How a solar eclipse looks up close

There is a dark spot on the Earth.
It is sliding across the sea.
That is the Moon’s shadow.
We are behind the Moon, and down there is where its shadow lands.
The Moon is much smaller than the Earth.
How can it cover us?
It does not cover much. The dark middle is about two hundred and fifty kilometres across.
All the way around it, people see the Sun with only a bite taken out of it.
I want to stand in the dark middle.
Then hold on. It crosses the ground faster than an airliner.
It has gone dark. In the middle of the day.
The birds have stopped singing.
Now — and only now, while it is completely covered — you can look. That white crown around it is the corona, the Sun’s outer layer.
It is always there. This is the only time you can see it with your own eyes.
The Moon goes round us every month.
So this must happen every month.
Its path is tilted a little.
Ah — so most months the shadow passes over us, or under us, and misses.
It does. The shadow is always there.
Nearly always it falls on nothing at all.

Can we see one from home?
A bite out of the Sun, yes — every few years from any one place. The dark middle is much rarer, and people travel a long way for it.
Never look without the right filter — not for a moment, and not even when the Sun is nearly covered. Only in the dark middle, with the Sun completely hidden, is it safe to look with your own eyes — and the moment the first bright spot comes back, glasses on again.
Where to find a solar eclipse, and when
What do I need to see a solar eclipse?
Never look at it with your own eyes while any part of the Sun is still showing — not for a second.
A grown-up can fit a proper Sun filter on the front of a telescope and hold it steady while you look through.
The picture here is what that telescope shows: the Sun about 80 times bigger than your own eyes see it.

Watch the eclipse of 2 August 2027

Never with unprotected eyes

Only through a filter made for looking at the Sun. Check it for damage every single time. Safer still, and no filter needed: make a small hole in a piece of card, hold it up in the sunlight, and look at the bright little disc it throws onto a second card. That disc is the Sun. Look at the card, never at the sky.

The full rules

The Sun can burn the back of your eye for good. It does not hurt while it happens, so there is no warning to react to. If a child is looking, a grown-up must be in charge of this.

Only ever use a filter made for looking at the Sun. Eclipse glasses marked ISO 12312-2, or a proper solar filter that fits over the front of a telescope or binoculars.
Eclipse glasses are for your bare eyes only. Never look through binoculars or a telescope while wearing them. The gathered light burns straight through.
Check the filter every single time before you use it. Hold it up to a bright lamp and look closely at the filter itself. If you can see any scratch, pinhole, crease, bubble or peeling edge, or if the lamp looks clear and bright through it, throw it away. A damaged filter is worse than no filter at all. It feels comfortable while it lets the harmful light through.
Never use sunglasses, smoked glass, exposed camera film, a CD, or several pairs of sunglasses stacked up. All of them let through far too much of the Sun’s light, and some of it is light you cannot see.
Never put a filter on the eyepiece end of a telescope, the end you look into. The telescope focuses the Sun’s heat straight onto it. It can crack with no warning, while your eye is already there.
The little finder scope on the side needs capping too. It is a burning glass pointed at the same Sun.
Safest of all, and rather good fun: do not look at the Sun at all. Poke a small hole in a piece of card. Hold it up in the sunshine. It throws a little image of the Sun onto a second card in the shade. The gaps between leaves on a tree do the same thing. During an eclipse the ground under a tree is covered in dozens of tiny crescents.

How a solar eclipse looks up close

Can we see one from home?