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CNN Live Event/Special

Rare Total Solar Eclipse Sweeping Through Parts of Europe. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 12, 2026 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:29]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Welcome back to our Special Coverage of a Spectacular Cosmic Event. I'm Brianna Keilar alongside Boris Sanchez and right now, a rare total solar eclipse is just dazzling parts of the world.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Look at these images. On the upper left hand, you've got Norway there; the bottom left, London; on the upper right Villalibado, Spain; and on the lower right is a shot from Mallorca where they're going to see something spectacular. The Sun is going to set as there is going to be an eclipse on that horizon, an incredible image and we are giving you a (inaudible) all of it.

First, let's go live to Paris where the sky will soon be dark as it's -- as dark as it is going to get. And there's Saskya Vandoorne very smartly wearing the appropriate eyewear for this. Saskya, what are you seeing?

SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN PARIS BUREAU CHIEF: Boris, it is an incredible sight. I can see the moon, it looks like it's eating chunks of the sun. It is just such a sight to behold and to be able to do this at the Invalides (ph) with all of these other Parisians who have gathered here today. They've got their glasses. They've got their telescopes. They've got their picnic rugs. Everybody wants to be here to witness this moment together.

And one of the challenges here in Paris is because at 8:20 which will be the peak, the sun will be sitting at very low on that western horizon, so that's why people are here at the Invalides (ph) to get that very clear view of the partial eclipse.

Now, I'm joined here by Matil (ph). Matil (ph) is also experiencing her first eclipse today. How are you feeling?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm excited, yeah. So it's the first time. I heard the last one was in 1999, so I'm only 24. But yeah, I'm really excited to be able to experience it with my own eyes.

VANDOORNE: And why did you want to come here to the Invalides (ph). There were other places you could have gone on one of the bridges, you could have gone on the (inaudible), why did you pick here? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, actually a friend recommended it, said it would be really nice experience here. But honestly, it's packed. So I don't know if it's the right choice. It's really hard to sit but we'll find a spot.

VANDOORNE: And what do you expect the experience will be like?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really don't know because it's the first time, but I feel like the atmosphere is going to change. Obviously the skies are changed, it's going to become a lot darker, so yeah, I think everyone's wondering what it's going to be like.

VANDOORNE: And crucially, have you brought your glasses?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

VANDOORNE: Or are you a colander girl?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no.

VANDOORNE: A pinhole projector? You've got them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No. I've got them.

VANDOORNE: Brilliant. Matil (ph) has got her glasses. Boris? Brianna?

KEILAR: Yeah. You've got to have the glasses. If you're not getting that full moment of complete totality, which I think you're getting, what is it, 92 percent totality. So with the glasses, it really is amazing to see there. But you got to be careful.

So let's head over to Isa Soares, who is at the famous Land's End in Cornwall, also being so smart. Have to be smart there. Tell us what the latest is.

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You have to be smart. I have to say, I'm going to be honest with you and Boris and with our viewers. I've never seen a solar eclipse. So for me, Brianna and Boris, this is incredibly moving. I was saying just off-camera to my producer and to my cameraman that it feels -- it's just something that you can't really explain, something with all the technology we cannot control this.

I have seen the light come down, the temperature drop, the sea also shift. I'm not sure if there's a correlation. I'm sure you've got experts there that can give us that. But we are seeing to see the moon ever so slightly and so slowly shift and cover the sun. And you can see here, although there is music in the background, the noise here has dropped slightly as people take in this moment.

There are some hushings here and there. The children are ecstatic. I'm going to move out the way so that my cameraman, Will, can give you a sense, all the way peppered along the coast here, you have people waiting for that moment, people with telescopes, with temps (ph), with picnics. And then in the front rows here, really front seat to this wondrous moment, a show of force, a show of nature right there in front of their horizon, Atlantic Coast.

And for so many young people, this will be the first time they are seeing it. I spoke to one young girl earlier. She was saying that she wants to see how her dog, she's got a black Labrador, her name was Sky, how appropriately, was going to react.

[14:05:00]

So many pets here wondering to see that moment and how this atmosphere changes in the next few minutes as this moment really takes so many people's breath away, particularly mine, I have to say.

KEILAR: Isa, it is amazing. So you are prepared for an amazing experience there and we'll be checking back in with you.

Let's go now to another prime viewing location, which is the island of Mallorca off of the eastern coast of Spain, where totality is about 20 minutes away. That is where CNN's Clarissa Ward is.

And you are ready. What are you seeing?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm so ready. I'm so ready. And for the first time, I'm actually getting to wear these because it is underway. It is beginning. And I want to give you a sense -- I'll take these off now because I'm aware I look faintly ridiculous -- of the scene here, the vibe. We are in a nature reserve, OK? It is not easy to get here. Literally, you have to climb through brush, scale down half a cliff.

But there are hundreds of people from countries all over the world. I've been talking to Poland, Russia, Belgium, Germany, people in the U.S. from California, Washington, Colorado. I mean, you name it. People are here because people are obsessed with the eclipse.

Some people have seen multiple eclipses. For some people in Spain, particularly where they haven't had one in more than 100 years, they've never seen it before. And we're actually here with the Crawford family. And I want to warn everyone that we are literally balancing on precarious boulders here.

(LAUGH)

You guys have come from the U.K.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have. We have come from Devon.

WARD: From Devon. How excited are you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very excited. Very excited. I came here specifically to see the eclipse.

WARD: So you flew here to see this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

WARD: It's quite a faff. It's quite a palaver to get here. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely, yeah. We came up last night and did a recce and worked it all out.

WARD: You did a recce. And what an epic view we have.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's fab.

WARD: And you said before you guys have seen an eclipse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WARD: The 1999 one, which was the last full eclipse.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

WARD: But for the children --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is the first time.

WARD: Are we excited?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. Yeah, it's going to be great.

WARD: I am also an eclipse virgin. This is my first time --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, you wait (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

WARD: -- seeing a total eclipse. And I cannot wait because people describe it sometimes as like even kind of a religious experience.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

WARD: It's just so cool. And we've been seeing a lot of boats as well, guys, people who are trying to get the best possible view with no obstructions by watching it out at sea. But what's interesting is when you talk to eclipse experts, they'll say that kind of actually you're missing out, even if you're on some super fancy yacht, because it's the feeling here in nature when the sun suddenly is completely occluded and it goes completely quiet and the cicadas, which you can probably hear them, kind of grinding away nonstop. It's the hallmark of summer in Europe.

They just stop. The birds stop singing. And so part of the magic, they say, is actually being here on land and being in community, because let's face it, it's not that often you see so many people from all over the world coming together to watch this epic cosmic coincidence. So everyone here now getting really excited. And we're just under, I think, half an hour away from that 94-second window when we will get to see full totality.

SANCHEZ: It is going to be awe inspiring. Clarissa Ward, thank you so much for bringing us that point of view in Spain. We have some pictures now from a cruise ship just off the coast there in the Mediterranean.

And you can see -- a little bit shaky, but obviously they're on board a moving vessel, at the moon at any moment going to get right in front of the sun and give us an incredible, incredible view. Solar eclipses obviously have a way of sparking renewed interest in space and a real curiosity about how this phenomenon occurs.

KEILAR: Yeah, we're joined by former NASA Astronaut and Doctor, Jeanette Epps. And you witnessed this, the 2024 one from space. Can you show us the video that you shot? Because it is really an incredible thing.

DR. JEANETTE EPPS, NASA ASTRONAUT (RET.): Yes. Let's see if we can play it here.

KEILAR: All right. Let's take that. If we can take that live.

EPPS: There we go. OK.

SANCHEZ: Oh.

KEILAR: It's like a black hole.

EPPS: It's like a black hole in the earth. And so what's interesting is everyone was crowded inside the Cupola, taking this image, and we had a camera set up to actually record its movements. But as you can see, the station is moving, the earth is moving, and that shadow is moving over the earth.

And it was just creepy in area to see this happening to our planet rather than being in the middle of that -- of the eclipse itself. But it was still an amazing event to share with (inaudible).

KEILAR: It's unbelievable.

SANCHEZ: Looks like something out of a science fiction movie. Dr. Epps, please stand by, because we are just minutes away from maximum totality in the U.K. and France. These live images coming from London. The two countries are going to experience the event at almost the same moment.

[14:10:00]

And so will you. We have correspondents fanned out. We will join them right after this. Stay with us.

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SANCHEZ: The time is nearly upon us. Cornwall, England and Paris are set to experience the eclipse, maximum totality just one minute apart for each location.

KEILAR: Isa Soares is in Cornwall.

[14:15:00]

Saskya Vandoorne is in Paris. All right, tell us what you were seeing. Saskya first. Isa first.

Isa, what are you seeing?

SOARES: OK. Brianna, Boris, you were spot on. It is incredibly magical, at the same time eerie. I'm going to look up, but I'm going to get my other cameraman to give you a show of -- show viewers what we're looking at, because we're almost there. It's not going to be near totality, as you well know, as we've been talking about here, but about 96 percent here in Land's End in Cornwall.

Now, although the music is still playing in the background, people almost started whispering. There's almost a whisper element in the air. The shadows are getting sharper, and people are really in awe of what they're looking at. The glass is now in full force. Sunglasses are on, heads tilted for this truly magical moment.

The children have basically said, are we almost there? Is it going to be pitch black? Not entirely, but it's going to be tantalizingly close. The birds, the seagulls, for some strange reason, have settled, even the dogs have settled. And as we look up, it is breathtaking. That's the only way for me to describe it. I've never seen it. The last one was in 1999. It was incredibly cloudy here in the U.K., so a lost opportunity for so many.

But for myself and so many others, including the new generation, this is it. I mean, this is a moment where nature really and science takes your breath away. The perfect alignment, when you think of it, of the moon and the earth and the sun. Hard to explain to so many young children, as we've been trying to do, including myself, to my two young boys. But I think as they look out, I'm sure today, with their cereal boxes, it'll be a moment they will never forget. Brianna? Boris?

SANCHEZ: Truly an impressive view there in Land's End.

SOARES: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: Just a sliver of the sun peeking out over the moon. Isa, thank you so much for that.

Let's go straight to Saskya, because Saskya, now you were just seconds away from maximum totality there in Paris with, I think, tens of thousands of your closest friends.

VANDOORNE: Absolutely. I mean, Boris, it's hard to believe that this is 90 percent, because it looks like so much more. I can just see a sliver of the sun.

(CROWD CHEERING)

VANDOORNE: People are beginning to cheer. Just take it in. Have a look at everybody enjoying this moment together. They're all looking in the same direction. They've all wanted to come here to experience this unique eclipse together.

And it is really a social occasion for people. I know that it was a good excuse to leave the house, some people were telling me earlier. And I think the fascination with the sun is because it is so integral to our lives.

We wake up with it, when we go to bed, it sets. And that's why it is such an extraordinary moment to see it hidden in this way. Now, I'm just going to find our two lovely women here who are experiencing this for the first time.

We caught up with you earlier, Matil (ph) and Eliza, you've just seen your first eclipse. How does it feel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was definitely exciting, unique.

ELIZA PROSPERINI, STUDENT: Yes, beautiful. I didn't expect it to be that beautiful.

VANDOORNE: And yet the rays are still so bright. It's amazing to see how much light there still is just from that 10 percent.

PROSPERINI: Yeah, yeah. I think everyone is a bit surprised that we can still see each other.

(LAUGH)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah. I think yeah.

PROSPERINI: We expected the blackness and here it is, light. Yeah.

VANDOORNE: Is this something you'll remember forever? You'll remember that you were right here at the Invalides (ph), the day that you saw your first eclipse?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, definitely. I think it's a shared experience. I think I'll definitely remember it for a long time and I can't wait for the next one.

VANDOORNE: And you didn't think of taking your phones out and filming it? I've seen a lot of people here with their iPhones trying to capture the moment.

PROSPERINI: I heard that the captors on your phone can also be affected, so I'd need like a second pair of glasses and I don't have that on hand, but I'd like to film it, yeah.

VANDOORNE: Well, ladies, shall we take one more look at it? Oh, it is just such a beautiful and rare sight, Brianna and Boris.

KEILAR: Yes, and I like that she said that she might need another set of glasses because you can't just wear eclipse glasses and then look into a device because a lot of these devices do kind of concentrate these, what you're seeing optically. So you have to be incredibly careful.

Saskya, thank you so much. Let's go back to Isa Soares who's there in Cornwall. What are you seeing now, Isa? All right, unfortunately we lost our signal with Isa. But let's go back now to Mallorca and Clarissa Ward because it is just moments away from reaching totality.

Clarissa, you're about to see something really amazing here just in a matter of minutes. And we can kind of see the light, I think, shifting a little bit.

[14:20:00]

As you've said, the eclipse is a little bit underway.

WARD: Yeah.

KEILAR: We could see that with Saskya, we could see it with Isa. It's still very bright, but you're getting this limited amount of sunlight and we can see the difference just on you.

WARD: Yeah, it's -- first of all, I don't know if you can see our second shot that we have facing the eclipse.

KEILAR: Yes.

WARD: But we've really just got like a little sliver now left of the sun. And you can see, I'm going to take these off, the light, as you say, it's completely different. It's a light unlike any other light I've seen, to be honest. It's not full darkness. It's sort of glowing slightly and it feels kind of mysterious, which I think is appropriate because this is one of these extraordinary cosmic coincidences.

I can't help thinking of what it was like if you were living on this planet during the Roman times when you didn't necessarily have a perfect understanding of when eclipses would take place and where. And you suddenly saw the sun hidden behind the moon. And you're thinking, is this the end of times? Is this the end of the world?

(LAUGH)

WARD: Why is this happening? When will it end? And even though obviously we understand the science of it so well now, there's still that sense of magic. There's still that sense of wonder.

And I think that is why you're seeing people from all over the world -- I mean, we have talked to people from Poland, from Russia, from Belgium, from Germany, the U.K., a bunch of different states in the United States. And everybody wanted to be here to have that feeling of being in awe, of feeling wonder in this age where we are so mired in misery and cynicism, and people have become so jaded and constantly looking on our phones.

And now, we have a moment where we can look at the sky together and remember that we are spinning at an insane velocity in the middle of space. I don't know if you can hear some people kind of like whooping behind me because there is this sense that we're getting really close to the climax, that this is going to be very special, that this is a unique constellation in time that we are going to witness and that we're never going to forget.

It's the first total eclipse here in Europe since 1999. It's the first full eclipse in Spain in more than 100 years. So a very special moment. You can feel the tingle, the shiver --

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

WARD: -- the ripple of excitement through the air as we get ready for full totality.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: An incredible moment.

WARD: Sun is disappearing. I have goosebumps. Literally, I have goosebumps.

SANCHEZ: And we can hear the crowd behind you. There was a shirtless guy banging his chest and howling behind you guys.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: I don't know if you can see him, Clarissa. We'll get back to you in just a moment.

WARD: Yeah, we paid him to be there.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Let's go back to Isa Soares who's in Land's End in the U.K. Isa, what was it like? You're now past totality. What was it like there?

SOARES: There's no one here banging their chest, I can tell you that. But there was a lady to my right as that moment of 96 percent came, that she was doing a chant (ph). I saw her very focused and I asked her what she was doing. She said that this was a moment for her to center herself. It is something along the lines of what Clarissa was saying, talking about this cosmic moment.

Because this is something that feels so extraordinary but also so ancient, something that so many of us comprehend from the history books but haven't really quite felt it in its full force. And I think it's that many people are taking that away. And for me, for the first time, it's the fact that we're not on our phones, we're not taking photos, that we're actually silent, still, pausing, even for just a brief moment to take this moment in.

And that is what many people will take away today. Boris and Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Plenty to take away there, a reminder of the miracle that we're experiencing being on this planet. Isa Soares at Land's End, thank you so much for that. We are just minutes away from totality in Spain. These are live images from Leon. These are from Arija, Spain. Look at that, clouds blocking the eclipse right now. But you could still see just through the sun, peering beyond the moon. We'll bring you some more incredible images when we come back. Don't go anywhere.

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[14:29:18]

KEILAR: All right. You are witnessing the total solar eclipse from two locations in Spain. Just gorgeous there, as we see from Villalibado, and we see people watching in Arija, Spain. They're seeing what we just saw there on the right, but it really is just tremendous as we're seeing the corona here.

SANCHEZ: An eerie, eerie image when we reach totality. You see it there on your screen. We're joined by Dr. Jeanette Epps, who has been in space and has watched this. Actually, let's go to Clarissa Ward, who is on the island of Mallorca, Spain, watching just an awe- inspiring view.

The eclipse reaching totality there, roughly two minutes away. Clarissa, it looks like dusk all around you.

(CROWD CHEERING)

WARD: Wow, I can't even, honestly, can you hear people cheering? People --