A solar eclipse will be visible across the UK next week, and we’ve found some of the best specialist glasses to buy so you can safely watch the astronomical event as it happens

It’s been almost 10 years since the UK last got to witness a solar eclipse, but that’s all about to change. Next week the UK will get to see an almost complete solar eclipse as the new moon passes in front of the Sun, briefly blocking all sunlight, and clear weather could give us one of the best views.

The UK hasn’t seen a partial solar eclipse since back in 2015, and this year’s will be followed up by the Perseid meteor shower, which will reach its peak a couple of hours after the eclipse. Here’s everything you need to know about next week’s solar eclipse, and the specialist glasses you need to safely watch it.

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When is the next UK solar eclipse?

The next UK solar eclipse will begin shortly after 6pm on Wednesday August 12, when the new moon will begin to pass in front of the Sun. It should reach its maximum coverage at around 7:10pm, before ending around 8pm.

It’s worth noting that UK watchers won’t be able to see a full eclipse; we’ll only be able to witness about 96% coverage of the moon, which is still an impressive sight to behold. According to Royal Museums Greenwich, this will be the most coverage seen from the UK and Ireland since the 1999 solar eclipse, making it a truly special occasion.

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To see the full eclipse, you’ll have to travel to areas like Spain, Greenland or Western Iceland for a full 100% eclipse. However, UK watchers will still see an impressive display, especially with the meteor shower following up just a couple of hours later.

How to watch the solar eclipse

It should go without saying, but to view a solar eclipse you must avoid looking directly into the Sun. Directly staring at the sun – even as it gets covered by the moon – can and will damage your eyes. Instead, you’ll need specialist glasses which allow you to watch the astronomical display in its entirety without risking harm.

And before you ask, no, your regular sunglasses won’t cut it. They might reduce the glare, making it feel more comfortable, but they don’t reduce the solar radiation and its effects.

You’ll need genuine eclipse glasses, which have been specially designed with filters that meet the international safety standard ISO 12312-2:2015(E). You should also make sure the lenses aren’t scratched, torn or punctured before using them.

Best solar eclipse glasses to buy

Celestron EclipSmart Solar Eclipse Glasses – £12.99 for a pack of four

Celestron glasses are one of the most reputable brands in the world, and are often sold at observatories to help with solar viewing. Although they’re sold out at locations like the Royal Museums Greenwich, you can pick up this pack of four for £12.99 from the Celestron shop on Amazon.

The filter conforms to the ISO 12312-2:2015(E) international safety standard for direct viewing of the Sun, and they can be folded at two different points for one-size-fits-all. Plus you’ll get a booklet included in the set, which gives you all the science and history of solar eclipses, fun facts, helpful hints, maps, and more. The same bundle of four glasses and a booklet is currently available at QVC, where it’s on sale down from £42.98 to £34.98.

Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses – £5.99

Also available at Amazon is this two pack of Soluna eclipse glasses, which are made in the USA by NASA-approved manufacturer American Paper Optics, and are recognized as ISO-compliant by the American Astronomical Society. They’ve been independently tested and verified under the current standard ISO 12312-2:2015(E) filters, so you can safely watch the solar eclipse through them. You can also pick up a multi pack of 10 of the glasses for £19.99 from Amazon which is ideal if you have a large family or are planning a viewing party of the phenomenon.

Modern medicine increasingly judges itself by long-term outcomes. In cancer care, we routinely compare treatments according to whether patients survive longer. In cardiology, we ask whether interventions prevent future heart attacks and extend life. This long-term data allows healthcare to continually improve.

Child and adolescent mental health services are different. Long-term outcomes have received little attention. Success, instead, is largely judged using measures such as waiting times, access targets and short-term symptom improvements.

These are important indicators of service performance. But they cannot tell us whether children’s lives have actually improved beyond the very short term.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) were founded on the idea that helping children early could change the course of their lives. Yet we rarely measure whether that actually happens.

A new study my colleagues and I conducted provides one of the most detailed long-term pictures to date of the clinical outcomes for young people who attended Camhs in the UK. By linking NHS records across Scotland, we followed every child born between 1991 and 1998 – almost half a million people – from birth until age 32. We identified everyone who attended Scottish Camhs before age 18 and tracked their subsequent use of inpatient and outpatient adult mental health services into adulthood.

Forty per cent of children who attended Camhs went on to use specialist adult mental health services. That figure rose to nearly half (49%) among those who first attended Camhs as teenagers, between the ages of 13 and 17.

When it came to inpatient psychiatric admissions, the most intensive – and costly – form of mental health services, nearly half of all hospital bed days for people between the ages of 18 and 32 were for people who had, earlier in life, attended child mental health services. Similarly, in outpatient adult mental health clinics, more than 40% of appointments were for former Camhs patients.

These findings do not mean that attending Camhs causes adult psychiatric illnesses. Rather, they illustrate something mental health experts have long recognised: the roots of serious mental illness often begin in childhood. But despite this, we know very little about whether Camhs interventions actually reduce the risk of later mental illness or improve long-term outcomes.

This is not because Camhs treatments are necessarily ineffective. It could be the case that outcomes would have been worse for these young people had they not attended Camhs. The problem is we simply don’t know. And if we hope child mental health services can improve lifelong outcomes, we need to measure whether they actually do.

A way forward

Scotland, as it happens, is well placed to answer these questions. Its world-leading health data infrastructure already makes it possible to securely link child and adult health records over decades. The foundation is there. What is needed now is to build on it: to make routine long-term follow up a standard part of how we evaluate child mental health interventions.

Instead of evaluating interventions only at the end of treatment, we could routinely examine outcomes one year, five years and even ten years later, after patients have left Camhs. Just as cancer care has transformed itself by learning from long-term outcomes, child mental health could use routinely linked health data to identify what interventions genuinely improve lives in the long term.

This would not require new technology – Scotland already has the systems in place. It simply requires a commitment to use them. And the potential payoff is enormous: a child mental health system that can genuinely learn from its own outcomes, continuously improving care for future generations.

Waiting times matter, access matters and short-term improvements matter. But these tell us about how well services are functioning today. They do not tell us whether they are changing tomorrow.

If nearly half of adult psychiatric hospital care is being delivered to people who attended child mental health services, we should be asking a much bigger question: are we changing the course of people’s lives, as Camhs was always intended to do? Until we routinely measure long-term outcomes, we simply will not know.

It’s claimed to be the first of its kind

Online electricals retailer AO.com has teamed up with musical maestros to create what they claim is the world’s first dedicated mobile phone section in an orchestra. The online seller partnered with the renowned Manchester Camerata to put a modern twist on some of the world’s most recognisable classical compositions.

From Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Beethoven’s Ode to Joy to Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Auld Lang Syne, the specially arranged medley sees a four-piece phone section performing alongside a live orchestra. The ‘SIMphony’ demonstrates how even everyday technology can be used in unexpected ways.

Filmed live at Manchester’s renowned Stoller Hall and created to celebrate the versatility of mobile phones, the retailer challenged the orchestra to transform beloved classical pieces into performances played using nothing more than the keypads.

Conductor Tim Crooks said: “This is unlike anything we’ve ever performed. People use their mobile phones for almost every aspect of daily life, but creating orchestral music with them probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind.

“That’s what made this project so enjoyable. It challenged the musicians in completely new ways and demonstrates how versatile modern technology can be when creativity is involved. We hope audiences are as entertained and surprised by the result as we were.”

The medley is now available to stream on Spotify, with the full performance available to watch at https://ao.com/mobile-phones/simphony

Myspace, the early 2000s site synonymous with custom profile pages and emerging music artists, is being revived by its current owners, brothers Tim and Chris Vanderhook.

The duo say they are “just waiting for the right time to do it” to bring the brand back.

Myspace owners looking to bring social media platform back

Myspace is coming back pic.twitter.com/R3n3b18Wms

— Daily Loud (@DailyLoud) July 31, 2026

The plans were revealed in the documentary Myspace, where the Vanderhooks discussed their intention to relaunch the platform with a “new vision.”

Although no launch date has been confirmed, the brothers said the reboot will steer away from algorithm-based entertainment.

They want the “modernised” Myspace to “feel different” from platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

It remains unclear whether the relaunch will focus on music as the original site once did.

Myspace was founded in 2003 and quickly became the world’s most popular social network.

It peaked in April 2008 with around 115 million monthly visitors and more than 320,000 daily sign-ups.

Tom Anderson, co-founder of Myspace—and the first “friend” of users by default—is not expected to be involved in the relaunch.

The Vanderhooks acquired Myspace in 2011 through their company Viant, then known as Specific Media.

From 2005 to 2009, Myspace was the largest social networking site globally and had a significant influence on technology, pop culture and music.

It also helped launch businesses such as YouTube, Zynga, and Photobucket.

Despite remaining online, the platform has faded from public use over the past 15 years and changed hands several times.

In June 2011, the site was purchased by Specific Media Group and Justin Timberlake for approximately $35 million (£26.6 million).

Time Inc. acquired it in 2016 for $87 million (£64.4 million), and it later became part of Meredith Corporation in 2018.

On November 4, 2019, Meredith spun off Myspace and its original holding company (Viant Technology Holding Inc.) and sold it to Viant Technology LL.

Fans divided on potential return on Myspace

Following the news, fans took to Reddit to discuss the return of the once iconic social media space.

One said: “I loved MySpace in the mid 00s.

“I have no place for it in my life in the mid 20s.”

Myspace helped launch other platforms like YouTube (Image: Getty Images)

Another added: “No thanks.

“What I would like is to visit my old page so I can archive it, at least since it sucks they had an overhaul a couple of years ago, deleting most of the personal profiles of everyone.”

A third wrote: “It wouldn’t be the same if they did.

“Myspace wasn’t just a site, it was an experience, a thing of its time.

“I’m glad I got to experience it and I’m also glad it’s gone.”

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Some, however, were open to the idea, and even optimistic about its comeback.

One said: “I liked MySpace more than Facebook, so I’ll give it a try.”

Another agreed, saying: “I would definitely go back.

“Most of social media has become absolute trash and I miss the simplicity of MySpace.”

What do you think about Myspace looking to return? Let us know in the comments.

The AA Traffic News is reporting that the A1079 is blocked in the East Yorkshire village of Bishop Burton, outside Beverley, between Finchcroft Lane and Finkle Street.

East Yorkshire Motor Service said the delays are due to faulty traffic lights.

⚠️ X46 Service Update

If you’re travelling on the X46 today, please allow an extra 20–30 minutes for your journey.

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This is due to faulty temporary traffic lights in Bishop Burton.

We’re sorry for the delay and thank you for your patience. You can track your bus in real time… pic.twitter.com/NJDYD71pic

— East Yorkshire (@EYBuses) August 5, 2026

Traffic is running very slowly from the A1079 roundabout to the east of the village at the junction for Beverley Racecourse and the B1248 for Malton

The Press will provide more information on this story as we receive it.

The county’s police force said the alleged assault happened in The Moors Inn in Headlands Road, Appleton-le-Moors, on Saturday, August 1.

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A force spokesperson said an arrest has been made in connection with the incident, and the person has been released on bail.

The North Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “During the assault, the victim sustained several facial injuries.

“Our enquiries are continuing and we are particularly interested in speaking to anyone who may have witnessed the incident or anyone who has information that could assist our investigation.

“Please email Andrew Govier on drew.govier2@northyorkshire.police.uk, or visit the North Yorkshire Police website.

“If you are unable to use these options, please call North Yorkshire Police on 101.

“Please quote reference number 12260148116 when providing information.”