Caoimhín's Content

Today we are going to take a look ahead to the coming year of 2026. We are going to take a closer look at the coming month of January soon as well. Besides some interesting things that are happening in January, such as the opposition of Jupiter, most of the noteworthy events of 2026 are later the year. We are going to continue moving forward to catch some of the bigger events, the events that don’t happen every year. Every year we get Jupiter at opposition eventually, but there are other, rare events next year as well.

One example is if we take a closer look at the Sun next February. We may need to remove the atmosphere, but taking a look at the sky for February 17th, we’ll see the New Moon almost in front of the Sun. For us here in Ireland, the Moon won’t be in front of the Sun, but there is an annular solar eclipse visible on this date somewhere down around Antarctica. We’re taking a look at very early in the year for both hemispheres, so for the northern hemisphere we are just past winter. In northern February we are leaving winter, but just at the edge of Antarctica it is still southern summer. A view from the coast of Antarctica isn’t a view that many people are going to get, and this particular solar eclipse is an annular solar eclipse rather than a total solar eclipse. The Moon will be right in front of the Sun, but a circle of the Sun’s photosphere will still be visible around the Moon. Unlike a total solar eclipse, the corona won’t be visible. However, it is a great example of an annular solar eclipse. We will be having a supermoon in January and still pretty close to a supermoon in February, which means this solar eclipse is happening with the Moon at its furthest from us.

With the Moon directly in front of the Sun, the eclipse is still only at 92% obscuration. This is less than a total solar eclipse, of course, but it’s also less than a total solar eclipse being seen outside of the path of totality. This annular eclipse at its absolute best will only obscure less than 100%, which is of course what happens with annular eclipses. For this eclipse the Moon is at a great distance from us, 383,000 kilometers away from us. This is pretty close to its furthest of about 400,000 kilometers away from us, which is why it’s not able to block out the entire Sun.

Eclipses often come together. Usually, or at least often, we will get a lunar eclipse around the time of a solar eclipse, usually within the same lunar cycle. Within the a month, we will get a lunar eclipse of some sort if we have gotten solar eclipse. That is indeed what we will get if we go all the way through to March 2026 and come around to our March Full Moon. From Ireland the Moon is just 99.8% full on the night of the Full Moon. We need the Moon to be 100% full to see an eclipse. As such, we’re probably not going to get a good view of the lunar eclipse from here. Instead, we’re going to head over to the Pacific. We’ll head over to just around Kiribati. Now taking a look at the Moon, it is at 100% full, which is exactly what we want. Coming up to midnight, we get our total lunar eclipse. This eclipse is going to look great from this location, pretty much in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. If you’re living there, you’re going to have a great view of this lunar eclipse, the whole lunar eclipse is visible happening from the middle of the ocean. This one is not going to be visible from Ireland, but that’s okay, we have more. We have a couple more eclipses coming up this coming year in 2026. I will take closer looks at these eclipses and find out some of the ideal locations as we get closer to the dates on which they are occurring.

For the next eclipse we’re going all the way through to August. We’re coming all the way forward to the 12th of August. Around this date, the 12th or the 13th, is usually the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, one of my favorites and, even from here in Ireland, we are getting a partial solar eclipse just as the Sun goes down on the 12th. I think it’s great that these things are happening together on the same day that we get this partial solar eclipse. From Ireland it’s not quite a total solar eclipse, but a pretty good solar eclipse nonetheless. Taking a look at the percentage obscuration, it’s 96.42%. Comparing to that annular eclipse earlier next year from Antarctica, when the annular eclipse was at its perfect maximum, it was giving less obscuration than this total solar eclipse is giving outside of its perfect range. However, I know that this eclipse is going to be total from other areas, and it is still only the start of the eclipse that we’re catching as the Sun sets for most of Europe. The path of the eclipse arcs down from the Arctic to Iberia, so there should also be a good view from the top of Spain, near Portugal.

The best location for this eclipse, I believe, is Iceland or just off the coast of Iceland. The eclipse certainly gets up to 99.78, but that’s not quite total, the Moon isn’t quite perfectly exactly in the right place. The exact maximum point of an eclipse is perfect for a surprisingly small area. By changing area slightly, altering our latitude and longitude by just seconds and minutes of degrees, we can get the obscuration up to 99.93%, which is really close to total. When we get a little bit closer to that eclipse later in the year, I will figure out the exact perfect location for it. Even less than perfect, there are three planets visible during the day if you’re lucky enough to be in Iceland during this eclipse, potentially in parts of northern Spain as well, Jupiter Venus and Mercury. So we will come back yet again to Ireland, where we do have a partial solar eclipse on this date. Again, the solar eclipse and the Perseids coming on the same day is pretty nice.

Moving forward to the August Full Moon and we’ve got our lunar eclipse. As the Moon rises it is 99.9% illuminated, not quite a perfect Full Moon, on the 27th. Coming up into midnight, we get that up to 100%, enough for the lunar eclipse to begin. The Moon is 100% full by the morning of the 28th, so this is a morning eclipse for us here in Ireland and it is a partial lunar eclipse. The dark, reddish, umbra of the Earth doesn’t fully cover the Moon at any time, but it does cover most of it. The lighter penumbra does cover the Moon, and will have already slid across the surface as the umbra begins to slide onto the disc of the Moon. The penumbra is peeling onto the Moon at just around 2 in the morning, we get up to our maximum at just about 5 and then finishing off just as the Moon sets, just as the Sun rises.

That is it for us here in Ireland, a partial solar eclipse and a partial lunar eclipse. For the world, it’s an annular solar eclipse, a total solar eclipse and two total lunar eclipses. The lunar eclipse we see as partial will be total from other areas, and again, once we’re through to August 2026, that’s something we’ll take a closer look at. This has been just a brief overview of those couple of big things that are coming up next year. I hope that you enjoyed this piece, if you did, please do like it. If you like this kind of content then please subscribe to this website and my YouTube channel. Thank you very much for reading, and hopefully I’ll see you back here next time.