We keep a stone finca on the hills of the Facinas, Tarifa — 14 km from Tarifa, 17 km from the Strait — and this morning it stands directly under the path of totality. For four minutes and twenty‑four seconds the Sun is swallowed, day becomes night, and the corona comes out of hiding above the sea. The best seat on the southern coast of Europe for the eclipse of 2 August 2027.
Computed with the official NASA Besselian-elements algorithm (the same math behind the NASA eclipse maps), evaluated at the finca's exact coordinates, cross-checked against published circumstances for Tarifa, Cádiz and Jerez. All times local (CEST).
Context: totality this morning spans the southern edge of the Iberian Peninsula — the path runs Cádiz, Málaga, Almería, Ceuta & Melilla, Gibraltar and the Maghreb coast. In Madrid the eclipse is a deep partial (86.4%); here, on this hill, the whole Sun is gone.
The full program for 2 August at the finca. We will be outside from dawn; the house, the terrace and the telescope belong to you.
The sky on the clear August hillside: a deep indigo dome, not black — the Sun is still 38° up. But dark enough for Venus, the brightest stars, and the corona glowing against it like a silver coin.
A halo of white fire two or more times the Sun's diameter — the solar atmosphere visible only in totality. Streamers, a bright inner ring, a long faint tail toward the ecliptic pole. You can see it, and you are still safe: no filter needed during totality.
A drop of a few degrees within 30 seconds; the wind changes; the birds go quiet and then come back to roost, convinced it's nightfall. This is the moment you feel it in your skin before you believe it with your eyes.
During the ring the whole field holds its breath; during the dark someone always whistles. That's the sound of the 2027 eclipse. Bring your ears.
Finca Facinas is a working hill farm with a stone house, a pool, and the eastern sky open wide. When it matters — 10:45 CEST — the Sun stands low in the east-southeast, about 38° up, and every terrace at the finca takes that eastern sky straight on. The houses were built so you never have to raise your head to watch it happen.
Stone house, four double rooms above the main terrace. Each with a private balcony facing east-southeast — the totality balcony, because that is where the Sun will be when it is gone. Squeaky floors, good mattresses, no televisions.
Two self-contained apartments at the foot of the hill, kitchen, private pool access and a long terrace that runs across the lower field — the full length of the morning's drama, open to the eastern sky. Sleeps four each.
The full estate, for one group only. Hill house + annex + 11 hectares of open hill, the Punta Palomo lighthouse ~9 km to the west, and the dark after 10:45 that you will not find in any guidebook. Up to 14 people.
The 2 August weekend is capped. We hold the finca for eclipse groups only; single nights and other dates are available from the owners directly. Rates confirmed per group — write to us and we will price the whole weekend, rooms + dinner + telescope, in one number.
The finca sits on the low southern side of a hill above the village of Facinas, Tarifa side of the Campo de Gibraltar. Neighbours: Punta Palomo lighthouse (~9 km to the west), the strait of Gibraltar and Morocco (13 km, visible on clear mornings), Algeciras airport (25 minutes by car). The morning of 2 August the shadow's centre-line passes ~50 km to our south, over the Málaga–Cádiz highlands (at our longitude it is ~35.7° N, per NASA's official path table). We sit in the northern half of a very wide totality band (237 km across here) — deep inside totality, close enough to the sea that the horizon stays perfect: 4 minutes 24 seconds.
The 2 August 2027 weekend is sold by the group: whole house, annex, or the full estate. Write to us with the size of your party and whether anyone is bringing a telescope — the hill is not big enough for twelve tripods, so we coordinate the views.
First contact (C1) 09:40:45 CEST. Second contact (C2, start of totality) 10:45:03. Maximum eclipse 10:47:14. Third contact (C3, end of totality) 10:49:27 — that's 4 minutes 24 seconds of darkness. Fourth contact (C4) 12:00:25. Times computed with the official NASA Besselian-elements algorithm at the finca's coordinates; published figures for the surrounding area — Tarifa 10:44:56–10:49:33, Cádiz 10:45:29–10:48:25, Jerez 10:46:14 (start) — agree to a few seconds.
When it matters, the Sun stands ~38° up in the east-southeast. Every terrace at the finca takes the eastern sky open: nothing between you and the eclipse except the hill's own west wall, which ends 200 m out. The pool and the long garden take that eastern sky wide and low.
For the partial phases you need ISO-certified solar glasses or a filtered telescope — we provide both and lend them out. During the 4 m 24 s of totality everything is unfiltered: that's when the naked eye does the real work.
August in the Campo de Gibraltar is reliably dry and windy; the Atlantic-facing tip of the peninsula counts among Europe's clearest skies all year. If the morning of 2 August is broken: the 26 January 2028 annular eclipse crosses the same coast in the mid-afternoon — the ring of fire runs from Morocco through Cádiz (6 m 41 s there) and Seville (7 m 15 s) across Andalusia, about 83% of the Sun’s disc, and the finca sits inside the annular band. We keep the 2028 dates open. No refunds for the Sun's own weather.
At maximum (10:47 CEST) the shadow's centre-line is about 50 km to our south, at 35.70° N per NASA's official path table for this eclipse — we sit in the northern half of a band 237 km wide here. That is why we get 4 m 24 s of darkness, barely shorter than Tarifa's 4 m 38 s.
Yes; the finca has a 6-car gravel yard and a long parking lane. One van with a roof tent is a known quantity; two or more, tell us in the inquiry and we'll arrange the night before.
Contact times: computed 2026-08-27 with the official NASA Besselian-elements algorithm (eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov, element set for SE2027Aug02T: k=−0.0198, l=0.5447, m=0.1601, n=−0.2112, γ=0.14209, Δ≈633 800 km), evaluated at 36.1436° N, 5.7002° W, ~100 m (elevation: Open-Elevation terrain model at the exact coordinates). The same implementation reproduces the published tables to the second — our run for Madrid is C1 09:45:33 / C4 12:02:54 vs the Wikipedia/IGN table's 09:45:32 / 12:02:53 (86.38% partial) — and matches the coast: findtotality.com (X. Jubier) Tarifa 10:44:59–10:49:40; Wikipedia local-times table Cádiz 10:45:29–10:48:25 (totality 2:19); the NASA path table puts the centre line at 08:48 UTC over 35.72° N, width 237 km. Location: Google Maps place "11391 Facinas, Provinz Cádiz" (Nominatim: village, OSM). The 4 m 24 s assumes clear sky; the sky is not a booked accommodation. 2028 annular figures (Cádiz 17:52:43–17:59:24 CET, annularity 6 m 41 s; Seville 7 m 15 s; maximum annularity ~10 m 27 s; obscuration ~83%): NASA GSFC solar-eclipse catalogue via the Wikipedia local-time table, retrieved 2026-08-28. Contact times at the finca for 2028-01-26 are pending a verification pass.