• ⏰ Alarm #1 — C2 −15 s: FILTERS OFF. Camera filter comes off for totality; glasses stay on until the last Baily's bead dies.
• ⏰ Alarm #2 — C3 −10 s: FILTERS BACK ON. This is the one that damages eyes and sensors if you miss it. Set both alarms on your phone the moment you're parked.

Exact contact times shift by a few minutes across the band. The Timeline tab computes them (to the second) for your chosen spot, including the two alarm times ready to copy into your phone.

Cloud & eclipse tools — one tap

Where the weather is (ERA5, eclipse hour, 26 yrs)

• Ebro valley (Zaragoza plain): 28–31%, ~60% clear. Sun ~5–6°. Flat, huge road network, easy repositioning along A-2/A-68/AP-68.
• South Meseta edge of the track (Guadalajara, E Madrid): ~30–33%, sun ~6–7°, short-ish totality (near southern limit) — trade duration for sky.
• North Meseta (León–Palencia–Burgos–Valladolid): 32–38%, ~50–55% clear, longest durations (100–110 s) and the highest Sun (8–11°).
• Asturias & Cantabrian coast: 50–66% cloud — the longest totality on paper, the worst odds in practice. Only go with a locked-in clear forecast.

Which weather model to trust (and how to read it)

Weather apps blend many models; on eclipse day the differences matter. The number after each name is the grid size — smaller grid = sees smaller clouds, but only close to the event:

• Read layers, not the total %: low cloud kills the view; thin high cirrus often doesn't (but smears the low sun). The Map tab's forecast overlay draws all three decks at once along the totality band — low = red, mid = green, high = violet. A single deck paints as continuous cloud; where decks overlap, thin vertical bars alternate their colours. It follows the model selector: pick ECMWF to see what Windy shows, ICON-EU for Ventusky, AROME-HD within ~2 days. Zoom in — or tap a spot to draw its sight-line — and the overlay re-samples just that window at up to ~3 km (dashed outline): on "Best match" the window automatically tries AROME-HD 1.3 km and falls back until its ~2-day horizon reaches the date, so the map sharpens itself as eclipse day approaches.
• Read the right hour: 20:00–21:00 CEST. A "sunny day" forecast is irrelevant if a sea of stratus rolls in at 20:15.
• Read the trend: a spot that improves in each successive run beats a slightly better spot that worsens.
• On the day, do it in the Live tab: the dataset matrix asks every model at once for your spot and every tapped point (the ± column is the spread), and the ☁→☀ column weighs the layers where your sight-line actually crosses them.

Pressure: why "high" is your friend

Yes — surface pressure matters a lot. A high-pressure area (anticyclone, ≳ 1020 hPa) means slowly sinking air, which suppresses convection, dries the mid-levels and typically delivers cloudless evenings — exactly what you want at 20:30. Watch for the Azores High extending a ridge over Iberia in the days before: that is the classic clear-eclipse setup.

How to read the number

• Trend beats snapshot. Pressure rising day over day = a ridge building = improving odds, even if today's cloud map looks mediocre. Falling = a trough approaching = deteriorating, even under a currently blue sky. The Live tab shows the same-day trend since 14 h next to the 20 h value.
• Highs and lows steer the clouds: air flows clockwise around an H and counter-clockwise around an L — so with an H east of you and an L west, expect southerly flow dragging cloud north. Where your spot sits relative to the centres matters as much as the number.
• Two Iberian caveats: (1) a summer high can still trap low marine stratus ("nortada") against the north coast — another reason to stay on the southern plains; (2) the hot interior breeds a shallow thermal low (~1010 hPa) on August afternoons — that one is heat-driven and mostly harmless, but it can spark isolated evening storms over the mountains.
• Where to see it in this app: Live tab — the hPa column in the dataset matrix (every point, selected model) and the pressure + trend line under the hourly decks; Map tab — the ◯ hPa overlay paints the whole field at 20:00 CEST with the H/L centres marked.

• Horizon math: at Sun altitude h, an obstacle of height H blocks it if closer than H / tan(h). At 6° a 20 m tree line must be ≥ 190 m away; a 200 m ridge ≥ 1.9 km away. At 3° double all that.
• Face WNW (az ≈ 285°). Choose east rims of wide valleys, west-facing slopes, mesa edges, reservoirs' east shores, or the sea on a west coast.
• Get modest elevation over flat land — 50–200 m above the plain lifts you over haze and heat shimmer near the horizon. Avoid summits above ~1,400 m: August afternoons breed convective cloud on the peaks themselves.
• Avoid north-facing slopes, forest clearings, deep valleys, and city skylines to your west.
• Dust/haze: the low Sun shines through a long slab of atmosphere — a dry, haze-free airmass matters almost as much as cloud. Check aerosol/Calima forecasts on the day.
• Scout at the right time: the map's ⛰ horizon simulator and the ⭐ verdict view flag terrain blocks — but nothing beats standing on the spot at ~20:30 on any prior evening: same Sun altitude, same direction, same haze.

The low sun is a gift: at ~9° altitude you can frame the eclipsed Sun WITH the landscape — silhouettes, ridgelines, human figures — instead of a dot in an empty sky.

• Exposure bible: use Xavier Jubier's exposure calculator — pick aperture/ISO, read off shutter speeds for every phase (partials with filter, diamond ring, chromosphere, corona 0.1–8 solar radii, earthshine).
• Partial phases: certified solar filter over the lens. Remove it only seconds before C2 — and put it back at C3.
• Totality: no filter. Bracket wildly — corona brightness spans 10+ stops. Automate if you can; you'll want your eyes on the sky.
• Focal lengths: 500–1000 mm for the corona close-up (tripod + no shake), 24–70 mm for the money shot here: eclipsed Sun + glowing horizon + landscape. A second body/phone on a wide tripod shot, started before C2, is the low-effort winner.
• Timer app: Solar Eclipse Timer (iOS) talks you through every contact for your exact GPS spot — "filters off", "diamond ring", "filters on" — so you never miss a phase while shooting.
• Practice the full sequence once at 20:28 CEST on any clear evening: same sun altitude, same light.

Field guide — Canon EOS 1200D + EF-S 18-55 IS II & iPhone 16

Checked and folded in from the kit-specific field guide. Assumed lens: EF-S 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II, 58 mm filter thread — verify by reading the ring on the front of the lens. Exposure values are starting points from standard practice, not measured with your filter; nothing here substitutes for a test on the real Sun days before. Dated deadlines (buy → build → test) are wired into the Timeline tab.

You are leaving from Salamanca — which sits at 99.7% partial, just outside the southern limit, so you must drive north onto the track. The good news: from here the northern Meseta — the best-odds and longest-duration zone — is your nearest totality, 1–2.5 h up the A-62 "Autovía de Castilla", which threads Salamanca → Tordesillas → Valladolid → Palencia → Burgos, running straight into the path.

Getting to the track (drive times from Salamanca)

• Palencia — closest full-value totality: A-62 via Valladolid, ~150 km / ~1h45, ~102 s, Sun ~8.6°. Valladolid is nearer (~110 km / ~1h10) but sits near the southern edge (~87 s) — fine as a bad-weather fallback, but push on to Palencia for the real thing.
• León — highest Sun, longest: A-66 "Ruta de la Plata" via Zamora → Benavente → León, ~180 km / ~2 h, ~105 s, Sun ~9.6° — the best altitude anywhere on the track.
• Melgar de Fernamental — the centre line / max duration: A-62 to Palencia then north-east toward Melgar, ~200 km / ~2h15, ~106 s. Burgos is a little further on the same A-62 (~225 km / ~2.5 h, ~104 s).
• Aranda de Duero / Duero valley (eastern CyL): A-62 to Valladolid then A-11 "Autovía del Duero" east, ~180 km / ~2 h, ~102 s — the drier, more continental side if the western Meseta clouds over.
• Ebro valley (driest climatology, but far): ~500 km / ~5 h east (A-62 to Burgos, then A-1). Only worth it if the whole Meseta forecast collapses and the Ebro is locked clear — decide the night before, it is a long haul.
• Skip the Cantabrian coast from here: over the mountains and the worst cloud odds on the track — only with a locked-in clear forecast.
• Let the forecast pick the field. Salamanca as a base keeps the entire western + central track (León ↔ Burgos) reachable in a morning's drive, so you don't have to commit to a town until the day.

On eclipse day (out of Salamanca)

• Full tank in Salamanca the evening before — stations near the line will queue. Water (2 L+/person), food, hat, sunscreen: August Meseta, 35 °C+ in the afternoon; bring a warm layer for after sunset.
• Leave early — be on the track by T−3 h (≈ 17:30). Your spine is the A-62; the A-231 León–Burgos corridor hugs the centre line and will be the busiest road in Spain that evening.
• Download offline maps (and screenshot your Timeline): mobile networks near the centre line may collapse under the crowd.
• Never watch from the road shoulder — illegal, dangerous, and where eclipse-day accidents happen. Park in a field entrance, village, or mirador; park facing your exit.
• Check DGT live traffic before every leg — it's linked from each Timeline step too.
• Plan the drive back south to Salamanca after dark. The 2017/2024 US eclipses jammed roads for hours the instant totality ended. Watch the partial to sunset, eat where you are, then drive home late.

Safety, always

• Eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2) for every partial phase; naked eyes and unfiltered optics only between C2 and C3. Binoculars on the corona are stunning — but only inside totality.

The last hour (partial phase)

• Crescent projections: gaps in foliage, a colander, or crossed fingers project hundreds of little crescent Suns that thin as C2 approaches.
• The light goes wrong: shadows sharpen along one axis, daylight turns silvery-metallic, temperature drops noticeably, and a faint "eclipse wind" often picks up.
• Venus (mag −4) pops out ~15–20 min before totality, ~46° upper-left of the Sun. Animals hush; swallows go to roost.
• The umbra wall: in the last minutes the WNW horizon visibly darkens — that is the Moon's shadow arriving at ~2–3 km/s. From any elevated spot you can watch it race at you.
• Shadow bands: in the final 1–2 minutes faint rippling grey bands may slither over light ground and walls — rare and subtle; spread a white sheet to catch them.

Totality (~1 m 40 s)

• Diamond ring → Baily's beads as the last sliver breaks through the lunar valleys — glasses off as the last bead dies.
• The corona: 2026 comes just after solar maximum, so expect a full, petal-rich corona with streamers all around the disc, plus the red chromosphere rim and, very likely, prominences.
• Planets appear: Venus blazing high upper-left, Jupiter ~10° lower-right of the Sun, Mercury ~15° right and very low, the star Regulus ~10° upper-left. The ⛰ horizon simulator draws them all in place for your spot.
• Look down and around too: a 360° sunset ring on every horizon (this low Sun makes it exceptional), eerie landscape colours, the crowd. Budget your ~100 seconds: corona → landscape → corona.

After C3

• Second diamond ring (filters straight back on), a second chance at shadow bands, then the whole partial sequence in reverse — with the Sun sinking toward a normal sunset ~50–60 min later, still crescent-scarred in the east of the track.

1. T−48 h: compare every model in the Live tab's dataset matrix. Pick a primary region and a fallback ≥150 km along the track.
2. Morning of: re-run the best-places ranking in the Live tab. Watch real clouds on the map's live satellite overlay (updates ~every 10 min).
3. T−3 h: commit. Convective cloud builds over mountains in the afternoon — if in doubt, move toward the flat, dry side (from Salamanca: the Duero valley toward Aranda, or the Ebro basin as a far fallback — not the Cantabrian mountains).
4. T−90 min: be parked. Set up and focus during the partial phase with time to spare; set the two filter alarms. Totality waits for no one.

The full dated version — with computed times for your spot — is the Timeline tab.

• Eclipsophile — climatology deep dive (J. Anderson)
• NASA GSFC — interactive path map & Besselian elements
• ESA — official map of totality in Spain
• TheSkyLive — per-town circumstances
• Tres Eclipses (ES) — official Spanish eclipse app
• timeanddate — city times
• Junta de CyL — official observation points
• Eclipse Soria — province guide (Starlight skies)
• Hosteltur — best miradores round-up
• eclipse-solar.es — location guide
• WeatherAway — eclipse cloud forecast with low-Sun cloud layers (multi-model)
• X. Jubier — solar eclipse exposure calculator
• Solar Eclipse Timer — voice countdown app for contacts (iOS)
• Windy — visual cloud forecast maps
• Ventusky — animated cloud-cover maps (total + low/mid/high, ICON/GFS)
• AEMET — official Spanish forecasts
• EUMETSAT — live satellite of W Europe