If the sky stays clear this evening, Wednesday 12 August 2026, it is worth going outside.
The UK is about to see its most impressive solar eclipse since 1999. More than 90% of the Sun will disappear behind the Moon across much of the country, with the eclipse reaching its maximum shortly after 7pm.
You do not need a telescope and you do not need to travel hundreds of miles. You do, however, need a good view towards the west and a safe way of looking at the Sun.
Here are 17 things worth knowing before tonight.
1. Put 7pm in your diary
The whole event lasts for nearly two hours, but if you only have a short window, aim to be outside at about 7pm.
In London, the Moon first begins to cover the Sun at about 6.17pm. Maximum eclipse is at about 7.12pm, and the Moon finally moves clear at around 8.06pm. Times vary slightly around the country.
Farther north it begins a little earlier. In Edinburgh and Glasgow, first contact is around 6.08pm and maximum eclipse comes at about 7.05pm. In Truro, maximum is slightly later at about 7.16pm.
So there is no need to be outside all evening. If you are home from work or having tea at six, you still have plenty of time.
2. Look west, not straight above you
This is an evening eclipse, so the Sun will already be getting quite low.
That means your choice of viewing spot matters. A perfectly clear sky will not help if the Sun disappears behind a row of houses, trees or a hill just before maximum eclipse.
Try to find somewhere with a wide, open view towards the western horizon. A playing field, park, hill, beach or open piece of countryside will be better than many back gardens.
It is worth checking your viewing spot before 7pm rather than discovering at the last minute that somebody’s extension is in exactly the wrong place.
3. Do not look directly at the Sun
This is the most important point in the article.
From the UK, the eclipse is partial throughout. At no point is it safe to stare directly at the Sun.
The fact that 90% or 95% of the Sun is hidden does not make the remaining part safe to look at. Eye damage can happen without pain, so you may not realise anything has happened until afterwards.
After the 1999 eclipse, around 70 cases of vision problems were reported to the Royal College of Ophthalmologists. Around 40% of those people had looked at the eclipse for less than a minute.
Enjoy it, but do it properly.
4. Your normal sunglasses are not good enough
Even very dark sunglasses are not designed for looking directly at the Sun.
Putting two pairs on does not solve the problem either.
If you want to look directly at the eclipsed Sun, use genuine eclipse glasses or a handheld solar viewer carrying the ISO 12312-2 safety standard. Check them first. If they are scratched, torn or damaged, do not use them.
Put the glasses on before turning towards the Sun and look away before taking them off.
Children will need particularly careful supervision. It only takes one curious glance through ordinary sunglasses for the safety advice to have failed.
5. No eclipse glasses? Get a colander
One of the nicest ways of watching an eclipse needs no specialist equipment at all.
Take an ordinary kitchen colander outside. Stand with your back to the Sun and hold it so that sunlight passes through the holes onto the ground, a wall or a sheet of white card.
Each hole acts like a tiny pinhole camera. Instead of producing ordinary round spots of light, it should produce lots of tiny images of the partially eclipsed Sun.
You can do the same thing with a simple pinhole projector made from card.
The important bit is that you look at the projection, not through the hole towards the Sun.
For families and schools, this is probably one of the easiest physics demonstrations you will ever do.
6. Around 90% of the Sun will disappear from London
This is not one of those eclipses where you need convincing that something is happening.
London will get roughly 90 to 91% coverage at maximum. Cardiff is expected to reach about 93%, Edinburgh around 91%, Belfast 93%, Newcastle 92% and Plymouth around 95%.
Cornwall gets roughly 95% coverage and parts of the south-west of Ireland get closer still, at almost 97.5%.
That sounds very close to totality. Visually, though, there is a surprisingly large difference between 95% and 100%.
A small piece of uncovered Sun is still incredibly bright.
7. Do not drive across Britain chasing an extra few per cent
Cornwall may get more coverage than London, but cloud matters more.
The Royal Astronomical Society makes the sensible point that finding clear skies is more important than chasing a slightly higher eclipse percentage.
A clear 91% eclipse is much better than a 95% eclipse taking place behind thick cloud.
Unless you were already planning to travel, there is a good argument for finding the best open spot near home and enjoying what you get.
8. The weather forecast is actually quite encouraging
This may be the most surprising part of the story.
The latest Met Office forecast gives central, southern and eastern England and Wales the best chance of clear views this evening. Skies in many of these areas are expected to stay mostly clear during the eclipse.
The outlook becomes less favourable farther north, with more cloud expected across northern England and Scotland. Northern Ireland currently has the poorest forecast, with more extensive cloud likely.
Local conditions can change quickly, of course. A few clouds do not necessarily mean the evening is lost either. The event lasts long enough for gaps to appear.
And remember that thin cloud does not make it safe to look directly at the Sun.
9. It will get dimmer, but Britain will not suddenly turn dark
This is worth managing expectations over, particularly with children.
At maximum eclipse, the light should feel noticeably different. Royal Museums Greenwich also expects a noticeable change in light levels and temperature.
But this is not totality.
Even with more than 90% of the Sun covered, the sky will not suddenly become pitch black. The Royal Astronomical Society suggests the effect may feel more like an overcast day, while Royal Museums Greenwich compares it with the light around dusk or dawn.
That in itself is worth noticing.
Rather than spending the whole eclipse staring through eclipse glasses, look around you as well. Notice the quality of the light. Notice the shadows. Notice whether the air feels cooler.
An eclipse is something happening to the whole landscape, not just to a small circle in the sky.
10. Britain is only getting the partial version
Elsewhere, people are going to see something much more dramatic.
Today’s path of totality passes across parts of eastern Greenland, western Iceland, northern Spain and the north-eastern corner of Portugal. Along that narrow path, the Moon will completely cover the bright face of the Sun.
For a brief period the sky darkens dramatically and the Sun’s faint outer atmosphere, the corona, becomes visible.
Maximum totality anywhere along the eclipse path is about 2 minutes 18 seconds.
That is why people travel thousands of miles to see a total eclipse. A 95% eclipse is impressive. A 100% eclipse is a different event altogether.
11. Why doesn’t this happen every month?
The Moon passes between Earth and the Sun every month at new Moon.
So why are we not reaching for eclipse glasses every four weeks?
The Moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted by about 5° compared with Earth’s orbital plane around the Sun. Most months, the Moon therefore passes slightly above or below the Sun in our sky and its shadow misses Earth.
Only when the new Moon happens close to the point where those orbital planes cross can the three bodies line up well enough to produce a solar eclipse.
There is nothing mysterious happening tonight. It is simply orbital geometry working beautifully.
12. The Sun and Moon appearing the same size is a remarkable coincidence
The Sun is enormous compared with the Moon. Its diameter is roughly 400 times greater.
It is also about 400 times farther away.
Those two numbers almost cancel each other out when viewed from Earth, which means the Sun and Moon appear roughly the same size in our sky.
That coincidence is what makes a total solar eclipse possible.
Try the same idea yourself. Hold up your thumb and move it towards and away from your eye. A small object nearby can block a much larger object farther away.
An eclipse is the same idea on a rather larger scale.
13. You may notice hundreds of tiny eclipses under a tree
If you are near a leafy tree this evening, look at the ground.
The small gaps between leaves can act as natural pinhole cameras. During an eclipse they can project lots of little crescent-shaped images of the Sun onto the pavement or grass.
It is easy to miss if nobody tells you to look.
This is one reason eclipses are so good for teaching. You can talk about light travelling in straight lines, image formation, apparent size, orbital motion and shadows without needing to open a textbook.
The physics is quite literally appearing on the pavement.
14. Scientists still use eclipses for serious research
We can predict eclipses extremely accurately, but that does not mean scientists have finished learning from them.
During totality, the Moon blocks the overwhelmingly bright surface of the Sun and makes the much fainter corona easier to study.
Scientists are particularly interested in why the corona reaches temperatures approaching one million degrees, how structures within it change and how material from the corona feeds into the solar wind.
Eclipses also provide an unusual opportunity to watch what happens to Earth’s atmosphere when sunlight is suddenly removed from a relatively small area. NASA studies these effects because the upper atmosphere is important for radio communication, satellites and GPS signals.
So tonight is not just a spectacle. It is also a working scientific experiment.
15. NASA is going to chase the Moon’s shadow in a jet
This may be my favourite fact about today’s eclipse.
NASA is flying a WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft at around 50,000 feet carrying four cameras aimed at the solar corona.
The cameras will take at least 20 images every second, recording the corona in visible and infrared wavelengths.
The clever part is that the aircraft will fly along the eclipse path at around 460 mph.
By chasing the Moon’s shadow, NASA can stretch its view of the corona from the maximum 2 minutes 18 seconds available from the ground to nearly three minutes.
There will also be balloon experiments in Iceland and Spain looking at changes in the atmosphere during the eclipse.
Sometimes doing better science really does involve flying an aeroplane after the Moon’s shadow.
16. If you miss this one, the wait for a total UK eclipse is enormous
Britain will see other partial eclipses, but total eclipses from one particular place are rare.
The next total solar eclipse visible from the UK is not until 23 September 2090.
Spain has a rather better deal. Another total solar eclipse crosses part of the country on 2 August 2027, followed by an annular eclipse visible from Portugal and Spain on 26 January 2028.
An annular eclipse happens when the Moon appears slightly too small to cover the Sun completely, leaving the famous bright ring around it.
For most of us in Britain, however, tonight is the big one for a long time.
If you have children, get them outside.
There is a fair chance they will remember it.
17. And when the eclipse is over, look up again later tonight
The eclipse is not the only reason to look at the sky today.
The Perseid meteor shower peaks overnight from 12 to 13 August. It is one of the best-known annual meteor showers and should be visible across the UK where skies are clear.
The Royal Astronomical Society suggests the best viewing period is roughly midnight to 5.30am, although some meteors may be visible earlier in the evening.
You do not need a telescope. In fact, a telescope would make the job harder because you want to see as much sky as possible.
Find somewhere dark, put the phone away for a while and give your eyes time to adjust.
So today offers a rather good double bill.
At around 7pm, watch the Moon cover most of the Sun.
Later tonight, watch pieces of comet debris burn up in Earth’s atmosphere.
There are not many days when you can get that much astronomy without leaving home.
Sources used
Royal Astronomical Society
How to see best solar eclipse visible from UK since 1999. Used for UK eclipse coverage, comparisons with 1999, viewing advice, the next total UK eclipse and the Perseid meteor shower.
Royal Museums Greenwich / Royal Observatory Greenwich
How to see the 12 August 2026 partial solar eclipse. Used for detailed UK timings, coverage figures, the position of the Sun in the evening sky and information about totality.
UK Health Security Agency
How to watch the solar eclipse safely this summer. Used for eye-safety advice, eclipse glasses, the ISO 12312-2 standard, pinhole projection and evidence relating to eye injuries after the 1999 eclipse.
Met Office
Where in the UK will you have the best chance of seeing this week’s eclipse? Used for the latest UK cloud and viewing forecast.
NASA Science
Why Do Eclipses Happen?, Eclipses Frequently Asked Questions and NASA eclipse science material. Used for eclipse geometry, the Moon’s orbital tilt, the apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon, and the scientific value of eclipses.
NASA Science
NASA Science Soars During August Total Solar Eclipse. Used for information about the WB-57 research aircraft, solar-corona observations and the scientific balloon programme.
European Space Agency
Total solar eclipse 12 August 2026. Used to check the European path of totality and the 2027 and 2028 European eclipses.
Information and forecasts checked on 12 August 2026.