Caoimhín's Content

I hope that many of you, or at least some of you, got to see the solar eclipse that occurred on August 12th. This was of course, a total solar eclipse, but only a partial from here in Ireland. I myself did get to see some of this eclipse, but only about 40% obscuration. Unfortunately, from my viewing location, the clouds rolled in, so the greater level of obscuration wasn’t visible, at least not directly. The surroundings did become dark, it did become cooler, so the eclipse was still noticeable in other ways.

This was only a partial solar eclipse, and the last very good eclipse, the last total eclipse that was visible as a good partial from here in Ireland, was back in 1999. This eclipse also occurred in August, on the 11th of August. This was a total solar eclipse from the south of England, but let’s see how much of an eclipse we got from here in Ireland. Even as it begins, it’s clear that this is going to be quite a deep eclipse. A deep eclipse is a partial eclipse with a large amount of coverage. It’s gets up to 96%, about as much as we were able to get from the August 12th eclipse this year, under good conditions.

The next actual total eclipse that we’re going to get here in Ireland isn’t until 2090. This eclipse is going to be in September, so still around the same time of year. When we see eclipses, where the path of totality passes across the Earth does vary and it varies in a reasonably regular way. Over the course of an eclipse cycle, the path of the eclipse will move from the north pole, down across the Earth, across the equator and then down across the south, and that pattern then repeats. We’re seeing 99.83% of an eclipse from Cork City which isn’t total, even though it is incredibly close, it doesn’t look like our amount of obscuration is going up an appreciable amount from 99.9%. If we’re seeing 99.9% here in Cork, that means the view is going to be pretty good from elsewhere in Ireland as well and there is a good chance that the view will go up to 100% from elsewhere in Ireland. We will very subtly, very minorly, change our location to see if we can bring that up to 100%.

We can. From just along the southwest coast, it is visible as a total eclipse. The eclipse duration will be 3 minutes and 7 seconds. So in 2090, the very next total eclipse that we’re going to have, it looks like only the very south, the southwest of Ireland, is going to get a total solar eclipse. The rest of Ireland, even here in Cork City, is going to get a little bit less. However, we will be getting a longer eclipse at 3 minutes and 7 seconds than anywhere got for the eclipse that happened on August 12th. You may remember from a previous piece that Reykjavik in Iceland was able to see the August 12th eclipse for about two minutes. Three minutes, of course, is just that little bit longer. It’s not the longest eclipse, of course, we will have some videos coming out next year talking about the very long eclipse happening in 2027 in Spain and North Africa and across the Mediterranean. This is the next actual total eclipse we get, and it’s not visible from here in Cork City, but visible from just a couple of degrees further south. That means that this eclipse is going to be glancing off the southern coast of Ireland, and it will be visible as a total eclipse from other areas as well.

The last actual total eclipse that was visible as a total eclipse from here in Ireland was in the 1700s. We’re going back here all the way to 1724, and we’re going back to the start of the year, to May 22nd. On the correct date, the Sun is behind a tree as it is setting, so no doubt the Moon is also behind a tree. This is an eclipse that we saw very close to sunset, it’s quite late and low in the sky, but we don’t have to remove the landscape, totality is actually visible. Again, we’re getting quite a long eclipse, almost three minutes. The path of this eclipse came across from North America and then across onto Ireland, so a very different path to the August 12th eclipse and giving us just a little bit longer, 2 minutes and 51 seconds. Definitely a total eclipse from in Cork in Ireland. All on the same side of the Sun, Mars, Venus and Mercury are visible, so plenty of planets as well. This is the last actual total eclipse that we got here in Ireland, that was actually total. In 1999 we had a very deep partial, just as deep as the partial eclipse we just had in 2026 on August 12th. We are going to have another total eclipse, which will actually be total in 2090 and that’s going to be total from here in Ireland, but only just along the southern coast.

Very quickly, while we’re taking a look at these eclipses, just to make sure that I have gotten the path right, we’re going to take a look at the shadow of the Moon on the Earth during these eclipses. Once we’re on the light side of the Moon rather than the dark side of the Moon, the Earth is going to be visible from the Moon’s surface. For a solar eclipse it must be a New Moon, so we see a full Earth. Still in 1724, the eclipse path moves across North America, over the Atlantic and onto Ireland. This is a very different eclipse path to the path of the eclipse we just saw in 2026. The shadow of the Moon only reaches Ireland as the Sun is setting, that’s why we saw this eclipse in the 1700s so low in the sky. This path goes across a much wider part of the Earth. We’re not seeing it skimming around the North Pole, so it is a little bit easier to follow. We will take a quick jump forward to check out that eclipse in 2090 as well. If you would like to see the path of the eclipse that we just had, our August 12th eclipse, then you can take a look at one of my recent piece where I describe it. In 2090, the path of the Moon should be a little familiar. The shadow of the Moon is moving past Greenland, down across Ireland and down towards Spain and Africa. It is moving at a different angle than the last eclipse, so this isn’t going to pass as close to Iceland. However, just like the eclipse on August 12th and back in the 1700s, the Moon’s shadow is only reaching Ireland just as we come into nighttime. These eclipses are all occurring pretty close to sunset.

I do hope you saw the eclipse that we just had on August 12th here on Earth. If you didn’t get to see the eclipse on August 12th, of course we have another one coming up in 2090, but there are other eclipses happening in 2027/2028 at various locations around the world, just not for us exactly here in Ireland. I hope that you enjoyed this review of these eclipses, there will be plenty more eclipse videos in the near future. If you didn’t get to see the August 12th eclipse, you can take a look at some simulations of it on my YouTube channel, and it is described in some older pieces. If you did enjoy this piece, then please do like it and 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.