A long-awaited total solar eclipse stunned viewers across the United States, Mexico, and Canada on Monday, offering opportunities for enraptured sky gazing, gorgeous astrophotography, and dazzling eclipse shadows. For some, the event provided enough astronomical wonder to last a lifetime. But if you're already looking forward to the next eclipse event, NASA's got you covered.
In an update to its eclipse exploration page, NASA offers a calendar of solar and lunar eclipse events through 2026. While the next annular (AKA "ring of fire") solar eclipse will occur in just six months, you'll need to live in or travel to South America to see it. Otherwise, a partial solar eclipse will be visible in parts of North America and Antarctica. After that, the next annular eclipse won't occur until February 2026, and you'll have to brave the Antarctic cold to catch it.
The next total solar eclipse will occur in August 2026, when sky gazers in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and part of Portugal will experience the sudden darkness of totality. And while NASA's calendar doesn't extend this far, some sky gazers are already looking to 2028, when totality will only be visible from Australia and a tiny fragment of Indonesia.
Between now and then, partial solar eclipses will occur in March 2025 and September 2025, with visibility scattered across North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. Though they're often overshadowed by their more impressive annular and total solar eclipse siblings, partial eclipses are still a sight to behold, and you'll want to hang onto your eclipse glasses to view them. If a partial eclipse is truly no big deal to you, though, you can also donate those glasses to Astronomers Without Borders, an organization that distributes astronomy equipment to regions with less access than we tend to enjoy in North America.
Looking for eclipses of the lunar variety? This September, those of us in North America, South America, Europe, and Africa will get to see a partial lunar eclipse, in which the Moon passes through only part of Earth's umbra, or total shadow. And in March of next year, sky gazers in North and South America, western Europe, and western Africa will see a total lunar eclipse, in which the Moon will turn an eerie red.
