🌏 🌑 🌞 HOMESCHOOL SCIENCE: Solar Eclipse on 12 August 2026

The sun is eclipsed at the new moon, when the moon screens it from us.

— Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, ca. 450 B.C.

There is a solar eclipse coming up on Wednesday, 12 August 2026. Alas for North American observers, the path of totality will pass across the western edge of Europe; many Canadians will be able to see a partial eclipse, and people in the northeastern United States will be able to see a very partial eclipse. But don’t despair, Americans: you can watch the eclipse live online from the comfort of your homeschool living room (see below).

Whenever you’re looking for information about eclipses, the timeanddate.com eclipse pages are always a good place to start:

• ➢ Total Solar Eclipse, 12 August 2026 (timeanddate.com)

To get the exact timing of the eclipse for your specific locality, visit that page and enter your zipcode or city/town. The entirety of a solar eclipse, from first partial phase to last partial phase, can take two or more hours. But totality, the magnificent climax that everyone wants to see, sweeps past in only three or four minutes. Be sure to show your students the wonderful maps and animations on that page that illustrate the path of the moon’s shadow over the course of the eclipse and how small the little moving spot of totality is.

If you’re outside the range of the eclipse (as most Americans are), timeanddate.com will be broadcasting the event live from the zone of totality, so you can watch it all from the comfort of your homeschool living room. (This live video stream will become available shortly before the eclipse begins.)

The best way to follow a solar eclipse in your own back yard is by using an ordinary pair of binoculars as a projector — don’t look through them, but rather hold them pointing toward the sun and let the sun’s image pass through them onto a sheet of paper a foot or two away. You’ll get a beautiful sharp picture. (Practice your projection and focusing techniques beforehand on the regular non-eclipsed sun.) For an ideal souvenir of the day, project the eclipsed sun’s image onto your hand or your children’s hands and take a picture of it for your homeschool scrapbook.

Timeanddate.com has a handy little primer on what solar eclipses are and how they occur, as well as how to watch them safely, so you’ll be all prepared to teach a great little eclipse lesson in your homeschool. 🌏 🌑 🌞

What other celestial sights and astronomical alignments have you and your students been examining in your homeschool this Hercules Term? 🔭

❡ Remembrance of eclipses past: We have watched quite a few eclipses together in the River Houses, both solar and lunar. You can review (and rewatch!) many of them on the timeanddate.com website: 8 April 2024 (total solar), 14 October 2023 (annular solar), 7–8 November 2022 (total lunar), 15–16 May 2022 (total lunar), 18–19 November 2021 (partial lunar), 2 July 2019 (total solar), and 20–21 January 2019 (total lunar). ☀️ 🌕

❡ All the star-sown sky: Teaching your students the major constellations and the names of the brightest stars is one of the simplest and most enduring gifts you can give them. Our recommended backyard star guide and homeschool world atlas both contain charts of the constellations that will help you learn your way around the heavens. Find a dark-sky spot near you this month and spend some quality homeschool time with your students beneath the starry vault. ✨

❡ Watchers of the skies: This is one of our regular Homeschool Astronomy posts. Subscribe to our free River Houses newsletter to get more great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox every week. 🔭

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓️

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