The August 12, 2026 Total Solar Eclipse: Where, When, and How to See It (Offline)

A total eclipse is coming back — mark August 12, 2026

Total solar eclipses are the most spectacular thing the sky ever does, and they are rare from any one place — a given spot on Earth waits centuries between them. On Wednesday, August 12, 2026, the Moon will slip exactly in front of the Sun and drag a ribbon of shadow from the high Arctic down to northern Spain. It is the first total solar eclipse to touch mainland Europe since 1999, and the first over Spain in more than a century.

What actually happens on the day

A solar eclipse can only happen at new moon, the one moment each month the Moon sits on the same side of us as the Sun. Usually it passes a little above or below and nothing happens. Once in a while the line is perfect: the Moon covers the Sun completely, the sky drops into twilight, the temperature falls, birds go quiet, and the Sun's pearly corona blazes out around a black disc. That is totality, and on August 12 it lasts up to about two minutes and eighteen seconds near the middle of the path over the North Atlantic.

Where and how you experience it depends entirely on where you stand. Inside the narrow path you get the full show; by the time the shadow reaches northern Spain, the eclipsed Sun sits very low on the western horizon at sunset, which makes for a breathtaking photograph but demands a clear, flat view to the west. Everywhere else, you get a partial eclipse — the Moon takes a crescent-shaped bite out of the Sun without ever fully covering it.

Where the shadow lands

The Moon's umbra touches down at sunrise in the Russian Arctic, races across the Arctic Ocean, and clips eastern Greenland and western Iceland — where the eclipse climbs highest and totality runs longest — before crossing the Atlantic and making its final landfall over northern Spain as the Sun sets. The path is only about 290 kilometres wide, so being on the right side of a coastline can be the difference between totality and a deep partial.

You do not have to be in the path to be part of it. Most of Europe, a swathe of northern Africa, and the north-eastern edge of North America will catch a partial eclipse, with coverage deepening the closer you are to the centre line. A 70% partial with the right filter is still a jaw-dropping sight — and a wonderful excuse to get outside and look up.

You don't need a data plan — SIMT works it out on your phone

The genuinely hard question is not is there an eclipse? — it is what will it look like from exactly where I will be, and at what time? SIMT answers that on the device, with no connection at all. It runs the same professional ephemeris models the observatories use, so the numbers are the same whether you have five bars or none. Open the Sun and its sky details show the next eclipse — its type and the time it peaks — right alongside the live azimuth, elevation, and the rise and set times for your day.

Want to see it coming? Open the Orrery, SIMT's interactive solar system, and scrub the time slider to August 12, 2026. In the Earth-centred view you can watch the Sun, Earth, and Moon slide into a single line, and the Moon Phases screen renders the event itself. It is the clearest way to understand why the eclipse happens — and to rehearse the timing before the day arrives.

Which way to look, down to the degree

Knowing when is only half of it; SIMT also tells you exactly where. The Sun's live azimuth is the compass bearing to turn to, and its elevation is how high to look. Follow the compass to that bearing, or simply raise your phone and let Iris, the augmented-reality view, paint the Sun straight onto your camera feed. If the marker is ever a hair off, tap the Sun to calibrate the alignment and it snaps precisely onto it — in both heading and tilt.

This matters most for the sunset totality over Spain, where the Sun will hang only a few degrees above the horizon. Days ahead, check the Sun's azimuth and elevation for the peak time in SIMT, then use the compass to scout a viewpoint with a clean, unobstructed view in that direction. Turn up on the day already knowing which rooftop, ridge, or stretch of coast to stand on.

A bonus after dark: the Perseids peak the same night

Here is the lucky part. Because a solar eclipse always falls on a new moon, the night of August 12–13, 2026 is completely moonless — and that happens to be the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, one of the best of the year. In most years a bright Moon drowns the fainter meteors; in 2026 the sky is as dark as it gets, so a good site could show dozens of shooting stars an hour. An eclipse by day and a meteor storm by night, on the same date.

SIMT is just as useful once the Sun is down. Use the compass to face away from town lights and toward the darkest horizon, tap up planets and bright stars to get your bearings while your eyes adapt, and keep the screen on its dim red night mode so you never lose your dark adaptation. Meteors can appear anywhere, but tracing them back points you to the shower's radiant in Perseus.

How to be ready on August 12

A little preparation turns a date on the calendar into a memory you keep for life. Here is the short routine:

1. Install SIMT now — it is free, works offline, and needs no account.
2. Open the Sun and note the eclipse peak time, plus the partial start and end for your location.
3. Check the Sun's azimuth and elevation around the peak, then use the compass to scout a spot with a clear view in that direction — especially important for the low sunset view in Spain.
4. Get certified eclipse glasses (ISO 12312-2) for everyone, and a solar filter for any camera or binoculars.
5. On the day, use the compass or Iris AR to lock onto the Sun as first contact begins.
6. Stay out after dark for the Perseids — SIMT will help you find the darkest direction and the radiant.

The sky doesn't need a signal, and neither should you. SIMT computes the eclipse from wherever you're standing — then points you straight at it.

Always view the Sun through certified solar filters during all partial phases. Eclipse times and coverage vary by location — confirm your own local circumstances before you travel.