Official eclipse advice in Spain: what the Health Ministry, IGN, Civil Protection and DGT asked

On the basics, the four institutions said the same thing last summer: look at the Sun only with glasses or viewers that meet the ISO 12312-2 standard, no binoculars, cameras or telescopes without a solar filter on the front, children supervised, travel only when needed and in good time, don’t stop on the hard shoulder, and take care with heat and fire. All of that holds for Monday 2 August 2027. What changes is the map: totality will cross only 105 municipalities in the south, and the IGN (Spain’s National Geographic Institute) already warns that this makes planning the trip “of special importance”.

Ministry of Health: eyes and heat

Before last summer’s eclipse, the Coordination Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies at Spain’s Ministry of Health published a rapid risk assessment for the Trío de Eclipses, the government’s name for the three eclipses, 2027 included. It concluded that the risk to the population is low and that the foreseeable problems are eye injuries from looking at the Sun without proper protection, crowds and heat.

For the eyes, it took up the recommendations of the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology: glasses or viewers that meet EN ISO 12312-2 with the CE mark, in good condition and tested beforehand against an incandescent light bulb; specific solar filters on the front of telescopes, binoculars or cameras, because with those, glasses are not enough; no sunglasses or improvised gadgets; close supervision of minors, and “brief and intermittent” observations. If eye symptoms appear afterwards, it asked people to go to a hospital with an ophthalmology department for an early assessment.

For the heat: high-factor sun cream reapplied every two hours, a cap and light clothing, drinking water even when you aren’t thirsty, avoiding alcohol and energy drinks, seeking shade and never leaving anyone inside a parked, closed car.

IGN: plan, and all the more so in 2027

The IGN’s eclipse website has a page of practical recommendations that already looks ahead to 2027. The most important one, “which covers all the others”, is to plan the trip, and it adds that this “will be of special importance in the 2027 eclipse, since in Spain it will be visible only in a narrow strip of the territory”. It also warns that getting closer to the axis doesn’t always pay off: the difference in duration compared with other parts of the path “will not be so great as to make up for other factors, such as traffic or the lack of free space”.

It asks people to set off early, book early if they are staying overnight, follow the traffic and civil protection authorities, check the forecast in the days before and wait a while before heading back. On the same page, the working group on mobility and public safety advises against travelling on the day of the eclipse, and even more so right after it, and recommends public transport.

On the eyes, the IGN reminds people that eclipse glasses are for short spells (we cover this in how long can you look through eclipse glasses) and that “there is nothing as safe as projecting the image of the Sun”.

Civil Protection: eyes, roads, fire and countryside

A few days before the eclipse, Spain’s General Secretariat for Civil Protection and Emergencies activated the pre-emergency phase, at operational situation 1, of the General State Emergency Plan, and the Ministry of the Interior set up a unified command post with the Guardia Civil, the National Police and the DGT, Spain’s traffic authority. The Secretariat asked everyone to take these precautions:

• Use only glasses that comply with ISO 12312-2, check that they are genuine and inspect the filters, watch over minors and people with disabilities, don’t look through cameras, binoculars or telescopes without a specific solar filter, don’t improvise filters and, if possible, use projection.
• Watch it from your own municipality wherever possible, plan ahead if you have to travel, use only the designated areas, don’t stop on the hard shoulder and expect mobile networks to be overloaded.
• Don’t light fires, which is prohibited, don’t park on dry vegetation, keep emergency access routes clear and check the fire-risk level every day.
• Don’t overcrowd fragile areas, don’t disturb wildlife, don’t leave rubbish behind and don’t go onto private land.

Staying in your own municipality means something different in 2027. Last summer the path crossed the north; this time it crosses Cádiz, Málaga, Granada, Almería, Ceuta and Melilla, and from the rest of Spain the eclipse will be partial. If you are going to the path, plan it: getting there and the towns with totality.

DGT: no stopping on the hard shoulder and no rush to get home

The DGT treated the eclipse as an event with a high impact on traffic. It asked people to avoid unnecessary journeys, because “it will not always be necessary to head for the places where totality lasts longest”; to plan the trip and, where possible, use public transport; and to choose authorised viewing points (the regional governments reported more than 360) rather than minor roads that get jammed. It also recalled the “absolute prohibition” on stopping a vehicle on the hard shoulder or the carriageway to watch the eclipse.

At the wheel: a bigger safety distance, no phones or cameras, dipped headlights while it gets dark, and never look at the Sun or drive with eclipse glasses on. On the way back, stay a while and leave in stages: “The success of the trip is not arriving quickly, but getting back without incident”. The law on the hard shoulder and the time the light drops in the 2027 path are in can you drive during the eclipse?.

Where to look for 2027

The IGN and the Health Ministry already include the 2027 eclipse: the IGN’s website gives visibility data for every municipality for each eclipse, and the Health Ministry’s assessment covers the whole Trío. The Civil Protection and DGT notes we cite are from last summer; their channels are the Civil Protection website and its National Alert Network, and the DGT’s website, its @DGTes and @informacionDGT accounts and the 011 phone line. The government’s website for the three eclipses, trioeclipses.es, gathers the risks and the civil protection resources.

Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda published its own note, “Consumer Affairs reminds the public that the eclipse must be viewed with certified glasses and recommends keeping them on at all times”. What to look for when buying them is in where to buy eclipse glasses and in our glasses guide.

Sources: Ministerio de Sanidad — Evaluación rápida de riesgo del Trío de Eclipses (in Spanish: low risk, the Spanish Society of Ophthalmology’s recommendations, heat, ophthalmology if there are symptoms); IGN — Recomendaciones prácticas (in Spanish: planning, “of special importance in the 2027 eclipse”, the duration doesn’t make up for the traffic, the mobility working group); IGN — Cómo observar los eclipses (in Spanish: short spells, projection); Protección Civil — Seguimiento del eclipse (in Spanish: unified command post, approved glasses, fires); Diario de León — Protección Civil activa la fase de Preemergencia (in Spanish: the Civil Protection note with its recommendations); DGT — Tráfico recomienda planificar los desplazamientos y escalonar el regreso (in Spanish: advice, more than 360 viewing points, channels); Trío de Eclipses, web oficial del Gobierno — Prevención y riesgos (in Spanish: risks and Civil Protection resources); Consumo — nota sobre las gafas (in Spanish: its title); municipalities with totality: the IGN’s verdict and eclipseando data.