If your feeds are blowing up with talk of the upcoming total solar eclipse, this might burst your bubble: The show might not be coming to a sky near you.
On Aug. 12, the moon will sweep its shadow across the top of the world, briefly turning day into twilight along a narrow path through Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, northern Spain, and a sliver of Portugal. That’s the path of totality — where the sun is completely blocked — and it’s the first time in 27 years that mainland Europe has gotten a full, real-deal solar eclipse.
But people in the United States won’t be in that bullseye. Instead, a part of the country will see a partial solar eclipse, where the moon nips the sun but never covers it completely. The sky won’t go dark, the stars won’t pop out, and you won’t get the full moody effect. But with the right eyewear, you could still see the sun turn into a yummy space crescent roll in the middle of a Wednesday.
For a U.S. audience, this eclipse is either a drop-everything-and-fly-to-Iceland kind of deal or a fun coffee break at work. Here’s how to plan 15 minutes to step outside and look up safely — or, better yet, ditch the special eyewear and get a front-row seat to the main event with a livestream from where the real action is happening.
Where in the U.S. can you see it?
The farther north you are, the better the show.
As the moon’s shadow creeps from Russia to Greenland and Iceland and onward to Europe, the outer part of that shadow — the penumbra — brushes North America. Within that outer shadow, the sun is only partially blocked, but the effect might still be noticeable if you’re paying attention.
The United States will not experience a total solar eclipse on Aug. 12, 2026, but many states will get a partial solar eclipse.
Credit: NASA infographic
Nationwide, 26 states and Washington, D.C., will get a very slight partial eclipse. The states include Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Many parts of Alaska and the far north will see the larger bites, with the eclipse unfolding earlier in the day. In parts of the south, it may register more as a subtle dimming — not much different from a little cloud cover. Just over the border, Canada gets a better view. Much of the country lies deeper in the partial zone. Northern and western areas catch the show in the morning; eastern provinces get it in the afternoon.
Mashable Light Speed
For the United States, the event begins at 7:34 a.m. Alaska Standard Time and ends on the East Coast at 2:52 p.m. ET. To zero in on your specific area’s times, visit Timeanddate.com and enter your city or ZIP code.
Watching the solar eclipse online
For U.S. viewers, NASA plans a live broadcast on Aug. 12, with telescope views, commentary from scientists, and footage from research aircraft flying under the moon’s shadow.
In Europe, the European Space Agency and other organizations, such as the Royal Observatory, will host their own streams. The Exploratorium, which has a long track record of eclipse coverage, will again provide a live telescope feed from inside the path of totality in Spain. Here’s a go-to list of live broadcasts that you can hop to and from without having to board a jet:
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NASA: Streaming on NASA+ and YouTube, with views from Spain and high-altitude aircraft, starting at 1:15 p.m. ET.
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ESA: Hosting a live broadcast from the Observatorio Astrofísico de Javalambre in Teruel, Spain, and a separate telescope feed, starting at 19:30 CEST, or 1:30 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. ET.
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The Exploratorium: Broadcasting a live telescope view from Spain at 1:30 p.m. ET.
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Royal Observatory: Hosting a live broadcast from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, where the United Kingdom will see about 90 percent sun coverage during the eclipse, starting at 1:10 p.m. ET.
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TimeandDate.com: Streaming the event with real-time animations, maps, and expert commentary, starting at noon ET.
Everything to know about eclipse glasses
It’s plain and simple: If any part of the sun’s face is visible, you must protect your eyes to look up at it. That’s true in Alaska, Texas, Iceland, Spain — everywhere.
For Americans in the partial zone, the go‑to tools are protective eyewear or a handheld solar viewer designed for viewing the sun. Eclipse glasses are not just dark sunglasses. Legit eclipse glasses are thousands of times darker and built to block most of the sun’s visible and invisible light.
Reputable ones follow the ISO 12312‑2 safety standard; when you put them on indoors, you shouldn’t be able to see anything except maybe the brightest lights.
Keep the glasses or viewer on the whole time you’re looking at the sun. Never look through eclipse glasses into a telescope or binoculars unless the optics also have a proper solar filter on the front. Concentrated sunlight can burn through a filter and through the delicate tissue at the back of your eyes, far faster than you’d expect.
A simple pinhole projector — or even a small hole in an index card projecting the sun’s image onto the ground or another surface — will show you the sun’s change from a circle to a crescent and back again without ever having to look up. During the partial phases, the gaps between tree leaves do the same thing naturally, scattering tiny crescent suns onto sidewalks.
Tree leaves reveal crescent suns like pinhole projectors on the ground as its partially obscured light filters through them.
Credit: Michael S. Williamson / The Washington Post via Getty Images
If you’re not in totality, is it still worthwhile?
That all depends on your appetite and attitude. On the ground in the United States, you’ll get a sun that looks wrong in an intriguing way, light that feels a little hushed, and shadows that sharpen.
At the same time, cameras and telescopes along the path of totality will be streaming the full blackout — the sun’s corona glowing behind a black disk like a scalloped crown. You might like to take an imaginary journey in your mind, see what it looks like from Reykjavik or a Spanish hillside.