Madeira · sky events
The solar eclipse of 12 August 2026 from Madeira, and which coast to watch it from
An eclipse you travel for is decided by the one thing you cannot book: whether the sky is clear on the right side of the island. Madeira runs different weather on its north and south coasts within the same hour.
The short answer
Madeira sits off the centre line of both events, so neither is total from here. On 12 August 2026 the moon covers 77.4% of the sun at 19:46 Madeira time, with the sun only 13.6 degrees above the western sea. On 2 August 2027 it covers 97.0% at 09:35, with the sun 26.3 degrees up in the east. The 2027 one is the deepest of the thirteen that theskylive.com lists for Funchal between now and 2052; the next closest is the 2028 annular at 83.2%.
For every eclipse this island gets, this one and the ones after it, the times are arithmetic and the sky is not. We track which side of Madeira is clear, for this date and for every future one, and that is the part the pass answers.
Where the sun sits during each eclipse, seen from Funchal. Horizontal axis is the compass bearing, vertical axis is the height above the horizon, and the filled dot is maximum. Computed with SunCalc from the contact times published for Funchal.
The times are fixed and public. Whether the western sky is clear that evening is not, and with the sun this low it is the only thing that decides what you see. The pass scores the coast three days out.Every solar eclipse visible from Madeira up to 2028
| Date | From Madeira | Sun covered | Madeira time | Sun at maximum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 August 2026 | Partial | 77.4% | 18:49 to 20:41 | 13.6° W |
| 6 February 2027 | Partial | 2.3% | 17:36 to 18:30 | 7.2° SW |
| 2 August 2027 | Partial Deepest | 97.0% | 08:33 to 10:43 | 26.3° E |
| 26 January 2028 | Annular, a ring | 83.2% | 15:19 to 18:08 | 18.1° SW |
Times are Funchal local and move by about a minute between the east and west ends of the island. The percentage column is obscuration, the fraction of the sun's area that is hidden, which is what you see. Most sites publish magnitude instead, which is the fraction of its diameter, and at small values the two are nowhere near each other: on 6 February 2027 the moon takes 7.4% of the diameter and 2.3% of the area. Sources: timeanddate.com for the times and magnitudes, theskylive.com for the obscuration.
2 August 2027: the deep one
What Madeira gets, and what it does not
The eclipse of 2 August 2027 is total, but the shadow track crosses southern Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Libya and Egypt, several hundred kilometres east and south of here. Over Luxor totality lasts 6 minutes 23 seconds, the longest over land this century. From Madeira the moon covers 97.0% of the sun and stops there. That last three percent is not a rounding detail: no corona appears and the sky never goes dark. It stays daylight from first contact to last.
Times, and which way to face
From Funchal the partial phase runs 08:33 to 10:43 local time, maximum at 09:35. The sun is 13.5 degrees above the horizon at first contact, 26.3 at maximum and 40.6 degrees when the moon finally leaves, on bearings of 77, 85 and 94 degrees. That is east, swinging slightly north of east, climbing the whole way. Sunrise is at 07:23, so the event begins over an hour after the sun is up, and it runs 2 hours and 10 minutes end to end.
Why every 2026 viewpoint is the wrong one
In August 2026 the sun sinks into the west-north-west, 13.6 degrees up at maximum and down to 2.3 at last contact, so what the evening needs is an open sea horizon on the west coast, and the obstacle is the island itself. In August 2027 the sun is in the east and climbing past 26.3 degrees. The two events sit in opposite halves of the sky, about 195 degrees apart in bearing. Somewhere that works for one has either the whole central massif or the whole ocean in the wrong direction for the other. Any spot list written for this August is actively misleading for next August, ours included.
What can be known a year out, and what cannot
Not the weather. Numerical models run about sixteen days ahead, so nothing published today is a forecast for 2 August 2027, and anything presented as one is invented. What is knowable now is the climatology: early August is the peak of the north-east trade flow, which stacks cloud against the north coast while the south and the far west stay clear more often, and it is also the season when Saharan dust is most likely in the air. Neither of those decides a single morning. That gets decided about three days out, which is when a forecast for one specific sky first exists at all.
12 August 2026: a low western sun
Times and cover
From Funchal the partial phase runs 18:49 to 20:41 Madeira time, maximum at 19:46, when 77.4% of the sun's disc is covered. Sunset follows at 20:57, so the eclipse ends about a quarter of an hour before the sun does and none of it happens in the dark. The sun falls from 25.5 degrees at first contact to 13.6 at maximum and 2.3 at last contact, on bearings 272, 279 and 286.
The coast is the whole decision
A sun 13.6 degrees above the sea is looking through several times the air a midday sun crosses, so haze and low cloud that would be invisible overhead are enough to erase it. A bank sitting off one coast hides the entire event while the interior stays sunny, and on this island the north and the south routinely run different weather within the same hour. You cannot pick the side in advance. It becomes answerable a few days out.
How dark does 97% actually get?
Not dark
Obscuration is not brightness. The sun is roughly four hundred thousand times brighter than a full moon, so taking away 97.0% of its area still leaves something thousands of times stronger than a full moon overhead. What you notice at that depth is the light going cold and faintly metallic, shadows sharpening in a way that is hard to place, and the temperature dropping. No stars come out. Someone who has not been told it is happening can miss it.
The difference the last three percent makes
Totality is a different event, not a stronger version of this one. The corona, the horizon glowing the whole way round, the drop into something like deep twilight, and the one stretch where the sun can be looked at safely with bare eyes all belong to the seconds when the disc is fully covered. At 97.0% none of them happen. Worth knowing before you decide whether to fly to Spain or Morocco instead, which for this eclipse is a short flight.
Eye safety, which is not the optional part
Use eclipse glasses certified to ISO 12312-2 and nothing else. Sunglasses, smoked glass, exposed film and welding glass below shade 14 are all useless here. Never look through binoculars, a telescope or a camera viewfinder while wearing eclipse glasses, because the optics concentrate the light and burn straight through the filter. The retina has no pain receptors, so a 97.0% eclipsed sun feels comfortable enough to keep staring at while it is doing permanent damage, and the harm shows up hours later.
Related
- Where the sun sets in Madeira, and how the season moves it
- Live webcams: what the sky is doing right now
- Madeira weather month by month, including August
- Why the forecast for Funchal is not the forecast up the mountain
Questions
Will Madeira see totality on 2 August 2027?
No. The path of totality passes south and east of the island, across southern Spain, Morocco and North Africa. From Madeira it is a partial eclipse, 97.0% of the sun's disc covered at maximum. There is no corona and no darkness.
What time is the eclipse in Madeira on 2 August 2027?
From Funchal it begins at 08:33, reaches maximum at 09:35 and ends at 10:43, all Madeira local time, 2 hours and 10 minutes end to end. The sun is in the east, 26.3 degrees above the horizon at maximum.
Which is better from Madeira, 2026 or 2027?
2027 covers more sun, 97.0% against 77.4%, and it happens with the sun 26.3 degrees up in a mid-morning sky, so low cloud has less chance to sit in front of it. 2026 is the more photogenic of the two: a crescent sun low over the Atlantic a quarter of an hour before sunset. They also need opposite sides of the island, so they are not the same trip run twice.
Do I need to book or pay anything to watch?
No. Both are visible from any public place with a clear view in the right direction, and no trail booking is involved. The only equipment that matters is certified eclipse glasses.
When is the next annular or total eclipse visible from Madeira?
26 January 2028 brings an annular eclipse, a ring of fire, and it is visible from Funchal itself: 7 minutes and 1 second of ring from 16:47, with the sun 18 degrees above the south-west. It is the only one of the four where the moon sits entirely inside the sun's disc, which is what leaves the ring.