Solar eclipses
Photo: Klaus Kemmerich, CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons
A solar eclipse is an astronomical phenomenon in which the sun is obscured by the moon. In a total solar eclipse, the moon precisely covers the sun's bright orb, leaving the normally invisible solar corona glowing all around it, as if the sun had turned to pitchblende, coldly radiant in a twilight sky. It's a wonderful natural spectacle, worth travelling a long way to witness – as you may have to. It's only visible for a couple of fleeting minutes along a very narrow track, so you have to be in precisely the right place at precisely the right time, and be lucky with the weather. So the travel arrangements are the key to success.
UnderstandThe moon orbits the earth and so at "new moon", when its dark side is towards us, it lies between earth and sun – but seldom exactly.
Get inThe first decision is which eclipse to try for and which to leave alone. It needs to be a total eclipse, in a locality that you can physically travel to, and with decent amenities and good viewing prospects.
The next total eclipseThe next total solar eclipse is on Monday 2 Aug 2027, over south Spain and Gibraltar, hugging the north African coast from Morocco to Egypt, then southwest over the Red Sea through Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.
Future eclipses
See
Do
Stay safeNever look at the sun with the unaided eye or with a camera viewfinder, binoculars, or telescope, not even for a second and not even if only 1% of the sun is visible.
See also
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Solar eclipses" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Klaus Kemmerich, CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons