The Story of Eclipses

by George F. Chambers

The line of central eclipse passes across the Peninsula diagonally from N.W. to S.E. It enters Portugal on the coast not far from Oporto in latitude 40° 50′ N., longitude 8° 38′ W. of Greenwich. It quits Spain on the coast at Cape Santa Pola, not far from Alicante, in latitude 38° 13′ N., longitude 0° 30′ W. At Ovar in Portugal (pop. 11,000), 23m. S. of Oporto the duration of the total phase will be 1m. 33½s., and the Sun’s altitude at totality will be 42°. At Talavera de la Reina in Spain (pop. 9700) the duration will be 1m. 27½s., and the altitude 39°; whilst at Alicante (pop. 40,000) the duration will be still less, 1m. 19s., and the Sun’s altitude only 34°. The three towns of Ovar, Talavera and Alicante are selected Nautical Almanac Eclipse stations, for which special calculations have been made.

Hotel accommodation may be had at all the foregoing places, Oporto, Ovar, Talavera and Alicante, as will be stated later on, but the Hotels at Ovar and Talavera are not of much account.

Other towns more or less handy for the central line are few in number, and as a rule deficient in lodging accommodation conforming to the English standard. Amongst such possible alternative places the following may be named (in order of position from N.W. to S.E.) as accessible by railway:—

Vizeu (pop. 7000; hotels, Mabilia, Cadite), on a branch of the Beira Alta Railway 31m. from Santa Comba Dao Junction, which itself is 88m. from Oporto.

Mangualde (pop. 3000), on the Beira Alta Railway, 115m. from Oporto, and 49m. from Pampilhosa Junction.

Plasencia (pop. 6000; hotel, F. de Eusebio Sierra), 6m. N. of the station of that name on the Lisbon and Madrid Railway.

Navalmoral (pop. 3300, buffet), a station on the Lisbon and Madrid Railway about 8m. W. of the central line of eclipse.

Urda, a small station on the Madrid and Ciudad Real Railway, crossed by the central line. The nearest accommodation would seem to be at Ciudad Real (pop. 14,000; hotel, Baltasar Garcia), 33m. to the S.

Alcazar de San Juan Junction (pop. 8400; good buffet; hotel, Casa Briseño). Alcazar is 92m. S. of Madrid; the central line crosses the railway about 15m. to the S. of the town.

Tobarra (pop. 7500), a station on the Chinchilla and Cartagena Railway, 212m. S. of Madrid, and 115m. N. of Cartagena, lies about 6m. S. of the central line.