Every eclipse, played back from your city

Eclipses from 2026 to 2028

Times are the moment of greatest eclipse in Universal Time. Choose any one in the list above to see it in your own local time, and to find out whether it can be seen from your city.

2 August 2027: a long total solar eclipse over Egypt and Saudi Arabia

The Moon’s dark shadow crosses North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. NASA gives the longest totality as 6 minutes 23 seconds, near Luxor in Egypt; our calculation gives 6 minutes 25 seconds there. By the same calculation the Sun is completely covered for about 6 minutes in Jeddah and about 5 minutes 10 seconds in Mecca, in the early afternoon with the Sun high in the sky.

In Australia, the total solar eclipse of 22 July 2028 passes over Sydney, where our calculation gives about 3 minutes 52 seconds of totality in the early afternoon.

Why eclipses happen only sometimes

The Moon’s orbit is tilted about 5.1° to the plane of Earth’s orbit. Most months the new moon passes a little above or below the Sun, and the full moon passes above or below Earth’s shadow. An eclipse happens only when a new or full moon falls close to one of the two nodes, where the Moon’s orbit crosses that plane. The Sun lines up with the nodes about every 173 days, so eclipses come in seasons, usually a solar and a lunar eclipse about two weeks apart.

Lunar eclipses: penumbral, partial and total

Earth casts two shadows. The outer penumbra only dims sunlight, so a penumbral eclipse is a faint shading that many people never notice. The inner umbra blocks direct sunlight. When part of the Moon enters it, a dark bite appears: a partial eclipse. When the whole Moon is inside, it is a total eclipse.

During totality the Moon does not disappear. Sunlight bent through Earth’s atmosphere reaches it, with most of the blue scattered away, so the Moon glows copper or deep red. This is the Blood Moon. Its colour depends on dust and cloud in Earth’s atmosphere. A lunar eclipse is seen from the whole night side of Earth at the same moment and is completely safe to watch with your eyes, binoculars or a telescope.

Solar eclipses: partial, annular, total and hybrid

The Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon and about 400 times farther away, so the two look almost the same size. When the Moon is near perigee, its closest point to Earth, it can cover the whole Sun: a total eclipse, seen only from a narrow path where the umbra touches Earth. Near apogee the Moon looks slightly too small and leaves a bright ring: an annular eclipse. A hybrid eclipse is annular along part of its path and total along another. Outside the path, people see a partial eclipse.

Watching a solar eclipse safely

Never look at the Sun directly, or through a camera, binoculars or a telescope, without a proper solar filter. Ordinary sunglasses are not safe. Use eclipse glasses that meet the ISO 12312-2 standard, or project the image onto card through a pinhole. Only during the brief total phase, when the Sun is completely covered, is it safe to look without a filter. Put the filter back as soon as the first bright point of sunlight returns.

Eclipses in faith and tradition

In Islam, the prayer of the eclipse, Salat al-Kusuf for the Sun and Salat al-Khusuf for the Moon, is offered while the eclipse is in progress. The Prophet Muhammad said that the Sun and the Moon are two signs of Allah and are not eclipsed for anyone’s death or birth (Sahih al-Bukhari). The times on this page show when the eclipse begins and ends where you are.

In Hindu tradition a solar eclipse is Surya Grahan and a lunar eclipse is Chandra Grahan. Many families keep the Sutak period, traditionally beginning about 12 hours before a solar eclipse and about 9 hours before a lunar eclipse. Use the local times here, then follow your family or temple panchang for the exact Sutak timing. For people searching in Hinglish: grahan kab hai, chandra grahan ka samay, surya grahan time today in my city. Pick your city above and the times update.

How we calculate

Positions of the Sun and Moon come from Astronomy Engine, an open-source library by Don Cross. Eclipse dates, types and times on this page agree with NASA’s eclipse catalogue by Fred Espenak and Jean Meeus to within about a minute. Earth’s shadow is enlarged by 2% for its atmosphere, as in Meeus. Local times use your city’s time zone, including daylight saving.