22 July 2028 · A total solar eclipse
Australia goes dark.
For up to five minutes and ten seconds, the Moon's shadow switches off the daytime sky — from the Kimberley coast to Sydney Harbour.
The partial phase
A shadow is coming.
Most of the continent will only ever see this much — a Sun quietly eaten from one side.
Approaching the edge
99% is not totality.
The last sliver of the Sun is thousands of times brighter than everything around it.
Totality · 5 min 10 s
Australia goes dark.
Five minutes. One continent. One moving shadow.
The shadow keeps moving
Then it is gone.
The umbra crosses the Tasman and lifts off the planet. Sydney's next total eclipse: the year 2858.
As you scroll, the Sun moves through a total solar eclipse: a partial phase in which the Moon covers more and more of the Sun, a brief totality in which the Sun's corona is visible around a black disc, and then the partial phase again in reverse as the Moon moves away.
Section two — the path
The shadow crosses a continent
The Moon's umbra makes landfall on the Kimberley coast mid-morning and races south-east, leaving the mainland near Sydney about ninety minutes later. Only inside this band does the Sun disappear.
All of Australia sees at least a partial eclipse. The total eclipse reaches only the ground beneath this ~230 km band.
Section three — the trade-off
Choose your totality
The longest totality on Earth touches down in remote north-west Australia. The most extraordinary setting is a harbour city with worse odds of clear sky. There is no single best place to stand — only different bets.
Doon Doon, east Kimberley
Durack Range
The longest totality anywhere on Earth makes landfall in the ranges east of Kununurra. Almost no infrastructure. July sits deep in the dry season.
Section four — Greater Sydney
171 years since the last one. 830 until the next. The bar is a long human life, to scale.
For a human lifetime, this simply does not happen here.
A bite out of the Sun
Through a certified filter, a notch appears at the Sun's edge. To the unaided eye, nothing has changed. The day is still the day.
The light turns metallic
Colour drains a little. Contrast sharpens. Shadows grow hard-edged and strangely precise. Something feels wrong before you can name it.
The temperature drops
The air cools by several degrees. Birds resettle. A breeze can rise as the landscape stops taking in heat.
Shadow bands ripple
Faint ripples of light and dark slide across pale ground — the last thin sliver of Sun, distorted by the atmosphere.
Baily's Beads
Sunlight streams through valleys on the edge of the Moon, breaking the last arc into a string of brilliant points.
The Diamond Ring
One bead outshines the rest. For a heartbeat, a single jewel burns on a ring of pale fire. Filters off.
The corona
The Sun's atmosphere stands open to the naked eye — pearl-white streamers reaching past the black disc. The horizon glows like a 360° sunset. Planets and bright stars come out.
The second Diamond Ring
A point of light detonates on the far edge. Filters back on. The corona vanishes, the beads run in reverse, and the day comes back faster than it left.
Section six — the threshold
99% isn't 100%
Drag from a deep partial eclipse to totality. Almost nothing changes — until everything does. The last one percent of the Sun is the whole difference between a strange afternoon and night at midday.
Bright daylight. You would not look twice.
The Sun's surface is still exposed. Certified solar filters are required.
Section seven — the decision
Where would you stand?
Every viewing choice trades one thing for another. Toggle the regions to compare what each asks of you.
North-westThe longest totality on the planet, over red rock and spinifex, in the month with Australia's most reliable winter skies. You will be a very long way from anywhere.
South-eastA total eclipse over a harbour city of five million: unmatched setting, every kind of support, and July's least dependable skies on the whole path.
Clear-sky figures describe the historical July climate record — how often skies have been clear in past decades. They are not a forecast for 22 July 2028. Real conditions on the day are known only on the day.
Section eight — watch it safely
Filters on. Except for five minutes.
- On
- On
- On
- On
- Off
- On
- On
- On
- On
- During every partial phase
- A certified solar filter — eclipse glasses or a solar viewer meeting ISO 12312-2 — for the whole time any part of the Sun's bright surface is showing.
- During totality only
- When the disc is completely covered, and only then, it is safe to look with the unaided eye. That window is a few minutes at most, and only inside the path.
- The moment light returns
- Protection goes back on as the first bright point reappears — before it, not after. The returning photosphere is as dangerous as the rest of the eclipse.
- Never improvise
- Sunglasses, smoked glass, exposed film and phone cameras are not solar filters. If you are not certain a filter is certified and undamaged, do not use it.
If you are outside the path of totality, the eclipse stays partial from start to finish — the filter never comes off.
The countdown