The moon will pass in front of the sun in the last solar eclipse of 2022 on Tuesday, Oct. 25, an event that could be visible to millions of skywatchers who are lucky enough to be in the visibility path.
The partial solar eclipse on October 25 will be the second eclipse of the sun in 2022. It will be visible primarily from Europe and parts of Africa and Asia, but you will be able to watch it online as well. Learn everything there is to know about the last lunar eclipse of 2022 in our guide below.
The exact time of the solar eclipse on October 25 depends on where you are looking. The eclipse begins in the Atlantic Ocean at 08:58:20 Universal Time (GMT), or approximately 4:58 a.m. EDT. It will come to an end at 9:01 a.m. EDT (1301 GMT). According to eclipse scientist Fred Espenak (opens in new tab), the peak eclipse will occur at 7 a.m. EDT (1100:09 GMT).
If you’re looking for particular eclipse start and stop times for your city in the visibility area, this table from Fred Espenak has detailed times for the eclipse(opens in new tab).
The solar eclipse on October 25 will block 82% of the sun at its peak because the moon and star will not be perfectly aligned with Earth as they are during a total solar eclipse. That means that only a sliver of the sun should be visible from “the point of central eclipse” at best. Because this prime viewing location is at the North Pole, few, if any, observers are likely to see it.
However, depending on how close an observer is to the central path of the eclipse, the sun will appear obscured to varying degrees across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The moon will cover approximately 80% of the sun’s disk in Russia, while 70% will appear blocked from western China. Norway and Finland have 63% and 62% eclipses, respectively.
The October 25 partial solar eclipse will be visible across much of Europe, northeast Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia. It will cover a large portion of the Arctic, including the North Pole, where few people are likely to see it.
While the path of this eclipse will begin in the northern Atlantic Ocean, it will cross most of Europe, as well as large swaths of Africa and Asia, where millions of skywatchers may be able to see it, weather permitting.
Because the webcasts provided above are from different locations in the visibility region, their start times vary.
WARNING: If you don’t wear proper eye protection, looking directly into the sun can cause blindness and other types of permanent eye damage. When observing the sun or a solar eclipse, always use proper equipment.
If you intend to view the October 25 solar eclipse or any other sun event, make sure you have the proper equipment. Observers should wear special protective eyewear or certified eclipse glasses, but keep in mind: REGULAR SUNGLASSES, EVEN IF THEY HAVE UV PROTECTION, WILL NOT PROTECT YOU.
The most secure way to view a solar eclipse is to use indirect methods, such as building a pinhole camera to project the eclipse onto an external surface.
When viewed from Earth, a solar eclipse occurs when the moon appears to pass in front of the sun. They can only occur when the moon is in its “new moon” phase, when the moon is between the Earth and the sun. However, because the moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted by about 5 degrees with respect to the sun, the two do not align every new moon, which is why a solar eclipse does not occur every month.
In a cosmic coincidence, the sun is 400 times larger than the moon, but the moon orbits the Earth at a 400-fold closer distance than the sun. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon perfectly aligns with the sun and completely blocks the sun as seen from Earth. These occur approximately every 18 months.
However, there are times when the moon appears to cross in front of the sun but does not completely obscure the star. This is when partial solar eclipses occur. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon is slightly too far away from Earth to completely block the sun, resulting in a dazzling “ring of fire” effect.
After the partial solar eclipse on October 25, we’ll have to wait until 2023 for the moon to pass in front of the sun again. In 2023, there will be two solar eclipses.
The next total solar eclipse will occur on April 20, 2023, and it will be a hybrid solar eclipse. This eclipse can appear as an annular eclipse, also known as a ring of fire solar eclipse, in some parts of its path and as a total solar eclipse in others. Southeast Asia, the East Indies, Australia, the Phillipines and New Zealand, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea will all be able to see the eclipse.
An annular solar eclipse will occur on October 14, 2023, following the April 20 solar eclipse. The “ring of fire” effect will be visible from the western United States, Central America, Columbia, and Brazil during this eclipse.
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