How to use the eclipse simulator
- Type a town into Find a place, or tap one of the popular places. The list covers every town of 15,000 people or more in or near the path of totality (5,000 or more in southern Spain), plus the big cities that see a partial eclipse. Each suggestion already says whether the eclipse is total there and for how long.
- Not on the list? Open Enter coordinates and type the latitude and longitude of your viewing spot (from a map app), or press Use my location. The location stays in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
- Read the times in the table, then drag the time slider or press Play to watch the Moon cross the Sun as it will look from there. The jump buttons go straight to the start, totality, maximum and end.
- Press Share result to send someone the times for that place. The link names a listed place, or carries your coordinates rounded to about 10 km unless you tick the box for exact ones.
How to read the results
Partial eclipse begins (first contact) is the moment the Moon first touches the Sun’s edge. Totality begins and Totality ends (second and third contact) only exist inside the path of totality; between them the Sun is completely hidden, the sky turns dark blue and the corona appears. Maximum eclipse is when the Moon’s centre passes closest to the Sun’s, and Partial eclipse ends (fourth contact) is when the Moon leaves the Sun.
Sun covered is the share of the Sun’s area hidden at maximum (obscuration); magnitude is the share of its diameter, which is above 1 in totality because the Moon looks slightly larger than the Sun that day. The Sun column gives its height above the horizon and its compass direction, so you can check that trees or buildings won’t block the view: in Spain the Sun is about 38° high in the east, in Egypt and Saudi Arabia it is almost overhead.
If you are outside the path, the simulator tells you how far away totality begins and how long it lasts on the centre line. That difference is worth a trip: even 99% coverage is a partial eclipse, with daylight and no corona.
Eye safety
The only safe time to look at the Sun without protection is during totality, from second to third contact, and only inside the path. At every other moment, even with 99% of the Sun covered, look only through eclipse glasses or a handheld solar viewer that meets the ISO 12312-2 standard, or project the Sun’s image through a pinhole. Put the glasses back on as soon as the first bright point of sunlight returns. Never look through a camera, binoculars or a telescope while wearing eclipse glasses: the concentrated sunlight burns through them. Optics need their own solar filter on the front. This follows NASA’s Eclipse Viewing Safety page (updated 20 March 2026) and the American Astronomical Society’s How to View a Solar Eclipse Safely (both read on 26 September 2026).
Local times in major places
Computed with the same engine as the simulator. Times are local; in Morocco they follow the switch to permanent GMT on 20 September 2026, so older guides that assumed GMT+1 show Moroccan times an hour later.
| Place | Eclipse | Begins | Totality or max. | Ends | Time zone |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TarifaCádiz, Spain | 4 min 39 s | 09:41 | 10:45:08– | 12:01 | CEST (UTC+2) |
| CádizSpain | 2 min 55 s | 09:41 | 10:45:24– | 12:00 | CEST (UTC+2) |
| MálagaSpain | 1 min 53 s | 09:42 | 10:48:08– | 12:03 | CEST (UTC+2) |
| Gibraltar | 4 min 27 s | 09:41 | 10:45:34– | 12:01 | CEST (UTC+2) |
| CeutaSpain | 4 min 48 s | 09:41 | 10:45:21– | 12:01 | CEST (UTC+2) |
| TangierTanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Morocco | 4 min 51 s | 07:41 | 08:44:44– | 10:00 | GMT (UTC+0) |
| Houmt Souk (Djerba)Medenine Governorate, Tunisia | 4 min 41 s | 08:56 | 10:09:46– | 11:33 | CET (UTC+1) |
| BenghaziBanghazi, Libya | 6 min 9 s | 10:11 | 11:27:52– | 12:53 | EET (UTC+2) |
| LuxorEgypt | 6 min 21 s | 11:40 | 13:02:06– | 14:27 | EEST (UTC+3) |
| JeddahMecca Region, Saudi Arabia | 5 min 58 s | 12:00 | 13:22:22– | 14:44 | UTC+3 |
| SevilleSpain | 98.3% (partial) | 09:42 | 10:48 | 12:00 | CEST (UTC+2) |
| MadridSpain | 86.3% (partial) | 09:45 | 10:51 | 12:03 | CEST (UTC+2) |
| LisbonPortugal | 92.5% (partial) | 08:41 | 09:45 | 10:55 | WEST (UTC+1) |
| TunisTunis Governorate, Tunisia | 97.0% (partial) | 08:56 | 10:10 | 11:29 | CET (UTC+1) |
| CairoEgypt | 94.7% (partial) | 11:33 | 12:56 | 14:16 | EEST (UTC+3) |
| ParisIle-de-France, France | 51.2% (partial) | 10:01 | 11:01 | 12:05 | CEST (UTC+2) |
| LondonEngland, United Kingdom | 41.8% (partial) | 09:04 | 10:00 | 11:00 | BST (UTC+1) |
Where the numbers come from
The simulator uses the polynomial Besselian elements that Fred Espenak published for this eclipse on NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center eclipse site (retrieved 26 September 2026) and the standard method for local circumstances from the Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Ephemeris. With NASA’s own ΔT of 71.7 s it matches NASA’s local circumstances calculator to within 0.01 s. It uses ΔT = 69.35 s instead, from IERS Bulletin A of 24 September 2026, which moves every time about 3 s later than NASA’s tables. Time zones are fixed for 2 August 2027 when the site is built, so an out-of-date device can’t shift them. Town coordinates come from GeoNames.
Counting down to the day? Put the date in a printable calendar, and use the online timer to time totality at your spot.