Starwatch: Deep partial solar eclipse in UK to precede the Perseids
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- A deep partial solar eclipse will be visible across the UK on 12 August, beginning shortly after 6pm BST and reaching maximum around 7:13pm.
- From much of the UK, about 90% of the sun's diameter will be obscured, making this the deepest solar eclipse visible there since 1999.
- The sun will sit low in the western sky throughout the eclipse, so observers will need a location with a clear western horizon.
- The Perseid meteor shower peaks on the night of 12–13 August and is produced as Earth ploughs through a stream of dust left behind by Comet Swift–Tuttle.
- Each Perseid grain strikes the atmosphere at roughly 60 kilometres per second, burning up in a brief flash seen as a shooting star.
- The moon sets below the horizon after the eclipse ends, leaving a moonless night that provides ideal dark-sky conditions for the Perseids.
- Skywatchers are warned never to look directly at the sun without certified eclipse glasses or a properly filtered telescope or binoculars.
Why it matters: UK skywatchers gain a rare double-header: a 90% solar eclipse — the deepest in 25 years — on the same evening as a moonless Perseid peak, giving observers an unusually favorable combination of headline events in a single night. The moonless sky after sunset removes a major source of light pollution for meteor viewing.
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