Total Solar Eclipse of August 2, 2027

Where the path of totality goes

The Moon's umbra, the dark inner shadow where the Sun is completely hidden, first touches Earth at sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean at about 08:24 UTC. It sweeps east-south-east for about three and a half hours, crossing two continents, and lifts off at sunset over the Indian Ocean at about 11:48 UTC. The path is about 260 km wide at greatest eclipse. Everywhere inside it sees a total eclipse; a much wider area, from Iceland and Scandinavia to central Africa and India, sees a partial one.

Spain, Gibraltar and Morocco

The shadow reaches the Strait of Gibraltar at about 08:47 UTC, mid-morning local time, with the Sun about 38 degrees up in the east. The centre line runs across the Strait itself, giving about 4 min 54 s of totality on the water. On land, Tangier gets 4 min 52 s, Gibraltar 4 min 27 s, Cadiz 2 min 51 s and Malaga, near the northern edge, 1 min 45 s. Seville lies just outside the northern limit: 98% of the Sun is covered there, which is impressive but is not totality. The difference between 98% and 100% is the difference between a dim morning and seeing the corona, so it is worth the short drive south.

Algeria, Tunisia and Libya

The path then crosses northern Algeria, including Oran, and reaches Tunisia, where the centre line passes close to Sfax at about 09:11 UTC with about 5 min 45 s of totality. Tunis, in the north, is just outside the path (97%). Over the Gulf of Sidra the shadow reaches Libya, where Benghazi gets 6 min 11 s of totality at about 11:27 AM local time, and the centre line has about 6 min 11 s.

Egypt: Luxor and the Nile Valley

The best of the eclipse is in Egypt. Crossing the desert and the Nile Valley, the centre line runs just north of Luxor at about 10:04 UTC, with the Sun about 82 degrees up, almost overhead. Greatest eclipse, the point where the shadow axis passes closest to Earth's centre, is at 10:06 UTC at 25.49°N 33.19°E, a little east of Luxor. Luxor gets 6 min 23 s of totality, and its temples and the Valley of the Kings make it the most famous viewing site. Cairo is north of the path (95%), and Aswan is just south of the southern limit (99.8%). Upper Egypt in August is one of the sunniest places on Earth, so the chance of a clear sky is excellent, but expect daytime temperatures above 40°C.

Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia

After crossing the Red Sea the shadow reaches the Arabian coast at Jeddah (6 min 00 s of totality) and Mecca (5 min 07 s) at about 10:27 UTC, with the Sun still high. It continues over western Saudi Arabia and Yemen, where the centre line has about 5 min 59 s at about 10:43 UTC, then crosses the Gulf of Aden to the northern tip of Somalia (5 min 39 s on the centre line) before heading out over the Indian Ocean, where totality shrinks to about 3 min 08 s at sunset.

Why the 2027 eclipse is so long

A total eclipse happens when the Moon, which is about 400 times smaller than the Sun but also about 400 times closer, covers the Sun's disc. How long totality lasts depends on how much bigger the Moon looks than the Sun, and how fast its shadow moves across the ground. In 2027 almost everything is in favour of a long one:

• The Moon is close. At greatest eclipse it is 357,375 km from Earth's centre. Its closest point of the month, perigee, came only about 4 hours earlier at 357,352 km. A nearer Moon looks bigger and casts a wider shadow.
• The Sun is far. Earth passed aphelion, its farthest point from the Sun, on July 5, 2027, less than a month before, so the Sun looks about as small as it ever gets: Earth is 151.8 million km from the Sun on eclipse day. Seen from Earth's centre the Moon's disc is 6.0% wider than the Sun's; seen from Luxor, with the Moon overhead and a little closer still, the difference is about 8%, which is NASA's eclipse magnitude of 1.079.
• The shadow crosses near the equator at noon. The Moon's shadow races east at more than 3,000 km/h relative to Earth's centre, but Earth's surface also turns east, fastest near the equator. With the Sun nearly overhead in the tropics, the ground under the shadow is moving in the same direction as the shadow, so the shadow passes over more slowly and totality lasts longer.

"The eclipse of the century"

The total eclipse of 22 July 2009 had a longer maximum, 6 minutes 39 seconds, but that maximum fell over the Pacific Ocean, and much of its land path in India and China was clouded out. The 2027 eclipse is the longest total eclipse over easily reached land this century, and no longer one crosses land until 3 June 2114; and it falls in one of the driest, sunniest regions on the planet in high summer. That is why astronomers and travel companies call it the eclipse of the century.

Can I see the 2027 eclipse from the US?

No, and not even a little. The eclipse happens on the morning of August 2 in Europe and Africa, which is the middle of the night in North America: the Moon's shadow and its partial zone are both gone before the Sun rises in the Americas. Our calculation for New York, the easternmost big US city, finds no eclipse at all. Nowhere in the US, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean or South America sees any part of it. The far west of the partial zone just reaches Iceland and West Africa.

If you are in the US and want to see it, you have to travel. The easiest trips are to southern Spain (direct flights to Malaga, Seville and Madrid), Gibraltar, Tangier, or Luxor via Cairo. The next total solar eclipses for the US are on March 30, 2033 in Alaska, August 23, 2044 in Montana and North Dakota, and August 12, 2045, which crosses the country from northern California to Florida. Before then, the January 26, 2028 annular eclipse can be seen as a small partial eclipse on that morning from parts of the eastern and southern US.

How to watch it safely

Looking at the Sun when even a small part of it is uncovered can burn the retina, often without pain, and the damage can be permanent. During all the partial phases, before and after totality and everywhere outside the path, use:

• Eclipse glasses or handheld solar viewers that meet the ISO 12312-2 international standard, bought from a reputable supplier. Check them for scratches or holes before use. Normal sunglasses, even very dark ones, are not safe.
• Solar filters on the front of binoculars, telescopes and camera lenses. Never look through optics with eclipse glasses on: the concentrated light will burn through them.
• Projection: a pinhole in a card, or the gaps between leaves of a tree, project little crescent Suns onto the ground.

Totality is the only safe time to look directly. When the last bead of sunlight disappears, take the glasses off and look at the corona, the planets and the stars that come out in the darkened sky. When the first flash of sunlight returns at the other edge (the "diamond ring"), look away and put the glasses back on at once. Outside the path of totality, for example in Seville, Cairo or Madrid, there is no safe moment without protection.

The eclipses around 2027

The 2027 eclipse is the middle of a busy run for Europe and its neighbours. On 12 August 2026 a total eclipse crossed Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain, the first total eclipse on the European mainland since 1999. On 26 January 2028 an annular "ring of fire" eclipse ends at sunset over southern Spain and Portugal. And on 22 July 2028 a total eclipse crosses Australia, right over Sydney, and New Zealand. Here is every central eclipse from 2026 to 2030, computed with astronomy-engine:

Lunar eclipses, when the Moon passes through Earth's shadow, can be seen from the whole night side of Earth; our moon calendar 2027 marks them on the full moons. For the Moon tonight, see Moon phase today.

How we calculated this

Everything on this page is computed, not copied: the Sun and Moon positions come from the open-source astronomy-engine library, and the path is found by testing, for every degree of longitude, which latitudes fall inside the Moon's umbra at some moment of the eclipse, then narrowing down the northern and southern limits to a few metres. We checked the results against NASA's eclipse predictions by Fred Espenak: our greatest eclipse point (25.49°N 33.19°E at 10:06:34 UTC) matches NASA's 25°30'N 33°12'E at 10:07:50 TD (about 10:06:40 UTC), and our list of cities inside and outside the path matches the published maps.