Total solar eclipse, 2 August 2027
On 2 August 2027 the Moon’s shadow crosses the Strait of Gibraltar, North Africa, the Nile valley and the Red Sea, and along a band about 250 km wide the Sun is wholly hidden for up to 6 minutes 23 seconds, near Luxor: the longest total eclipse seen from land until 2114. This page opens on the globe at the moment of greatest eclipse, the band of totality drawn across it and the shadow over Egypt.
The list under this gives the countdown and, for towns along and either side of the path, what each sees: how long totality lasts and when, on the town’s own clock, or how much of the Sun the Moon covers where it stays partial. The shadow, the band and the timings are worked out with astronomy-engine.
2 August 2027: 273 days to go
- Cádiztotal for 2 min 53 s, from to (GMT+2) · the Sun 37° up
- Tarifatotal for 4 min 41 s, from to (GMT+2) · the Sun 38° up
- Tangiertotal for 4 min 54 s, from to (GMT+0) · the Sun 38° up
- Gibraltartotal for 4 min 29 s, from to (GMT+2) · the Sun 38° up
- Málagatotal for 1 min 51 s, from to (GMT+2) · the Sun 39° up
- Orantotal for 5 min 11 s, from to (GMT+1) · the Sun 43° up
- Tripolitotal for 0 min 47 s, from to (GMT+2) · the Sun 60° up
- Benghazitotal for 6 min 13 s, from to (GMT+2) · the Sun 68° up
- Luxortotal for 6 min 25 s, from to (GMT+3) · the Sun 82° up
- Jeddahtotal for 6 min 2 s, from to (GMT+3) · the Sun 76° up
- Meccatotal for 5 min 10 s, from to (GMT+3) · the Sun 76° up
- Sana’atotal for 2 min 34 s, from to (GMT+3) · the Sun 67° up
- Lisbonpartial, 92.4% of the Sun covered at (GMT+1) · the Sun 35° up
- Sevillepartial, 98.2% of the Sun covered at (GMT+2) · the Sun 38° up
- Madridpartial, 86.2% of the Sun covered at (GMT+2) · the Sun 40° up
- Tunispartial, 97% of the Sun covered at (GMT+1) · the Sun 55° up
- Romepartial, 74.4% of the Sun covered at (GMT+2) · the Sun 54° up
- Cairopartial, 94.7% of the Sun covered at (GMT+3) · the Sun 78° up
- Aswanpartial, 99.8% of the Sun covered at (GMT+3) · the Sun 83° up
- Riyadhpartial, 75.7% of the Sun covered at (GMT+3) · the Sun 67° up
- Londonpartial, 41.7% of the Sun covered at (GMT+1) · the Sun 40° up
Each town’s times on its own clock, worked out with astronomy-engine for its center; a town near the band’s edge can differ by a minute or more across it.
How to read it
The gold band is the path of totality, where the Moon covers the whole Sun for a few minutes; the dashed line down its middle is the central line, where totality lasts longest across the band. The black disc is the Moon’s umbra, the shadow itself, where it is at the clock’s time, racing east at about 2,000 km an hour at its slowest, and the dashed ring around it is the edge of the partial eclipse: outside it the Sun is untouched. Space, the period and the comma run the clock, so the shadow can be watched crossing from the Atlantic at sunrise to the Indian Ocean.
Totality lasts about 4½ minutes at Gibraltar and Tangier, where the shadow first meets land, and grows as the path runs southeast toward the point where the Sun stands nearly overhead: 6 minutes 23 seconds near Luxor, by NASA’s figures. It is so long because the Earth is near its farthest from the Sun in early August, making the Sun look small, while the Moon is near its closest and looks large. The edges of the band are drawn on a sphere, so a town within about 20 km of one should check a detailed map.
The eclipse belongs to Saros 136, the series that gave the 6 minute 39 second eclipse of 22 July 2009 over the Pacific; its eclipses come every 18 years and 11 days, each about a third of the way round the world further west. Spain sees totality twice in a year, after the eclipse of 12 August 2026 crossed its north.
Questions
Where is the best place to see the 2027 total eclipse?
For the longest totality, the Nile valley around Luxor, where August skies are almost always clear and the Sun stands high overhead at mid-day. For Europeans, the closest is the coast around Tarifa, Gibraltar and Cádiz, with about four and a half minutes in the morning; Tangier, across the strait, has a little more.
Will the August 2027 eclipse be total in Spain?
Only at the southern tip: the band covers the coast from Cádiz past Tarifa and Gibraltar toward Málaga, in the morning. The rest of Spain sees a deep partial eclipse, about 86% of the Sun covered at Madrid and 98% at Seville, which is just outside the band. The list on this page gives each town’s figures.
Is it safe to look at a total solar eclipse?
Only during totality itself, when the Moon covers the whole Sun: then the corona can be watched with the naked eye. Every partial phase, before and after, needs certified eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2) or a pinhole projector, and the glasses go back on at the first bright bead of sunlight, the diamond ring, as totality ends.
When is the next total solar eclipse after 2027?
On 22 July 2028, across Australia and New Zealand, with up to five minutes of totality; Sydney lies in its path. Its path runs from the Indian Ocean across Australia’s interior and on to New Zealand’s South Island.
Sources
The same view as a link: livex.earth/?clouds=0&radar=0&imerg=0&sats=off&launches=0&aurora=0&storms=0&severe=0&fires=0&quakes=0&lightning=0&events=0&snow=0&tsunami=0&eclipse=2027-08-02&lat=28&lon=20&mag=1.6
Drag to look around, scroll to zoom. Settings live in the URL, so any view can be shared.
view | fixed · sunrel · orbit · moon · track |
track | what to follow: iss, tiangong, satgus (Mark Rober's Space Selfie satellite), launch, sunrise, moonrise |
lat, lon | viewer position (fixed) or offset from the subsolar point (sunrel) |
period, inc | orbit period (hours) and inclination (°) |
dist | viewer distance in Earth radii; 0 = orthographic |
mag, rot | size and rotation (°) |
wait | seconds between redraws (default 60) |
time, speed | ISO start time; clock multiplier |
clouds, lights, grid, markers, label | 0 or 1 |
borders | Country borders (Natural Earth), the disputed and undefined ones dashed, and once zoomed in, the countries’ names and the states’ and provinces’ lines, off by default (key B) |
terminator | The day–night line (Sun on the horizon), with the twilight band’s edges dashed: the Sun 6° up and 6° down, off by default (key Z) |
stars | 1, 0, or photo (dimmed like a camera exposed for sunlit Earth) |
sats | all (Starlink + named), featured, or 0 |
aurora, storms, fires, quakes | 0 hides that layer (keys A H F E) |
buoys, buoy | Buoys on the globe, off by default (key Shift+B); buoy=46026 opens that buoy’s window. Click a buoy to open it. |
meteors | The last day’s meteors (Global Meteor Network), recent fireballs and the coming close approaches (NASA/JPL), off by default (key Shift+M) |
iono | Ionosphere wash: tec electron content (GloTEC), drap HF radio absorption (D-RAP), or 0 (key Shift+I) |
lightning, events, snow | lightning, GDACS floods/wildfires/eruptions with NASA's flood map and USGS's US volcano alert levels, snow and ice (keys L D I) |
sst | Sea temperature: temp, anomaly (El Niño, marine heatwaves; 1 means this), or 0 (key O) |
lst | Land surface temperature (VIIRS, MODIS): auto the afternoon’s by day and the night’s by night (1 means this), day, night, or 0 (key Shift+K) |
soil | Soil moisture (SMAP L4): surface the top 5 cm (1 means this), root the root zone to 1 m, or 0 (key Shift+W) |
chl | Chlorophyll-a (MODIS Aqua, Terra), the last eight days: 1 or 0 (key Shift+O; off by default) |
aerosol | Aerosols: aod VIIRS optical depth (1 means this), index the OMPS UV aerosol index, smoke and dust, or 0 (key Shift+Y; off by default) |
waves, wavesrc | Wave height and direction (NOAA GFS-Wave, WAVEWATCH III) as trails that travel with the waves, coloured by height: 1 or 0 (off by default); folder holding its latest.json |
currents, currentsrc | Ocean surface currents (NASA OSCAR, a daily mean, two or three days behind) as trails carried by them, coloured by speed: 1 or 0 (off by default; key Q cycles waves → currents → both → off); folder holding its latest.json |
coral, coralsrc | Coral bleaching heat stress (NOAA Coral Reef Watch degree heating weeks), drawn within 35° of the equator: 1 or 0 (key Shift+R; off by default); folder holding its latest.json |
ash | volcanic ash: EUMETSAT's Ash RGB, and GDACS's eruptions in a window (key Shift+A; off by default) |
radar, smoke, tsunami | RainViewer radar, NOAA HMS smoke, NOAA tsunami alerts (keys R Y Shift+T) |
imagery | live GOES and MTG pictures by day, daily yesterday’s VIIRS when zoomed in, painted neither; with live or daily, the newest night’s lights when zoomed in (key Shift+P; the older truecolor=0/1 still works) |
severe | Severe weather: NWS warning polygons and the SPC day-1 outlook (US), MeteoAlarm's warnings (Europe) (key X) |
imerg | With the radar, satellite rain where there’s no radar: EUMETSAT H SAF (MTG) over Europe and Africa, NASA IMERG elsewhere (R’s middle step turns it off) |
relief | terrain lit by the real Sun, from NOAA ETOPO 2022 (key Shift+E); 0 shows NASA's fixed shaded relief |
reliefscale | terrain relief strength, 0.1–5 (default 1) |
isslive | NASA ISS telemetry panel: track (while tracking the ISS), 1 (always) or 0 (key Shift+L) |
isscam | 1 opens the camera in the ISS telemetry: the station from 120 m above, its solar arrays posed from the live telemetry, and the Earth below (the wheel zooms it, 30–120°) |
firehours | show fires detected within this many hours, 1–24 (default 12) |
launches | 0 hides launch mode (key U) |
bodies, bodyscale | Sun and Moon on/off; enlarge their discs (1 = true size) |
fps | 1 shows the frame-rate display (key ~) |
feeds | 1 shows the data-feeds dashboard: each source's last update and next check (key Shift+U) |
cloudsrc, satsrc | folders holding each latest.json |
