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1 / 13 The Moon's shadow on the Earth 2 August 2027, 40 minutes before greatest eclipse. The Moon passes exactly between the Sun and the Earth and its shadow falls on North Africa. Drag to turn the view.
Drag to turn. Scroll or pinch to zoom.
Guide Parts Controls
01 The Moon's shadow on the Earth 2 August 2027, 40 minutes before greatest eclipse. The Moon passes exactly between the Sun and the Earth and its shadow falls on North Africa. Drag to turn the view.
02 The Sun is far away From behind the Earth you look past the Moon to the Sun. The real Sun is 400 times wider than the Moon and 400 times farther, which is why the two look the same size.
03 Penumbra: a partial eclipse The pale cone is the penumbra. On the ground under it part of the Sun is hidden. It covers a patch about 7,000 km wide.
04 Umbra: the small dark spot Inside the dark cone the Sun is fully covered. Where it touches the Earth it makes a spot only 100 to 250 km wide.
05 The path of totality The Earth turns under the moving shadow, so the umbra paints a long narrow band. Everyone inside sees a total eclipse; outside it only a partial one.
06 True distance With true distance on, the Moon sits about 56 Earth radii away and the umbra only just reaches the ground. A little farther and there would be no totality.
07 Look up from Luxor The sky view shows the Sun from the chosen city, 40 minutes after the Moon first touches it. The filter is on: never look at a partial eclipse without one.
08 Baily’s beads Three seconds before totality the last sunlight breaks into beads where valleys on the Moon's edge let it through. Without a filter, this is still the dangerous phase.
09 Totality and the corona The bright disk is gone. The corona spreads out, the sky turns dark blue and the horizon glows all around. This is the only time the filter can come off.
10 The diamond ring As totality ends, one bead flashes next to the corona. Filters go back on now.
11 2033: Alaska On 30 March 2033 totality crosses western Alaska. In Nome it lasts 2 min 30 s with the Sun only 8° above the horizon.
12 2045: across the United States On 12 August 2045 the path runs from California to Florida. In Orlando totality lasts 5 min 47 s. Watch the band cross the country.
13 Your city Open the Controls tab and choose a city: the panel lists every eclipse it will see before 2100, how much of the Sun is covered and when the next total one comes.
Sun Drawn close and small so it fits. Its light comes along the axis on the right, so the day side of the Earth faces it. Moon True size against the Earth (0.2725 Earth radii). At new moon its far side is lit and the side facing us is dark. Earth Turned to the exact hour from the NASA elements. The dark patch on the day side is the computed shadow, the line around it the edge of the partial eclipse. Penumbra The pale cone. Inside it part of the Sun is hidden: a partial eclipse, seen over thousands of kilometres. Umbra The dark cone. Only inside its tip, about 100 to 250 km wide on the ground, is the Sun fully covered. Path of totality The track the umbra leaves on the rotating Earth, worked out from the same elements every 30 seconds. Your city The city chosen in the panel. The sky view shows the eclipse from here. Corona The Sun's outer atmosphere, a million degrees and faint. It only shows when the bright disk is fully hidden. Baily’s beads Sunlight passing through valleys on the Moon's edge in the last seconds before totality. Diamond ring One bead left next to the corona: the sign that totality is about to start or has just ended.
