Solar eclipse 2026 timings, best places to watch and glasses advice – live updates

The Royal Greenwich Observatory warned the public that regular sunglasses are not a safe enough method to view the cosmic phenomenon. Imo Bell, a planetarium astronomer at the observatory, previously told the Press Association: “It’s not a total eclipse, but over 90% is really exciting. We’re not going to get one this good for a really long time.

“So, it’s important not to miss it, and to be prepared. You can’t just go out and expect to have a look because it’s really dangerous for your eyes.

“So, you can use solar eclipse glasses, which are very, very different from sunglasses – they block out so much light that you can’t see anything through them except the sun, because that’s how much light they need to block for the damaging light of the sun to be safe to view.

“Ideally a solar telescope is an amazing way to witness it, and if you don’t have one of them then you can look into whether your local astronomy society is doing any events.

“And if all else fails, you can project the image of the eclipse using a household item like a colander which has lots of holes in – point the colander towards the Sun with your back facing it, and in the shadow of the colander you’ll be able to see the eclipse in the holes, which is really cool.”