00:01Spectators across Spain gathered to watch a rare total solar eclipse that swept across
00:06the north of the country on Wednesday evening, plunging it into darkness.
00:11The country's government deployed a police contingent and set up special viewing spots
00:15across rural areas that offered the best views of the spectacle. Viewers in Buitrago de la Zoya,
00:20a rural district north of Madrid, clapped and cheered as the sky dimmed just after 8.30pm
00:25Madrid time, lasting barely a minute. Authorities were expecting up to 6 million visitors in mostly
00:32rural areas under the eclipse's path across the north of Spain and the Balearic Islands.
00:37The Iberian Peninsula last witnessed the total solar eclipse in 1912, but another is due on August 2,
00:432027, and an annual eclipse will follow in January 2028, completing the so-called Iberian Eclipse Trio.
00:51Meantime, six planets aligned in the sky on August 12. Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Uranus,
00:57Saturn, and Neptune line up along the ecliptic, creating a rare planetary alignment. It was
01:03visible globally across both the northern and southern hemispheres in the early morning hours,
01:07just before sunrise.
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