Why 2 August 2027 is the one people are planning for
Greatest eclipse comes at 10:06 UTC with the Sun at nine degrees of Leo, and totality runs more than six minutes near the centre line. No total solar eclipse until 2114 lasts longer over land.
Three things line up to produce it. The Moon is near perigee, so its disc appears large. The Earth is near aphelion in early August, so the Sun appears small. And the track runs close to the equator, where the shadow sweeps most slowly across a rotating Earth. The path crosses southern Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, passing directly over Luxor, then continues into Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.
The Egyptian stretch has among the most reliable August weather of any eclipse track in living memory, which is why it has been on serious eclipse chasers' calendars for years rather than months.
The three penumbral lunar eclipses
On 20 February, 18 July and 17 August the Moon passes through the outer part of Earth's shadow and no further. The obscuration figure for all three is effectively zero, because the umbra is missed entirely.
A penumbral eclipse is a real alignment and a genuine event in an ephemeris, but it is close to invisible. The Moon dims very slightly on one side, by an amount most people cannot detect without a photograph taken before and after. If a calendar tells you 2027 has five eclipses without saying that three of them look like nothing, it has told you a true thing misleadingly.
Two lunar eclipses falling a month apart, in July and August, happens when the Sun crosses the node slowly enough for three eclipses to fit into one season.
The annular eclipse of 6 February
The year opens with an annular solar eclipse at 15:59 UTC on 6 February, the Sun at seventeen degrees of Aquarius, obscuration around eighty six per cent. The ring is visible from a track across the southern Atlantic, Chile and Argentina.
It is paired with the penumbral lunar eclipse a fortnight later, which is the standard structure of an eclipse season: the Sun sits near one node, and both a new and a full moon fall close enough for the shadows to reach.
Reading the year astrologically
The February pair sit across Aquarius and Virgo, and the summer group across Capricorn, Leo and Aquarius. The August solar eclipse at nine degrees of Leo is the degree worth checking against your own chart, and it is early enough in the sign that it will not touch a late Leo placement at all.
Because three of the five are penumbral, 2027 is a thin year for lunar eclipse work despite the count. In the traditional reading a penumbral eclipse is treated as a full moon with a little extra weight rather than as a major marker, and the reasoning is the same one an astronomer would give: the shadow barely arrives.
The transit calculator will tell you whether any of these degrees contacts something of yours. That is the question that has an answer, as opposed to the question of what an eclipse will do.
Questions people ask about this
When is the long total solar eclipse in 2027?
2 August 2027, with greatest eclipse at 10:06 UTC. Totality lasts over six minutes near the centre line, which is the longest over land until 2114.
Where does the 2027 eclipse pass?
Southern Spain and Gibraltar, then Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt including Luxor, continuing into Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia.
Why is that eclipse so long?
The Moon is near its closest point to Earth so its disc looks large, the Earth is near its furthest from the Sun in early August so the Sun looks small, and the track runs near the equator where the shadow moves most slowly over the ground.
How many eclipses are in 2027?
Five: two solar and three lunar. All three lunar eclipses are penumbral, meaning the Moon misses the dark part of Earth's shadow and the dimming is barely perceptible.
What is a penumbral lunar eclipse?
One where the Moon passes only through the outer, partial shadow. It is a genuine alignment but visually almost nothing happens, so it is worth knowing before planning an evening around it.
What sign is the August 2027 eclipse in?
The Sun is at nine degrees of Leo at greatest eclipse. Whether that matters to you depends on whether nine degrees of Leo sits close to one of your own placements, not on whether you are a Leo.