There’s a line from The Simpsons Season 4 “Marge vs. the Monorail” where guest star Leonard Nimoy, watching a total eclipse stop a solar-powered runaway train, looks up and says: “A solar eclipse. The cosmic ballet goes on.”
I have toyed with the idea of how that quote stands out, but this year I finally understand just how majestic it is.
My father is very geeky, loves space and has not seen an eclipse since 1999.
I have never seen one in my life, but that was about to change.
He had planned our 2026 family holiday two years ago because he knew exactly when and where this year’s eclipse was going to fall.
Mallorca, here we come.
When we arrived on the island, there was a massive buzz around.
We learnt of road closures around the west side of the island where authorities believed people would try to view this astronomical phenomenon.
My dad and I took time out of the first few days of our holiday to recce some potential viewing areas until we stumbled across a secret space where no one was looking.
When conversing with some other Brits at our holiday lodging, it turns out everyone had a secret spot, and everyone’s spot was the same.
Plan A
The plan was to drive to a large headland off Port d’Andratx, a place we, as a family, knew quite well.
The trouble was that to get to the spot there was one road in and one road out.
The road closures began at 3pm, and that was the first road to go.
I haven’t yet mentioned the extreme heat, by this point outdoor temperatures had climbed to 35 degrees, and we hadn’t left the relative cool of indoors.
We drove and parked the car 10 minutes’ walk from the town, parked ourselves at a local bar, and stewed over our options over a cold pint.
More people than we expected were flocking up the road to what was likely the best viewing spot on the island – save for the 1% with super yachts and helicopters.
My brother, dad, and I decided to brave it and see where we got to.
But on our walk, we happened across a cutting around the walled-up roads down to a large, volcanic, public beach.
With 4 hours still to go until the eclipse, the beach was relatively empty save for some swimmers and sunbathers.
I found a large raised area where another couple had already claimed some space.
We got to talking, and they had travelled all the way from Los Angeles just for the total eclipse – more on them later!
Three generations on one beach
My mum had been struggling quite a bit with the heat this week and had stayed back after hearing our idea to walk 40 minutes in blazing sun.
We insisted that she and nana should come join us after our lucky find.
They somehow managed to get a taxi and arrive with plenty of time before totality.
(The family – Will Heys)
There is something special about being able to share a monumental occasion like this with your family spanning three generations – me, mum, dad, nana, and brother – all on the same strip, all watching the same sunset.
And then, the celestial dance began.
Some new friends
Our improvised viewing spot turned out to be a huge stroke of luck.
When we arrived, we met a couple from LA, Brian and Teresa Gold.
I got talking with them, and they told me this was their thirteenth eclipse.
Their first?
Hawaii, 1991, their wedding day – the most logistically ambitious wedding detail I have ever heard.
Since then they have travelled to all corners of the globe chasing totality.
Talking to them gave the whole afternoon a strange, lovely context.
Next to us were two people for whom this is what they do — a decades-long tradition chasing shadows across the Earth.
What was even more amazing was that Brian ended up getting a call from American commercial broadcast network CBS.
They wanted to interview him live on air as an American attending the event.
He initially declined, as the timing didn’t line up, but managed to fit it in after their flight was delayed.
He mentioned us!
(Brian Gold speaking about the eclipse timestamp 05:28 – CBS News on YouTube)
Five strangers he’d met a few hours earlier getting a quick mention on national American broadcasting.
First contact
20:31 – the moon began to eat away at the sun, slowly but surely.
(The sun through a filtered lens – Will Heys)
Another family began playing some tunes on a speaker at a sociable level.
We had ABBA, Queen, and – most notably, just before totality – “Total Eclipse of the Heart” by Bonnie Tyler.
Sadly, she passed away earlier this year.
A sombre yet fitting tribute, exactly the way you don’t plan to recreate.
My dad sent his 360 drone up to capture the whole event from the skies above the Mediterranean.
(The eclipse – Pete Heys on YouTube)
The heat had been sit-in-the-shade-and-still-sweat unbearable, and then, gradually, it was not.
The air cooled, but less like evening and more like the day losing confidence.
Then the diamond ring.
One last blinding sliver of sun catching the moon’s edge just right, visible to the naked eye.
Totality.
I gasped.
Cheers, applause and whoops rippled across a beach full of strangers who had never met before and would likely never meet again.
The genuine, physical sense of awe that only nature can provide.
We live in a time of cosmic coincidence where the sun happens to be roughly 400 times wider than the moon and roughly 400 times further away.
I got chills.
Feelings that get thrown around so casually that you forget they’re supposed to describe something that actually stops you in your tracks.
The moment totality broke, the spell broke too.
Boats and jet skis that sat quietly out on the water came alive, hitting what must have been at least 50mph, streaming back to the port leaving behind wake after wake that lapped up the rocky beach.
Normality had resumed in Mallorca after the island stood still for 96 seconds.
I understand why Brian and Teresa keep going back for more.
And so, I personally can finally say, “the cosmic ballet goes on.”
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