Six Days Until the Solar Eclipse — Where It's Total, Where It's Partial, and What Not to Do

In six days, on the morning of March 29, the moon will slide between the Earth and the sun and produce the first notable eclipse event visible from populated areas since 2024. This one is an annular solar eclipse — commonly called a "ring of fire" eclipse — meaning that at maximum coverage along the central path, the moon does not completely cover the solar disk. A bright ring of sunlight remains visible around the moon's silhouette. It is striking. It is also the eclipse type that sends the most people to the emergency room with eye damage, for reasons that will be addressed directly below.

The path of annularity runs from the Atlantic Ocean west of Africa, makes landfall in northwestern Morocco and northern Algeria, crosses the Strait of Gibraltar, traverses the northwestern corner of Spain and Portugal, passes over Ireland and Scotland, clips Iceland, and terminates in the Arctic Ocean north of Svalbard. Cities inside or very close to the annular path include Fez in Morocco, A Coruña and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, and Reykjavik in Iceland, where the ring-of-fire phase will last between two and four minutes depending on precise location within the path. Maximum eclipse — the point on Earth's surface where the angular alignment is most precise — occurs over the open Atlantic at approximately 10:47 a.m. UTC.