Total Solar Eclipse of August 2, 2027

On Monday, August 2, 2027, a total solar eclipse crosses southern Spain, North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Totality lasts up to 6 minutes 23 seconds, longer than in any other total solar eclipse for the rest of this century. Most of Europe, including the UK, sees a partial eclipse. The US does not see it, apart from a few minutes at sunrise in northern Maine.

Where is the path of totality?

A total eclipse is seen only from inside the Moon's dark shadow, which sweeps a narrow track across the Earth. On August 2, 2027 that track is about 160 miles (258 km) wide at its broadest. According to NASA's eclipse path tables, it starts in the Atlantic Ocean and moves east:

• Spain. The shadow comes ashore in the far south. Cádiz and Málaga are inside the path, as are Gibraltar and the Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla on the African coast.
• Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. The path follows the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, over Tangier and Oran and across central Tunisia, including Sfax.
• Libya and Egypt. After Benghazi the shadow crosses the desert into Egypt. The point of longest totality lies in the Nile valley. Luxor and Asyut are in the path.
• Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia. The track crosses the Red Sea to Jeddah and Mecca, runs down through Yemen and clips the northern tip of Somalia before ending in the Indian Ocean.

Everywhere outside this track the eclipse is partial or not visible at all. Being close to the path is not enough: totality is seen only inside it.

How to watch the eclipse safely

Read this before the times. The rules are the same wherever you are, and they follow NASA and the American Astronomical Society.

• Never look at the Sun without proper protection during the partial phases. That covers the whole eclipse for anyone outside the path of totality, including everyone in the UK, and the hour or more before and after totality for those inside it.
• Use eclipse glasses or a handheld solar viewer that meets the ISO 12312-2 international standard. Check them before use. If the filter is scratched, punctured or torn, throw the viewer away.
• Ordinary sunglasses are not safe, no matter how dark they are. They let through far too much sunlight.
• You may look without a filter only during totality, and only inside the path. Take the glasses off when the Moon has covered the Sun completely and nothing can be seen through the filter. Put them back on as soon as the first bright point of sunlight returns.
• Do not look through a camera, binoculars or a telescope unless a proper solar filter is fitted over the front of the lens. Eclipse glasses worn behind such a device do not protect your eyes.
• Supervise children for the whole event.
• No glasses? Watch indirectly. A pinhole projector throws an image of the Sun onto a surface. You stand with your back to the Sun and look at the image, never through the hole.

In August, in southern Spain or the Sahara, the Sun itself is a hazard too. NASA's advice for long eclipse watches is sunscreen, a hat and covered skin.

What time is the eclipse on August 2, 2027?

The table shows the main stages of the eclipse for the Earth as a whole. The moments come from NASA's path tables and from timeanddate, which agree to within a minute or two; they are rounded here.

These are not the times for your own location. At any one place the partial phase lasts roughly two hours and totality a few minutes in the middle of it. If you are traveling to the path, check a local forecast for the exact minute.

How long does totality last?

At its longest, 6 minutes 23 seconds. That point lies on the central line in Egypt, where the Sun is almost overhead at the time. In NASA's catalog of the 21st century only the eclipse of July 22, 2009 was longer, at 6 minutes 39 seconds, and none of the eclipses still to come before 2100 will match this one.

Totality is shorter toward both ends of the track and toward its edges. On the central line off the coast of Morocco it lasts about 5 minutes, on the central line in western Saudi Arabia a little over 6 minutes, and over northern Somalia about 5 and a half. A few miles inside the edge of the path it may be over in seconds. To see the long totality you need to be near the center line.

Can you see it from the United States?

Not in any useful sense. The eclipse belongs to the Eastern Hemisphere, and its greatest moment comes at about 6:07 a.m. Eastern Time. NASA lists eastern Canada and northern Maine at the very edge of the partial eclipse: there the Sun rises with a small part of its disk still covered, and the eclipse ends minutes later.

Americans who want to stand in the Moon's shadow will have to travel. The next total solar eclipses on US soil are on March 30, 2033, in Alaska, and on August 23, 2044, in Montana and North Dakota. A longer one follows on August 12, 2045, across the southern United States, with up to 6 minutes 6 seconds of totality.

What will the UK see?

A partial eclipse on a Monday morning. In London the Moon starts to move across the Sun at about 9:03 BST, reaches its maximum around 10:00 and leaves at about 10:59. At the maximum it covers a little over half of the Sun's width. The sky does not darken noticeably at that level, and the Sun is still far too bright to look at, so eye protection is needed from start to finish.

For British travelers the path is close. The nearest totality is in southern Spain, around Cádiz, Málaga and Gibraltar.

Why is this eclipse so long?

How long totality lasts depends on how much bigger the Moon looks than the Sun. In NASA's figures the Moon's disk on August 2, 2027 is 7.9 percent wider than the Sun's, a large margin. The shadow also strikes the Earth near the middle of the globe, with the Sun high in the sky. The combination gives a wide path and a long totality.

The eclipse falls at the new moon of August 2, the first of two new moons in August 2027. It is one of five eclipses that year; the others, including an annular eclipse on February 6, are listed on our eclipses of 2027 page.