Haven’t we had an eventful summer here in the UK? A new prime minister, heatwaves and hosepipe bans, the World Cup and the world-famous Bayeaux tapestry arriving at the British Museum.
That’s Earth sorted, what about up there in space? August brought us two celestial phenomena, the glorious annual Perseid meteor shower and the highlight of the month – a solar eclipse, both occurring on 12 August 2026. The path of totality crossed parts of Spain, Iceland, Greenland and Russia, observers in these regions would have seen a total eclipse - when the Moon completely covers the Sun.
The partial solar eclipse as seen from London
Image Credit: Anna Rolls
I joined friends in Blackheath and Royal Greenwich Park (the site of the Royal Observatory Greenwich) in southeast London on a spectacularly hot sunny day on the evening of the eclipse. We were treated to a partial eclipse, the whole event lasted 1 hour 49 minutes, during which the Moon covered around 90% of the face of the Sun. The atmosphere was fantastic, so many people came out with their eclipse glasses, colanders and cereal boxes to watch the eclipse safely. I walked around and saw brilliant pinhole projections of the eclipse with lots of people gathering around and taking photos and videos. For most UK residents this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The Moon takes just over 27 days to orbit the Earth, we see it change phase in the sky, starting its cycle as a New Moon. At this point the Moon is not visible to us, it lies between us and the Sun and we see the non-shiny side. Most of the time the Moon is not directly in line with the Sun and the Earth, occasionally it will lie right in front of the Sun and this is when we see a solar eclipse
We have only one moon (popular Saturn is the winner with over 270 moons) and it just so happens that it’s 400 times closer to us than the Sun, and 400 times smaller in width. Therefore, from our perspective the Sun and the Moon take up the same amount of sky, they each cover about half a degree. During an eclipse the Moon casts a narrow band of shadow on the surface of the Earth, only 300 km thick. For the August eclipse, the darkest part of the shadow (the umbra) shifted across the face of the Earth at a whopping 3500 kilometres per hour, this is almost four times the speed of a large commercial aeroplane and certainly can’t be outrun, not even by our superfast London Marathon winner Sabastian Sawe.
The Sun, Earth and Moon during a solar (top) and lunar (bottom) eclipse
Image Credit: Shutterstock
Solar eclipses occur on Earth roughly once every 18 months. The last total eclipse visible from the UK took place in August 1999 and the next one is due 23 September 2090. Partial solar eclipses and lunar eclipses are more common - look out for the total lunar eclipse on 31 December 2028, when we’ll see a blood red moon (weather permitting). There are lots of beautiful celestial events to look forward to this Autumn and next year and you can find out more in our Guide to the Night Sky and Night Sky Almanac.
About the author
This blog was written by Radmila Topalovic, astronomer and co-author of Night Sky Almanac 2027, Stargazing, 2027 Guide to the Night Sky and more.
Explore more of Radmila's books here.