Cádiz and Ceuta are inside it, a short flight from most of Europe, and totality there lasts from nearly three to nearly five minutes. Everywhere else in Europe the eclipse is partial, and is never safe to look at with the naked eye.
The short answer
- When: Monday 2 August 2027, late morning. Totality begins around 10:45 CEST on the coast at Cádiz (09:45 BST).
- Where it is total: a band about 250 km wide from the Strait of Gibraltar to Egypt. In Spain, almost all of Cádiz province, part of Málaga province, Ceuta and Melilla.
- How long: 4 min 48 s in Ceuta, 2 min 54 s in Cádiz, 1 min 48 s in Málaga. At most, 6 min 23 s in Egypt, near Luxor.
- Elsewhere in Europe: a partial eclipse in the late morning. It does not get dark, and the sliver of Sun left is enough to burn the retina: protection from start to finish.
Where to go for totality
From the UK and northern Europe, Andalusia is the obvious destination: the band of totality covers almost all of Cádiz province and runs along the coast towards Málaga, both well served by flights. The closer you are to the centre line, the longer totality lasts; near the edge of the band it lasts only seconds.
- Ceuta: 4 min 48 s of totality, between 10:45 and 10:50 CEST. The longest on Spanish territory.
- Melilla: 4 min 34 s, from 10:48.
- Cádiz: 2 min 54 s, from 10:45.
- Málaga: 1 min 48 s, from 10:48.
- Seville and Granada are just outside the band, at about 98 and 99%. Head for the coast.
Further east the band crosses northern Morocco (Tangier), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. Totality is longest around Luxor: 6 min 23 s according to NASA. The price is the heat: an average high above 40 °C in Luxor on 2 August.
The weather: what can spoil it
In early August the sky over southern Spain is, on average, very clear: under 15% cloud cover inland. The risk is less cloud than two other things: sea fog that creeps onto some coasts in the morning, and Saharan dust, which can veil the sky for days.
Book early. Andalusia in August is full in an ordinary year; with a total eclipse that morning, rooms inside the band will go months ahead.
What you will see from the UK, Belgium and France
A partial eclipse, in the late morning. The share of the Sun hidden by the Moon grows towards the south: about 42% in London, about 43% in Brussels, about half in Paris, nearly three quarters on the French Mediterranean coast.
At 40 or 75% the light hardly dims: the eye adapts, and most people would notice nothing unless told. That is exactly what makes a partial eclipse dangerous: nothing warns you that your retina is burning.
Protecting your eyes: the rules
- With the naked eye: only eclipse glasses or a handheld viewer that meet ISO 12312-2. Be wary of 'ISO certified' or 'ISO approved', which the standard does not allow; the right wording is 'meets the requirements of ISO 12312-2', with the manufacturer named.
- Never sunglasses, even stacked, nor smoked glass, photographic film, ordinary welding glass or X-ray film.
- Binoculars, telescope, telephoto lens: only with a solar filter made for the purpose, fixed securely over the FRONT of the instrument. An instrument concentrates the light: without a front filter the injury is instant.
- Never eclipse glasses behind an eyepiece or a viewfinder: they are not made for concentrated light and can fail in an instant.
- During totality, and only during totality, you can look with the naked eye. The moment the first bead of Sun returns, the glasses go back on. In the UK there is no totality: the glasses never come off.
- With children, an adult is there every moment.
What to buy, and what not to
To watch the eclipse, one pair of compliant eclipse glasses per person is enough: a few euros each from an astronomy dealer. Buy them well ahead: every big eclipse brings shortages and counterfeits.
Eclipse glasses meeting ISO 12312-2
Eclipse glasses, single pair Bresser · SoFi
'Conforms to EN ISO 12312-2:2015', according to the product listing. One pair per person.
Where to buy
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Eclipse glasses, pack of 10 Omegon · SoFi Solar Safe, pack of 10
'Conforms to ISO 12312-2', according to the product listing. For a family or a group.
Where to buy
1 of these 1 links earn us a commission, marked above. Sorted by price, never by what pays. How this site is funded.
To see more — sunspots before and after, the Moon's edge advancing across the disc — a small telescope or refractor with a solar film filter over the front is enough. Such a filter costs a few tens of euros for a small instrument, and it keeps working all year: the Sun is the one object you observe in daytime.
ExperienceOpinion, not physics — shared by nearly everyone who has helped a beginner.
A solar filter that screws into the eyepiece
It takes all the heat the instrument concentrates and can crack without warning. Some still come with entry-level telescopes.
- Instead
- A solar film filter covering the front of the tube, or nothing at all.
Eclipse glasses with no manufacturer's name and no reference to ISO 12312-2
The standard counterfeit of the weeks before an eclipse.
- Instead
- Glasses from a named maker, bought from an astronomy dealer well before summer 2027.
- What changes
- They cost the same.
A telescope bought just for eclipse day
Totality is watched with the naked eye, and that is the show. An instrument keeps your hands and eyes busy during the two or five minutes that count.
- Instead
- Eclipse glasses for everyone; a filtered instrument if you also mean to watch the Sun the rest of the year.
Questions people ask
What time is the 2 August 2027 eclipse?Late morning.
Totality begins around 10:45 CEST (09:45 BST) in Cádiz and Ceuta, 10:48 CEST in Málaga and Melilla. In London the partial eclipse runs from about 09:03 to 10:59 BST, peaking around 10:00.
Is the 2027 eclipse total in the UK?No.
It is partial in the UK, with about 42% of the Sun covered in London. The nearest totality is in the far south of Spain and in northern Morocco.
Where to see the 2027 total eclipse in Spain?In Cádiz province, along the coast between Cádiz and Málaga, and in Ceuta and Melilla.
Ceuta has Spain's longest totality, 4 min 48 s; Cádiz 2 min 54 s; Málaga 1 min 48 s. Seville and Granada are just outside the band.
How long does totality last?Up to 6 min 23 s in Egypt, near Luxor, according to NASA.
In Spain, up to 4 min 48 s in Ceuta. It shortens the further you are from the centre line of the band.
Which glasses for watching the eclipse?Eclipse glasses or handheld viewers that meet ISO 12312-2, from a named manufacturer.
Never sunglasses. For binoculars or a telescope, a solar filter fixed over the front of the instrument, never eclipse glasses behind the eyepiece.
Can you look at a partial eclipse without protection?No, at no point.
Even at 75% or 99%, the Sun that remains burns the retina, painlessly. Only totality, inside the band, can be watched with the naked eye, and only while it lasts.
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