Future Solar Eclipses

Eclipses, both solar and lunar, of course come in two basic forms - partial and "complete" (i.e. total or annular). While a lunar eclipse is visible from an entire hemisphere of the Earth, a solar eclipse is only visible along a narrow corridor on the Earth's surface and so travelling will almost certainly be required to see one. It's not worth going far for a partial eclipse though as, while they are of interest, they are not really spectacular unless a very large percentage of the Sun's disc is covered. I shall not, therefore list partial eclipses here - dates and areas of visibility are easy to find on the Internet.

However, for those of you who are now enthusiastic enough to want to see a "complete" solar eclipse yourself, here is a list of the total and annular ones visible from now until 2035, with the more interesting ones (for someone in Europe) marked in green.

For a map of the tracks of total eclipses from 1996 to 2020, click here.
For total and annular eclipses from 2021 to 2040, click here. (Totals are in blue, annulars in red)

• 17th February 2026 - annular (96.3%) Antarctica
• 12th August 2026 - total (2min 18sec) Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, Spain
• 2nd August 2027 - total (6min 23sec) Spain, N.Africa, Arabian Peninsula
• 26th January 2028 - annular (92.1%) Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Spain
• 22nd July 2028 - total (5min 10sec) Australia, New Zealand
• 1st June 2030 - annular (94.4%) N.Africa, Black Sea, Russia, N.China
• 25th November 2030 - total (3min 44sec) Namibia, Botswana, S.Africa, Australia
• 21st May 2031 - annular (5min 26sec) Africa, S.Asia, E.Indies
• 30th March 2033 - total (2min 37sec) Alaska
• 20th March 2034 - total (4min 9sec) Africa, Middle East, W.Asia
• 12th September 2034 - annular (2min 58sec) S.America
• 9th March 2035 - annular (0min 48sec) Tasmania, New Zealand
• 2nd September 2035 - total (2min 54sec) China, Japan

The next solar eclipse visible in the UK will be a very deep partial (magnitude 0.925 in London) on 12th August 2026, which will be total along a track running from Greenland to Spain. Note that from 2026 to 2028 Spain gets three solar eclipses (two totals and an annular) in the space of 17 months! The very long total in 2027 is clearly not to be missed as it's the second longest of the 21st Century (after China 2009) and one of only four in the century greater than 6mins - the next is not until 2045.

Hope to see you at some of these events!