Barrington, Illinois, family goes to Spain for 2026 solar eclipse
A family from Barrington, Illinois, traveled to Spain to witness the 2026 total solar eclipse, continuing a tradition that's been going for more than half a century.
It started out with a station wagon and a cloudy sky, but by now the Messerschmidts have become certified solar eclipse chasers.
They spoke with CBS News Chicago Wednesday from Spain, where they traveled with a group of about 20 people for the Aug. 12, 2026 eclipse.
"It was wonderful. Cloudless skies. Cloudless skies. It was beautiful. A classic textbook example, we were able to corral about 20 of our friends and family to come all here. We've got people from the States, we've got people from France. And so to share with them, some have never seen one, some have seen one once before, and they got caught by the bug," John Messerchmidt said.
John saw his first solar eclipse in 1972 and has been chasing them ever since. They've spoken with CBS News Chicago in the past as well, including in 2024 from Indianapolis during the North American Solar Eclipse.
Across a wide band of northern and central Spain and Portugal, millions of people enjoyed some of mainland Europe's best views of the eclipse. It also passed over slivers of Greenland and Iceland. It was the first solar eclipse in Spain in more than 100 years.
"It was a little bit of a challenge, because the eclipse was just before sunset, so it was very low in the sky, so we had to find a clear western horizon. Many times, the eclipses we've seen tend to be more overhead, middle of the day, and that's easy, all you do is look up, but there are a lot of buildings and mountains that got in the way, but we found the spot, and It's always magical, always magical," Messerschmidt said.
The family wrap up their trip on Sunday.
According to NASA, the next total solar eclipse is in August 2027, where totality will be visible in North Africa. The Messerschmidts said they will view that one from Egypt.
