UK and Europe see most dramatic solar eclipse in nearly 30 years

A dramatic partial solar eclipse swept across the UK and Europe on August 12, 2026, with most of the UK seeing more than 90% of the Sun covered by the Moon. The event peaked shortly after 19:00 BST, while parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain experienced a total eclipse.

Millions of people across the UK and Europe witnessed the once-in-a-generation event, with large crowds at viewing sites reacting with gasps and cheers. Astronomy enthusiasts said it served as a reminder of how "amazing" the universe is.

The eclipse was the UK's most dramatic since 1999, with the Moon covering about 90% of the Sun for most of the country. In Cornwall, coverage reached as high as 95%. The path of the total eclipse began at the northern tip of Siberia in Russia, then curved around the Arctic Ocean, arriving in Iceland in the early evening before sweeping southwards.

The partial eclipse began at about 18:00 BST in northern Scotland and just before 18:20 on the south coast of England. Much of central and southern England and Wales enjoyed clear skies, while northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were cloudier. Solar eclipse glasses were in short supply, with opticians, hardware shops and bakeries selling out, but people used colanders, cereal boxes and pieces of paper to view the event safely.

A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth every 18 months or so, but for any given place it occurs only once in roughly 400 years. The total eclipse in Spain lasted less than two minutes, with crowds seeing the Sun's corona and small loops of pink gas called prominences. Chilean scientist Yasmin Catricheo travelled to A Coruña, north-west Spain, and said: "At the totality, everyone was cheering and sharing the excitement of what we were seeing. No words could describe the feeling."

The Sun is 150 million kilometres (93 million miles) from Earth, 400 times further away than the Moon, but the Moon's diameter is 400 times less than the Sun's, so they appear the same size in the sky. The UK will not see a fuller solar eclipse until 2081, when up to 99% of the Sun will be covered, and the next total solar eclipse in the UK will be in 2090.