Total eclipses per decade
A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth roughly every 18 months, but most paths cross oceans or remote land. The count per decade barely changes over the century.
Tap a decade to see its eclipses. The 1920s count covers 1926 to 1929 only, and the 2020s count runs to August 2026.
The five longest totalities
The longest total eclipses of the century all happened in June or July, when the Earth is near its farthest point from the Sun and the Sun looks smallest, so the Moon covers it for longer.
- 1
20 June 19557m 13s
Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and 2 more
- 2
8 June 19377m 09s
Peru
- 3
30 June 19737m 08s
Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan and 5 more
- 4
11 July 19916m 58s
United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and 3 more
- 5
22 July 20096m 43s
India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar
Countries crossed most often
Large countries and those at high latitudes are crossed most often, simply because they cover more of the globe.
Decade by decade
The 1920s
Britain’s eclipse of the decade came on 29 June 1927, the first total eclipse seen from mainland Britain since 1724. Railways ran excursion trains into the narrow path, large crowds gathered on the shore at Southport, and by our calculation totality there lasted about 25 seconds.
Two years later ten expeditions travelled to the Philippines and Siam for the eclipse of 9 May 1929. Cloud spoiled nine of them, and only the US Navy team near Iloilo came home with a full set of results. The King and Queen of Siam watched totality at the British and German camp in Pattani.
14 January 19264m 16s
DR Congo, Central African Republic, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines
29 June 19270m 53s
United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia
9 May 19295m 11s
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines
The 1930s
Eclipses became a matter of national prestige. In 1932, Quebec’s premier refused scientists’ request to give workers time off for the eclipse of 31 August. For 19 June 1936 the Soviet Union sent 28 expeditions into the path, and twelve foreign parties joined them.
On 8 June 1937 totality lasted more than seven minutes over the Pacific, the longest since 1098. The Hayden Planetarium expedition to Peru shot some of the first colour film of a total eclipse, and Major Albert Stevens photographed it from a plane at 25,000 feet, higher than anyone had photographed an eclipse before.
28 April 19300m 05s
United States, Canada
21 October 19301m 59s
Ocean or polar ice only
31 August 19321m 48s
Canada, United States
14 February 19342m 57s
Malaysia, Indonesia
19 June 19362m 35s
Greece, Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, China, Japan
8 June 19377m 09s
Peru
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 August 2027
29 May 19384m 09s
Antarctica
Next in its saros family after 2026: 22 July 2028
12 October 19391m 35s
Antarctica
Next in its saros family after 2026: 5 December 2029 (partial)
The 1940s
War did not stop the astronomers, but it made their journeys extraordinary. In September 1941 an eight-person Chinese team travelled about 3,200 km in 43 days from Kunming to Gansu, with Japanese bombers overhead, and came home with more than 200 photographs. The eclipse of 9 July 1945, two months after the war in Europe ended, was photographed from Sweden by Swedish, Danish and French teams.
On 20 May 1947 the eclipse in Brazil turned into an early Cold War contest. The Americans built a runway and a “Camp Eclipse” at Bocaiúva and adapted a B-17 bomber to chase the shadow, while a Soviet expedition reached Araxá only about ten days before the eclipse, after being trapped in sea ice.
1 October 19405m 40s
Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, South Africa
Next in its saros family after 2026: 25 November 2030
21 September 19413m 26s
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Taiwan, Japan
Next in its saros family after 2026: 14 November 2031
4 February 19432m 43s
China, Japan, United States
Next in its saros family after 2026: 30 March 2033
25 January 19444m 14s
Peru, Brazil, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger
9 July 19451m 18s
United States, Canada, Greenland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Kazakhstan
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 September 2035
20 May 19475m 18s
Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania
1 November 19482m 00s
DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya
The 1950s
The decade began with a loss. Bernard Lyot, the French astronomer who invented the coronagraph, died of a heart attack in Cairo on his way home from the eclipse of 25 February 1952 in Sudan. About 400 scientists went to Sweden for 30 June 1954, when the future Nobel economist Maurice Allais reported that his pendulum swung strangely during the eclipse, a claim still argued over today.
On 20 June 1955 totality lasted 7 minutes 8 seconds at greatest eclipse in the South China Sea, the longest of the 20th century.
12 September 19501m 17s
Russia, United States
25 February 19523m 14s
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, Central African Republic, DR Congo, South Sudan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Russia
30 June 19542m 39s
United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan
Next in its saros family after 2026: 23 August 2044
20 June 19557m 13s
Sri Lanka, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 August 2027
8 June 19564m 49s
Ocean or polar ice only
Next in its saros family after 2026: 22 July 2028
12 October 19585m 15s
Chile
Next in its saros family after 2026: 25 November 2030
2 October 19593m 06s
Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 14 November 2031
The 1960s
On 15 February 1961 totality crossed southern France, Italy and the Balkans, and the makers of the film Barabbas shot its crucifixion scene during the real eclipse. More than 5,000 people stood on top of Cadillac Mountain in Maine on 20 July 1963.
In 1965, while 85 scientists waiting on a Pacific atoll were clouded out, a NASA jet flew along the path and watched the eclipse for nearly ten minutes. On 12 November 1966 the Gemini 12 astronauts Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to see a total eclipse from space. “The eclipse got to us after all,” Lovell radioed.
15 February 19612m 49s
France, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan
Next in its saros family after 2026: 30 March 2033
5 February 19624m 13s
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands
20 July 19631m 43s
United States, Canada
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 September 2035
30 May 19655m 20s
Ocean or polar ice only
12 November 19662m 02s
Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Brazil
22 September 19680m 43s
Russia, Kazakhstan, China
The 1970s
NASA launched 32 research rockets from its Wallops Station in Virginia into the eclipse of 7 March 1970. On 30 June 1973 the prototype Concorde 001 met the Moon’s shadow over Mauritania and raced it across Africa at twice the speed of sound, giving the scientists on board 74 minutes of totality.
The decade ended with the last total eclipse in the contiguous United States for 38 years, on 26 February 1979. Air traffic controllers counted more than 600 aircraft in the path, and ABC’s Frank Reynolds closed his broadcast by looking ahead to 2017: “May the shadow of the moon fall on a world at peace.”
7 March 19703m 32s
Mexico, United States, Canada
10 July 19722m 39s
Russia, United States, Canada
Next in its saros family after 2026: 23 August 2044
30 June 19737m 08s
Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 August 2027
20 June 19745m 13s
Australia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 22 July 2028
23 October 19764m 51s
Tanzania, Australia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 25 November 2030
12 October 19772m 42s
Colombia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 14 November 2031
26 February 19792m 52s
United States, Canada, Greenland
Next in its saros family after 2026: 30 March 2033
The 1980s
Fear shaped the eclipses of the early 1980s in Asia. When totality crossed India on 16 February 1980, cities such as Madras and Hyderabad shut down and most people stayed indoors behind closed windows. In Java on 11 June 1983 the Indonesian government told people to stay inside so they would not go blind, dropped about two million leaflets from planes and made live television the only approved way to watch.
A joint American and Soviet team observed together at Bratsk in Siberia in 1981, in the middle of the Cold War. In 1988 the Philippine city of General Santos promoted the eclipse as a tourist event, and President Corazon Aquino came to watch.
16 February 19804m 13s
Angola, DR Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, India, Myanmar, China
31 July 19812m 06s
Kazakhstan, Russia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 September 2035
11 June 19835m 16s
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea
22 November 19842m 04s
Indonesia, Papua New Guinea
12 November 19852m 01s
Ocean or polar ice only
3 October 19860m 03s
Ocean or polar ice only
29 March 19870m 12s
Argentina, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia
18 March 19883m 51s
Indonesia, Philippines
The 1990s
The eclipse of 11 July 1991 gave almost seven minutes of totality, and no total eclipse will be longer until 2132. In 1995 an Indian Air Force MiG-25 photographed the eclipse from 25 km up on the festival of Diwali.
The decade closed with 11 August 1999 across Europe, one of the most-watched total eclipses in history. Concordes chased the shadow, the Mir space station filmed it from orbit, and Patrick Moore’s live BBC programme from Cornwall was clouded out.
22 July 19902m 36s
Russia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 23 August 2044
11 July 19916m 58s
United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Brazil
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 August 2027
30 June 19925m 26s
Ocean or polar ice only
Next in its saros family after 2026: 22 July 2028
3 November 19944m 28s
Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Brazil
Next in its saros family after 2026: 25 November 2030
24 October 19952m 15s
Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 14 November 2031
9 March 19972m 54s
Mongolia, Russia, China
Next in its saros family after 2026: 30 March 2033
26 February 19984m 13s
Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Curaçao, French Guiana
11 August 19992m 27s
United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 September 2035
The 2000s
The first total eclipse of the new century, on 21 June 2001, was such an event in Zambia that the government declared a national holiday, and the air in Lusaka cooled by about 8°C (14°F). In 2003 the first total eclipse ever seen from Antarctica was watched mostly from two chartered jets above the clouds. For the eclipse of 29 March 2006, Libya built a tent city in the Sahara for astronomers, and in Egypt President Mubarak flew in by helicopter to watch.
On 22 July 2009 came the longest totality of the 21st century, more than six and a half minutes. About 24 million people lived under the path in Shanghai and Hangzhou alone.
21 June 20015m 02s
Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Madagascar
4 December 20022m 08s
Angola, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Australia
23 November 20032m 00s
Antarctica
8 April 20050m 47s
Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela
29 March 20064m 11s
Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Russia, Kazakhstan
1 August 20082m 30s
Canada, Greenland, Russia, Mongolia, China
Next in its saros family after 2026: 23 August 2044
22 July 20096m 43s
India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Myanmar
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 August 2027
The 2010s
Thousands of visitors went to Easter Island for 11 July 2010, where a local official compared totality to being in a dark room with a 10-watt bulb. About 60,000 people travelled to the far north of Queensland in November 2012, and the clouds parted just in time. In 2016 Indonesia, which had told its people to stay indoors in 1983, welcomed the eclipse with cheering crowds on the beaches.
The biggest event of the decade was 21 August 2017, the first total eclipse to cross the United States from coast to coast in 99 years. About 215 million American adults watched it in some way, and around 20 million travelled to see it.
11 July 20105m 25s
Ocean or polar ice only
Next in its saros family after 2026: 22 July 2028
13 November 20124m 06s
Australia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 25 November 2030
3 November 20131m 45s
Gabon, Congo, DR Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia
Next in its saros family after 2026: 14 November 2031
20 March 20152m 50s
Norway
Next in its saros family after 2026: 30 March 2033
9 March 20164m 14s
Indonesia
21 August 20172m 45s
United States
Next in its saros family after 2026: 2 September 2035
2 July 20194m 38s
Chile, Argentina
The 2020s
The eclipse of 14 December 2020 crossed Chile and Argentina in the middle of the pandemic, watched by masked crowds in the Araucanía region. In December 2021 about 15 cruise ships lined up in the path off Antarctica, and only one of them saw totality.
On 8 April 2024 more than half a million people travelled to Mazatlán in Mexico, and Niagara Region in Canada declared a state of emergency ahead of up to a million visitors. Two years later, on 12 August 2026, Spain saw its first total eclipse in more than a century under cloudless skies, while Iceland, waiting since 1954, was mostly clouded out.
14 December 20202m 14s
Chile, Argentina
4 December 20211m 57s
Antarctica
20 April 20231m 21s
Australia, Timor-Leste, Indonesia
8 April 20244m 32s
Mexico, United States, Canada
12 August 20262m 21s
Greenland, Iceland, Spain
Next in its saros family after 2026: 23 August 2044
Where the shadow goes next
The next century of eclipses has already been calculated to the second. Many of the eclipses above belong to saros families that are still active, and their cards link to the next member that has its own page on this site. The total eclipses after 2026 with a page of their own so far:
- 2 August 2027Southern Spain, North Africa and Arabia, with more than six minutes of totality in Egypt
- 22 July 2028The Kimberley to Sydney, then New Zealand’s South Island
- 25 November 2030Windhoek, the Free State and Durban at breakfast, the Australian outback at dusk
- 14 November 2031Total only at sea, a sunset ring of fire over Panama
- 30 March 2033Nome, Kotzebue and Utqiagvik on a late-March morning
- 2 September 2035Beijing, Pyongyang and central Japan, with Tokyo just outside
- 23 August 2044Alberta, Montana and North Dakota at sunset, the last total eclipse of its family
- 12 August 2045Coast to coast across the United States, then the Caribbean and Brazil
Other total eclipses before 2045, such as 20 March 2034 across Africa and Asia, are listed with every annular and partial eclipse in the eclipse calendar to 2045.
Durations come from our own calculation, which treats the Moon’s edge as smooth, so they run a few seconds longer than NASA’s published values. Totality is given for the point of greatest eclipse. Hybrid eclipses that were total at greatest eclipse, such as 20 April 2023, are included.
Sources
- Hopetown Darlington, The great eclipse of 1927
- US Naval Institute Proceedings, Solar eclipse expedition 1929
- Ingenium, The solar eclipse of 31 August 1932 in Quebec
- Nature, Total solar eclipse of June 19 (1936)
- American Museum of Natural History, Color footage of the 1937 eclipse
- University of St Andrews eclipse history, The Chinese 1941 eclipse expedition
- Olhar Digital, The 1947 eclipse and the Cold War
- NCAR High Altitude Observatory, Bernard Lyot (1897–1952)
- Fred Espenak, Path of the total solar eclipse of 1955 June 20
- Astronomy, The first solar eclipse seen from space
- Space.com, Remembering the 1970 solar eclipse
- Beckman J. et al., Eclipse flight of Concorde 001, Nature (1973)
- NASA, Astronomy Picture of the Day, Total solar eclipse of 1979 (19 August 2017)
- The Herald (Everett), The 1979 eclipse
- Yahoo News, The total solar eclipse of 1979 (Frank Reynolds sign-off)
- Tempo, A total eclipse of the sun (Indonesia, 1983)
- Fred Espenak, Catalog of solar eclipses of historical interest
- NASA, Eclipse shadow from space
- Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Reports on the eclipse of 11 August 1999
- Airways Magazine, When Concorde chased a solar eclipse
- Sky & Telescope, The great eclipse of 2009
- Space.com, The 2017 eclipse was more watched than the Super Bowl
- The World, Mazatlán draws international eclipse tourists (2024)
- AP via OPB, Spain’s first total solar eclipse in over a century (2026)