2090 will be the next total solar eclipse visible from the UK
The partial solar eclipse as seen over The Royal Liver Building on Liverpool’s waterfront(Image: PA)
On Wednesday August 12, 2026, people in the UK and Ireland will see a partial solar eclipse. This is when around 90% of the sun will be covered by the moon. Spectators in parts of Greenland, Iceland and Northern Spain will see a total eclipse.
This will be the most coverage seen from the UK and Ireland since the 1999 solar eclipse which was total from most of Cornwall and Devon. A solar eclipse happens when the earth, moon and sun align. The moon passes in front of the sun and blocks its light, casting a small shadow on earth.
The new moon and the sun will gradually move closer together in the sky in the late afternoon. As the side facing us will be dark, the moon will be invisible without specialist equipment.
The moon will move slowly in front of the sun until roughly 90% of the sun is covered. This will be at around 7.10pm in Liverpool although eclipse timings may be slightly different elsewhere. Unlike a total eclipse, the sky will not become dark, it will feel more like a cloudy day or close to dusk or dawn. The moon will then slowly move off the sun’s disk until the eclipse ends.
According to Royal Museums Greenwich (RMG), getting to a high point with a clear view of the western horizon will allow you to see the whole event.
The solar eclipse(Image: 2024 Getty Images)
However, a warning issued by RMG said: “You should never look directly at the sun, even during an eclipse when some of its intense light is blocked. Doing so can severely damage your eyes.”
A separate warning shared by the UK Health Security Agency said: “The reduced brightness can override the body’s natural reflex to look away, allowing intense sunlight to reach and damage the retina. This damage happens without causing any pain, so you may not realise harm is occurring until it’s too late.”
2090 will be the next total solar eclipse visible from the UK. The only eclipse that comes close to total for the British Isles will be on September 3, 2081.
After the spectacular partial solar eclipse, people in the UK can look forward to a lunar eclipse. A 90% partial lunar eclipse will be visible from the UK on August 28, around two weeks after the solar eclipse.
RMG said: “This partial lunar eclipse will begin at the rather unsociable hour of 3.33am BST. The moon will move further into earth’s shadow until the maximum of the eclipse at 5.12am, when approximately 90% of the Moon will be in Earth’s umbra, the darkest part of its shadow.
“The moon will be very low on the horizon, so you’ll need to get somewhere with a clear view towards the western horizon to see this. During the eclipse’s maximum, the moon will appear reddish because it will be illuminated by sunlight that has passed through the earth’s atmosphere and been refracted towards the moon. The red hue is why lunar eclipses are often referred to as blood moons.”