Total solar eclipse 2026: Where, when and how to watch on Wednesday?

On Wednesday, millions of people across Europe will get the chance to experience their first total solar eclipse in 27 years.

Starting at 15:34 GMT, the brightness of the daylight hours will gradually be interrupted as the moon begins to block the sun, eventually turning day into sudden night for about two minutes along the path of totality.

So which countries will see it? How do solar eclipses occur? Where and how can you watch it safely? In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera unpacks everything you need to know.

The time of the eclipse depends on where you are because the moon’s shadow will move across Earth’s surface from the Arctic towards Europe.

The path of totality, which is when the moon orbits in front of the sun and blocks its entire surface facing Earth, will cross northern Russia, Greenland and Iceland before sweeping across Spain and a small part of Portugal, bringing almost total darkness to about 15 million people.

A partial eclipse will be visible across much of Western Europe, parts of Northwest Africa, most of Canada and part of the northern United States. Overall, about 980 million people, nearly one in eight worldwide, might see the sun at least partly covered depending on weather conditions.

Most of Europe should see a partial eclipse in the evening around sunset.

In Paris, roughly 92 percent of the sun will be covered, in London 91 percent and in Berlin 85 percent.