Key Takeaways
- On Wednesday 12 August 2026 the UK sees its deepest solar eclipse since 1999 — around 90% of the Sun covered from London, rising to roughly 95% in Cornwall
- It's an evening event: the eclipse begins just after 6.15pm BST, peaks a little after 7pm and ends by about 8.10pm, with the Sun low in the west
- Greenland, Iceland and northern Spain get a total eclipse — the first from mainland Spain since 1905
- Never look at the Sun without ISO 12312-2 eclipse glasses — sunglasses are not safe, and binoculars or telescopes must never be pointed at the Sun without a proper solar filter
- The same night is the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, with a new moon giving perfect dark skies — the best skywatching evening of 2026
📑 Table of Contents
- When Is the Solar Eclipse? UK Times for 12 August 2026
- How Much of the Sun Will Be Covered Where You Are
- Total Solar Eclipse Path: Spain, Iceland and Greenland
- How to Watch a Solar Eclipse Safely
- What the Eclipse Will Look and Feel Like From the UK
- Perseid Meteor Shower: The Same Night's Second Show
- When Is the Next Solar Eclipse Visible From the UK?
The solar eclipse on Wednesday 12 August 2026 is the deepest visible from the UK since the famous total eclipse of August 1999 — around 90% of the Sun covered from London, rising to roughly 96% from Cornwall. That evening the Moon slides across the Sun and turns it into a thin crescent over the whole country, and nothing will beat it from Britain for decades.
And that's only half the evening. Once the Sun sets, the Perseid meteor shower peaks under a moonless sky. One date, two of the year's best sky events. ESA held its pre-eclipse media briefing today, a month out, so consider this your month's notice too. Here's everything you need: exact times, how much you'll see from where you live, and how to watch without hurting your eyes.
When Is the Solar Eclipse? UK Times for 12 August 2026
The solar eclipse of 12 August 2026 is an evening event for the UK, which makes it unusually easy to catch — no alarm clock, no day off work. From London:
- 6.17pm BST — first contact. The Moon takes its first bite out of the Sun's lower right edge.
- 7.11pm BST — maximum eclipse. Around 90% of the Sun is covered and only a thin crescent remains.
- 8.05pm BST (approx) — the Moon clears the Sun and the show ends.
Times elsewhere in the UK differ by only a few minutes, with maximum eclipse falling between about 7.05pm and 7.13pm BST nationwide. The catch is altitude: by maximum the Sun sits low in the western sky, so a clear, open view towards the west is essential. A hilltop, a west-facing coastline or a park with no tall buildings in the way will make all the difference. Scout your spot in advance — you can check exactly where the Sun will be from your location using TheSkyLive's eclipse page.
How Much of the Sun Will Be Covered Where You Are
Coverage increases as you head south and west. Rough figures for maximum eclipse:
- Cornwall and the far south-west — up to about 95–96% covered. The best in the UK, fittingly for the county that saw totality in 1999.
- Cardiff and south Wales — around 93%.
- London and the south-east — around 90–91%.
- Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh — around 90–91%.
Ireland does slightly better still, and everywhere in the British Isles sees a spectacle. For comparison, the much-hyped March 2025 partial eclipse covered under half the Sun from the UK. This is a different class of event: at 90%-plus the light goes strange, the temperature dips and birds start heading to roost an hour early.
Total Solar Eclipse Path: Spain, Iceland and Greenland
The Moon's full shadow — the path where day genuinely turns to night — misses the UK, sweeping instead across Greenland, western Iceland and down into northern Spain, clipping the north-east corner of Portugal. It's the first total solar eclipse visible from mainland Spain since 1905, and cities including Zaragoza sit inside the path, with Madrid right on its edge.
If you've ever wanted to chase totality, this is about as reachable as it gets from Britain: a short flight, familiar holiday territory, and totality in the early evening Spanish sky. Be warned that accommodation along the path has been booking up for over a year. ESA's eclipse pages have maps and timings for the full track.
Staying home is no consolation prize, though. A 90–96% partial eclipse low over the western horizon, in warm August air, is a beautiful thing. And unlike the 1999 crowds in Cornwall, you can see this one well from your own street.
How to Watch a Solar Eclipse Safely
This is the section that matters most, so here it is plainly. Even with 96% of the Sun covered, the remaining sliver is intensely bright — bright enough to permanently damage your retina, which has no pain receptors to warn you. The rules:
- Use eclipse glasses certified to ISO 12312-2. Check the marking, check for scratches or pinholes, and buy from a reputable astronomy supplier rather than an unknown marketplace seller. Get them now — they sold out everywhere before the 2015 and 2025 eclipses.
- Ordinary sunglasses are never safe. Not one pair, not three pairs stacked. They transmit thousands of times too much light.
- Never look through binoculars, a telescope or a camera viewfinder without a certified solar filter fitted over the front. Magnified, unfiltered sunlight causes instant, permanent eye damage. Eclipse glasses behind an eyepiece are not protection — the concentrated light burns through them.
- No glasses? Project instead. Make a pinhole in a piece of card and let the Sun shine through it onto a second card: a perfect little crescent appears. A kitchen colander projects dozens at once, and a leafy tree scatters crescent suns across the ground.
Gear for eclipse night (and the Perseids after dark)
Kit we've tested and reviewed in full
One rule first: never point binoculars or a telescope anywhere near the Sun without a certified solar filter over the front — not even during the eclipse. But once the Sun sets, 12 August turns into the best meteor night of the year, and that's where this kit earns its place. See our binocular reviews for more.
Perfect for sweeping the darkening sky once the Sun is safely down — Perseid trains, satellites and the summer Milky Way from a dark site. Light enough to hand-hold all evening.
With a new moon giving properly dark skies, eclipse night is a superb one for deep-sky targets. This little Dobsonian is the best-value first telescope we've tested.
Big 70mm lenses drink in dark-sky targets like star clusters and the Andromeda Galaxy, which ride high on August evenings. Use a tripod and settle in.
Affiliate links: you pay the same price — we earn a small commission that helps keep WatchTheStars free.
What the Eclipse Will Look and Feel Like From the UK
For the first half hour the change is subtle — through your glasses the Sun looks like a biscuit with a growing bite out of it, while the world around you carries on as normal. The interesting part starts past about 70% coverage, roughly 6.50pm. Daylight takes on a flat, silvery quality, as if someone has turned down a dimmer switch that shouldn't exist. Shadows sharpen. The temperature eases back, birds get confused about bedtime, and around maximum the light becomes something you'll struggle to describe afterwards.
Because the Sun is low in the west at maximum, the eclipsed crescent hangs over the horizon rather than high overhead — which is dramatic in its own right, and makes for wonderful photographs of the dimmed landscape (photographing the Sun itself needs a proper solar filter; the landscape needs nothing special). Then the Moon slides on, the light warms back up, and the Sun sets not long after the eclipse ends.
Perseid Meteor Shower: The Same Night's Second Show
Here's the bit that makes 12 August 2026 arguably the best sky date of the decade: the Perseid meteor shower, the year's most reliable, peaks that very night — and the new moon that causes the eclipse guarantees a moonless, properly dark sky.
Under good conditions the Perseids produce up to 100 meteors an hour at peak, including bright fireballs. Stay out after the eclipse ends, let the sky darken fully (from about 10.30pm), find somewhere away from streetlights and look generally north-east. No equipment needed — meteors are a naked-eye event — though binoculars are lovely for the glowing trains the brightest ones leave behind. Our meteor shower watching tips from the Eta Aquariids all apply here too.
Eclipse at 7pm, meteors by 11pm. Pack a picnic and make an evening of it.
When Is the Next Solar Eclipse Visible From the UK?
If clouds ruin the day — always a possibility in a British August — the next chance comes on 2 August 2027, when another total eclipse crosses southern Spain and north Africa. From the UK, though, that one is shallow, with only a modest bite from the Sun's edge in the morning sky.
After that the pickings stay thin for a long time. The next total solar eclipse visible from the UK is on 23 September 2090. For anyone reading this, 12 August 2026 is realistically the deepest eclipse we'll see from home for decades — the 1999 event of this generation. Watch the forecast in the days before, be ready to drive towards clear sky, and don't waste it.
We'll publish a detailed forecast and last-minute viewing update nearer the day. Until then, our July night sky guide covers what's up right now, and our full moon calendar explains the new moon that makes all this possible — with more on the mechanics in our moon phases guide.
Sources:
- Join ESA for a total solar eclipse on 12 August 2026 — European Space Agency
- 12 August 2026 partial solar eclipse — Royal Observatory Greenwich
- August 12, 2026 solar eclipse UK guide — BBC Sky at Night Magazine
- Total solar eclipse August 2026: path map and timings — BBC Sky at Night Magazine
- Solar Eclipse of August 12, 2026 from the United Kingdom — TheSkyLive
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