there is just something so special about when it happens, and everyone I think has their own experience. Talk to us about, I don't know, what do you experience and what have you witnessed people experiencing around you when they are witnessing the totality?

[13:05:04]

MORALES: I have seen people crying. I have seen people howling at the moon, many very spiritual connections with everything around us.

It's -- you get to see a sunset and a sunrise and in nearly the same few moments. Yes, it's just something that I think our senses and our brains can't quite fully comprehend. Not too many animals around us right now, but, sometimes, you will hear the birds really start reacting. Animals around kind of come out, thinking it's dark and then and then get really surprised.

So, yes, it's always -- everyone is different. In Texas, we -- in 2024, there was clouds and then it parted, and it was a big release for the group. This one, I kind of feel like -- with our festival continuing through the weekend, I think it'll be a really interesting opportunity for us all to sort of process a slightly different experience than maybe we were we were expecting, but beautiful nonetheless.

And we have amazing -- we have an amazing weekend ahead of us, so I think it's going to be awesome.

KEILAR: It is going to be awesome, no doubt.

And, Mitch, thank you so much for speaking with us. You mentioned the animals. I do want to let folks know we're going to be speaking with an official from the Reykjavik Family Park and Zoo later. So we will be talking about kind of that animal experience, which is a big part of this.

Our thanks to Mitch.

Across Europe, crowds are waiting for this amazing spectacle in the sky.

CNN's Isa Soares is with us. She is at the famous Land's End in Western Cornwall in England.

It looks beautiful. It looks like you are going to get a full picture of what is happening there. Tell us what you're seeing so far.

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is going to be, Brianna and Boris, the optimal show of nature.

Just to give you a sense of where we are, people have already got their prime position here. I'm just going to ask my cameraman Will to give you a sense of the spot. People are facing the horizon, facing the Atlantic. They have got their deck chairs, they have got their picnics, they have got their drinks in hand.

More importantly, they have got their glasses. Those that don't have the glasses, Brianna and Boris, they have made -- got very creative and got themselves a cereal box that they can peer through. Children are so ecstatic. I have heard a bunch of kids saying to me, "It's going to be so dark."

No, it's going to be tantalizing close to a total eclipse, about 96, 97 percent here. But that is not stopping people from coming here to spot this once-in-a-lifetime -- and for many of the younger generation, this is going to be the first time they see it.

The last time there was a full total eclipse was in 1999. My producer Mohammed (ph) doesn't remember seeing it. That's because it was cloudy. Not today, as you can see, bright blue skies, and we're just moments away.

SANCHEZ: A gorgeous day for a picnic. And that partial eclipse there is set to start in just minutes where you are, Issa. We look forward to watching it alongside you.

Let's go now to Saskya Vandoorne, who's in Paris. A large crowd has gathered to watch the eclipse there.

It looks fabulous behind you, Saskya.

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SENIOR FIELD PRODUCER: Yes, Boris, we're here on the lawns of the Invalides in Central Paris, not far from the Eiffel Tower.

And there are just hundreds of people who have gathered here. You have tourists, families, people of all ages who want to witness this moment together. We have seen people with telescopes. Many people, of course, have brought their certified solar eclipse glasses.

I'm happy to report that I have brought mine with me. They cost three euros. That's roughly $3. And I'm very happy I was able to get my hands on a pair of these, because, earlier in the week, many pharmacies had sold out, as so many people had rushed to buy them.

We will not, however, be experiencing a total eclipse here. The moon should cover roughly 90 percent of the sun, so it won't go completely dark, but we will still see a tiny sliver of the sun. And temperatures should dip, which I know is going to come as good news for a lot of these Parisians here, because it has been another day of just really high temperatures, a scorcher there.

So I think many are looking forward to saying goodbye to the sun even for a short while.

SANCHEZ: Some welcome relief. It's set to drop a few degrees, as we experienced a few years ago. Good luck to you there in Paris, Saskya. We will check in with you in a moment.

As you see the partial eclipse now beginning, these are images coming to us from Norway. As I noted a moment ago, the skies are going to be very different all over Europe. And the temperature is going to be different as well.

So let's talk about what the skies are going to look like for everyone in the path of the eclipse.

Allison Chinchar is following all of this for us.

Is it looking clear enough for billions, as are expected, to be able to see this, Allison?

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ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I do think many people will have the opportunity to see something, but not everyone is going to have those idyllic clear skies that you really hope for in an event like this.

So this yellow line here, this is where the path of totality is going to be. But even some folks in North America will actually get at least a little bit of a partial solar eclipse. The farther north and east you go, that's where you're going to have those better views.

The unfortunate part is, we also have some clouds. We have some showers across these areas. So that is going to limit the visibility for many of these areas, however, not entirely. Again, so for St. John's, Halifax, the areas of Canada still going to potentially see a decent partial solar eclipse.

Those -- for them, the period of totality right between about 3:00 and 3:35 p.m. That's local time there that you can see, but even Boston, New York, Philadelphia, albeit small, you should get a chance to at least see part of that partial eclipse, as long as we can keep the clouds away. Obviously, the better viewing is really going to be within this line here.

However, as we noticed, not everywhere is going to have those ideal weather conditions. Iceland is one of them. But other areas, especially across Spain, it is dry. It is very sunny. It's also very hot. But these are going to be those peak times that you're looking at, local time, for that total solar eclipse.

KEILAR: Can't wait for that.

Allison, thank you. And thank you for knowing the assignment when you got dressed for work today. Love those earrings.

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CHINCHAR: I don't have -- I don't have the sun and moon costumes like you guys had last time, but this was the best I could do for today.

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KEILAR: Yes, I love it. It's gorgeous. Allison, thank you so much.

So, this is just a big event for everyone, but especially for the scientific community. So let's talk about what the experts are studying here.

We have former NASA astronaut and Dr. Jeanette Epps here to watch all of this with us. She was the fifth black woman to go to space. So you have seen things that we haven't seen. This is really -- this

is what we get to see, and it's unbelievable. This started all the way up in remote Russia. It's ending in Spain. Tell us what is actually going to be happening here with the sun and the moon.

DR. JEANETTE EPPS, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, what's nice is that, as the moon starts transitioning across the sun, it's going to transition across Northern Russia, all the way around towards Greenland, Iceland, and then through -- it's going to kind of -- you will see it from Ireland and U.K., as you just showed, but you will really see it as you go through Portugal and Spain.

And so, like, when you're on Earth and you're watching this and you get the complete blocking of the sun, you do feel like the darkness is kind of flushing over you. But from the space station, when you see it from there, which is rare, you kind of see it happening to the Earth.

And so it's going to be a beautiful event today. They likely won't see it on the space station this time, but it'll be a beautiful event of just witnessing the -- just the blocking, a complete blocking of the sun. And then all the scientists here on Earth will be able to look at the corona for a change.

You really can't see the corona because of the brightness of the sun. But once the moon passes over the sun, you can see the corona brightly, and then you can do a lot of studies to try to figure out, why is the corona -- it's heated to about 200 million degrees C versus this -- the disk itself. So it's so much hotter.

And trying to -- yes, and trying to figure out why that is, because that affects the solar winds. And that affects a lot of different things in our solar system here.

SANCHEZ: A lot of science to get into. We will get to the more complicated stuff in a moment.

But, first, Brianna and I tried to explain what was physically happening with the sun and moon back in 2024. I want you to give us a grade after you watch this.

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KEILAR: This is basically what's going to happen, if I can reenact. The moon will be going in front of the sun, Boris Sanchez in this point.

And that's a partial. I think we have got a full eclipse there.

SANCHEZ: This is kind of where things are right now kind of right here.

KEILAR: Yes, right there?

SANCHEZ: There we go.

KEILAR: All right, just peeking out at Mazatlan. SANCHEZ: That's kind of where things are right now in Mazatlan.

Soon...

KEILAR: And, eventually, it'll be a total.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes.

KEILAR: Get in the zone of totality.

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SANCHEZ: Science, right?

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EPPS: Oh, you get an A-plus on that one. That's exactly what's happening, absolutely an A-plus.

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EPPS: That looks like a lot of fun.

KEILAR: That was a lot of fun.

SANCHEZ: It was.

KEILAR: And we are -- obviously, we said Mazatlan, because that's what it was two years ago. This is the view that they're getting, basically what we demonstrated, in Southern Norway right now, this partial eclipse beginning.

So, Dr. Epps, stay with us because we have so much to talk with you about.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And we are still watching what is going to be happening with animals. Last time around, we watched an ostrich lay an egg in the middle of the eclipse. I'm not even kidding.

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KEILAR: That was wild.

SANCHEZ: It was just -- in the darkness, it just did. And we're going to take you to a zoo in Iceland to see how animals are responding to this phenomenon this time.

KEILAR: Wildlife expert Ron Magill gave us an idea of what to expect.

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RON MAGILL, ZOO MIAMI FOUNDATION: Animals, generally speaking, are active around a biological clock, or what's known as circadian rhythm. And that is primarily affected by light, also secondarily by temperature.

[13:15:09] Now, an eclipse affects both of those things. When an eclipse takes away the light of the sun, nocturnal animals may all of a sudden start becoming active. Diurnal animals may start going to sleep looking for shelter.

When the temperature drops, that also may be a catalyst for animals to start behaving differently. So a solar eclipse definitely has an effect on the circadian rhythm of animals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: But, first, we're going to check in with a different type of animal, and that is party animal Clarissa Ward on the island of Majorca, Spain.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, my goodness, we are about to show you guys possibly the most epic shot of the full, total eclipse from here in Majorca, the first time in more than a century that Spain has seen a full total eclipse.

There are people here from Germany, from Belgium, from the U.S., from France, from every country. You can see them behind me. And we're excited to show you that shot after the break.

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KEILAR: All right, these are live pictures coming to us from A Coruna, Spain. Am I saying that right?

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KEILAR: Boris?

SANCHEZ: You nailed it.

KEILAR: I don't know if I did.

SANCHEZ: A Coruna.

KEILAR: OK, so this is the Galician coast. So this is Northwestern Spain. And you can just -- people are waiting. I mean, they are eagerly awaiting this experience here, a solar eclipse, a rare enough sight for so many stargazers, but certain parts of Europe are going to be treated to something just even more special, and that is this.

It's going to be a solar eclipse during a sunset.

SANCHEZ: Yes, CNN's Clarissa Ward is above Port de Soller on the island of Majorca, Spain, one of the few places on the planet getting to see that spectacular sight.

Clarissa, how does it look so far?

WARD: Well, Boris, I have to say this is a real hardship assignment. It's pretty epic.

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WARD: Not only do we have the most spectacular view, but it's just amazing to see. I don't know if we can pan around, like, people from every country in the world.

And, by the way, it's not easy to get to where we are. You have to climb through brush and all the roads are closed off because, understandably, Majorcan authorities want to make sure that this doesn't get out of hand because there is so much enthusiasm around this full total eclipse.

And we have actually just bumped into a family of Brits here. Simon and his wife and his three children have come from -- is it London or Devon?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Devon. We're from Devon near Exeter.

WARD: OK, why are you here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the eclipse. We saw the 19 -- the 2000 eclipse down in Devon, and it was spectacular.

WARD: Epic?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Epic, yes. And we wanted our three children to see one so they can see what it was like. So we have come all the way to here, and we are -- it's beautiful, it's amazing.

WARD: How hot are you right now, guys?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very hot.

WARD: I'm melting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WARD: But it's worth it because there's not a cloud in the sky.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There isn't. It's...

WARD: Which is the dream for visibility. Are you guys excited as well? This is going to be your first eclipse. It's my first eclipse too.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm very excited.

WARD: You're very excited.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WARD: Slightly petrified to be on live television. I totally get it.

They weren't totally prepared for this. We kind of sprang it on them, but fair to say that everybody here is really just waiting on tenterhooks now. We're talking about one hour just about, just over, until we will see that beautiful cosmic coincidence.

And everybody is bracing themselves. You also see a lot of yachts and fancy boats, people going out on the water to catch the view from there, although I have been speaking to some eclipse experts who...

SANCHEZ: Oh.

KEILAR: All right. OK.

SANCHEZ: Oh.

KEILAR: Ah, we lost her.

All right, but listen, this is Clarissa's first -- she's so excited. I thought certainly she's seen one before. She knows...

SANCHEZ: No, it's her first one.

KEILAR: Oh, I mean, if she's this excited, it's going to get crazy once she actually sees it. So we're going to reconnect with Clarissa Ward here in just a moment.

But let's head out to sea off of the coast of where Clarissa is there. This is off the coast of Majorca.

We're joined by Dr. Adam Burgasser, who is a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at U.C. San Diego, also co-author of the book "How to Critically Read the Scientific Research Literature." He is aboard a Holland America cruise ship, which is witnessing this total solar eclipse.

All right, Doctor, talk to us about what you're going to be looking for from the ship and why this kind of experience seeing it from the sea is going to make it a little different.

DR. ADAM BURGASSER, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO: Well, thank you. Yes, we are incredibly excited. We are also about an hour from our totality, as Clarissa mentioned from Majorca. We are very close to there, and we're going to see it just...

SANCHEZ: And, of course, of course.

KEILAR: I feel like the solar flares are interacting with our signal.

SANCHEZ: Listen, he's on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean. Kind of hard to connect there, but we're going to get Dr. Adam Burgasser back on the line as soon as we can, obviously, an incredible moment.

I was just realizing. We were talking to Clarissa, who's in Spain. Spain hadn't seen a total solar eclipse in over 100 years, and now they're going to see three in the span of like 500 days, before we get to 2028. So they are up for some incredible views in Western Europe.

KEILAR: It is the place to be today. It's the place to be for these next few eclipses. SANCHEZ: For sure. As we look at these pictures from Norway, the

partial eclipse under way right now, we're also not just looking up at the sky for today's solar eclipse. We're also going to keep a close eye on animals at a zoo in Iceland.

KEILAR: Yes, how are they going to react to this stellar spectacle?

Well, according to animal expert Ron Magill -- and we're looking here now at London, which is getting a little less of that partial eclipse. But according to Ron Magill, the possibilities, they're wild.

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MAGILL: An eclipse isn't necessarily going to affect all animals. Some animals like bears have been known to just sleep right through it or not show any change in behavior at all.

But other animals, such as birds, may stop flying, may stop singing. Bees have been known to stop buzzing, go back into their hives. Animals like farm animals are out to pasture. All of a sudden, it gets dark, they head back to the barn, thinking it's time to retire.

Some animals, such as tortoises, have been known to be inspired to become a little bit more amorous. So, depending on the animal, you never know what kind of a behavior change is going to happen, if at all.

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KEILAR: All right, we're looking at live pictures coming to us from Arcos de las Salinas in Spain. Spain is really getting the amazing view in this amazing total eclipse.