~/eventsWednesday 12 August 2026 · verified by hand
The partial solar eclipse of 12 August 2026, seen from Luxembourg
This eclipse has already happened
The page stays online for the record. The next partial eclipse visible from Luxembourg is not covered here.
This is the biggest sky event over Luxembourg in years, and almost nobody is talking about it yet. Nearly nine tenths of the Sun disappears behind the Moon in the middle of the evening. It is a partial eclipse here, never total, and the whole thing plays out very low over the horizon: the Sun sets before the eclipse is over.
Every figure below was cross-checked against at least two independent sources, and every venue was opened at its organiser's own page before being listed.
19:21
0.0 %of the Sun hidden
altitude 14.4° · azimuth 276°
The eclipse as it unfolds over Luxembourg City, computed from the three published contact times. The Sun's disc is drawn much larger than life, and the orientation of the crescent is schematic; the path, the timings and the amount hidden are real.
89.6%
of the Sun's surface hidden at maximum
5,9°
above the horizon at that moment, to the west-northwest
A warning about wording: several sites announce “91.1% covered”. That is the magnitude, the fraction of the Sun's diameter, not of its surface. The honest figure for how much of the Sun disappears is the obscuration, 89.6% (magnitude 0.911).
The evening, minute by minute
Luxembourg City, local time (CEST). Altitude is the Sun's height above the horizon.
19 h 210 % hidden · altitude 14,4° · azimuth 276°First contact. The Moon bites into the disc, the Sun is still well up in the west-southwest.
20 h 1589.6 % hidden · altitude 5,9° · azimuth 286°Maximum. Nearly nine tenths of the Sun is gone. This is the moment to be outside.
20 h 588.6 % hidden · altitude 0° · azimuth 294°Sunset, with the eclipse still running: about 8% of the Sun is still covered as it goes down. Aim for the maximum, not the end.
21 h 070 % hidden · altitude −1,2° · azimuth 296°Geometric end, below the horizon. Not observable from Luxembourg.
Will you actually see it?
The weather is on your side
MeteoLux, in its bulletin of Monday 10 August, forecasts a sunny afternoon and a clear evening sky for Wednesday, 31 to 33 degrees, no rain. The decisive figure is low cloud, and all three models I checked again this morning, the DWD's ICON, the ECMWF and Météo-France, give zero percent low cloud between 18:00 and 21:00, with modelled visibility above 50 km.
The models now disagree about HIGH cloud, and that changed overnight: ICON sees almost none, 0 to 2 percent, the ECMWF 11 to 15, and Météo-France 75 to 85. Thin cirrus would veil the disc and soften it, not hide it. Rechecked on the morning of 10 August; look again on Tuesday evening.
The horizon is not
At 5.9 degrees, a single building, tree or valley side to the west-northwest takes the whole thing away from you. You need a clear line down to the ground between roughly 280 and 290 degrees of azimuth.
In Luxembourg City the Alzette and Pétrusse valleys and the built-up plateau rule out most viewpoints, and I could not find a single public panorama in the capital whose westward view is documented. Do not plan to improvise on the night: go and look from your spot the evening before, at the same hour.
Where to watch
Sorted by distance from Luxembourg City. All free, none requiring a booking. Each one is in the agenda, with its own page.
Solar Eclipse Day 2026
~30 km
Däichhal, 6 rue du Deich, Ettelbruck
The one public eclipse event in the Grand Duchy that is free and needs no booking. Nightwise runs it with the Université Populaire du Luxembourg and the Luxembourg Science Center, supported by the Ville d'Ettelbruck. Workshops and solar science from 17:00, supervised observation of the eclipse with a livestream from 19:00 to 20:00, food, then Perseid meteors through telescopes from 21:00. Certified eclipse glasses are provided on site.
Solar eclipse viewing on the Konrad-Adenauer bridge
~30 km, about 30 min
Pont Konrad-Adenauer, Thionville, Moselle, France
The longest and best equipped public viewing in the whole Greater Region, and only half an hour from Luxembourg City. Six volunteers from the La Grande Ourse astronomy club set up filtered telescopes on the bridge over the Moselle from 15:00 to 22:00, with the Ville de Thionville. Free, no booking. Eclipse glasses are handed out on request while stocks last. The evening carries on with a free open-air screening of Wall-E at 21:00 in the parc Napoléon.
The Ville de Metz and the Société d'Astronomie de Metz gather the public on the banks of the Plan d'eau from 18:30. Free, no booking. The city has 2,500 pairs of certified eclipse glasses to hand out, one per family on site, and they have also been available since 5 August in the neighbourhood town halls.
The Amateurastronomen des Saarlandes open the observatory grounds from 19:00. Free entry, no booking. Members' telescopes are set up outside, and the eclipse is relayed live on a screen in the lecture room and on the observatory's YouTube channel, which is the fallback if cloud rolls in. Perseid watching follows in the night.
Each one is somewhere you might reasonably head for, and should not.
Grande Nuit de l'Astronomie, Aquatower in Berdorf
Run by the national natural history museum, free but booking required, and the booking page says sold out. Waiting list only. A fine programme, but do not turn up without a place.
Luxembourg Science Center, Differdange
It devotes three days to eclipses with a new planetarium show, but it states itself that it will not observe this one: the eclipse starts around 19:00 and the centre closes at 17:00. It points visitors to Ettelbruck.
Sternwarte Trier
Both of the club's observatories, the one at the university and the one in Trier-Irsch, are open that evening to members and Astro-AG pupils only. It is written plainly on their site.
Euro Space Center, Transinne
Against all expectation, it organises nothing on the day of the eclipse. It publishes viewing advice, and its own star night falls on the 13th.
Humain radio astronomy station, Marche-en-Famenne
A fine operation for the Royal Observatory of Belgium's 200th anniversary, but registration was compulsory and it has closed. Note too that the Société Lorraine d'Astronomie in Nancy has cancelled its public viewing.
Eye safety, and why it is stricter here
There is no totality in Luxembourg. That is the crucial difference with the total-eclipse pictures everyone has in mind: over there, a few seconds exist when the naked eye is allowed. Here, never. From the first minute to the last you need a certified ISO 12312-2 filter.
✕Sunglasses do not work, however dark. They let through far more than the eye can take.
✕Smoked glass, exposed film, X-ray sheets, CDs and home-made filters are all ruled out.
✕Never point an unfiltered camera, binoculars or telescope at the Sun, and never look through one while wearing eclipse glasses: the concentrated rays destroy the filter, then the eye.
✓Pinhole projection costs nothing and carries no risk: a pinprick in a piece of card, and the Sun's image forms on the ground. It works beautifully with children.
Three days out, the French-language retailers I checked are out of stock. So the two safe routes left are an event where glasses are handed out, Ettelbruck or Thionville, or the pinhole. Source for the rule: the American Astronomical Society.
Should you chase totality?
Not from Luxembourg on the day. The path of totality crosses northernmost Siberia, the Arctic, Greenland, Iceland, the Atlantic, then northern Spain and the far northeast of Portugal. Bilbao is about 1,270 km and 13 hours of driving away, for 31 seconds of totality at the very edge of the band. Zaragoza is 15 hours away for 1 minute 24. No operator or club in the Greater Region runs a group trip from Luxembourg.
And moving around the Greater Region gains you nothing: Trier, Metz, Arlon and Saarbrücken all sit within a minute and a fraction of a degree of each other. Only your local horizon matters.
And then the Perseids
The Perseid meteor shower peaks on the night of 12 to 13 August. Ettelbruck and the Peterberg observatory both carry straight on from the eclipse into the shower, telescopes and binoculars out. Two sky events in one evening does not happen often.
Quick answers
Is the eclipse total in Luxembourg?
No. It is partial everywhere in the Grand Duchy, with 89.6% of the Sun's surface hidden at maximum. Totality is only visible from Iceland and northern Spain, among other places.
What time is the eclipse in Luxembourg?
It begins at 19:21, reaches maximum at 20:15 and the Sun sets at 20:58 while still eclipsed. The geometric end at 21:07 happens below the horizon and cannot be seen from Luxembourg. All times are local, CEST.
Where can I watch the eclipse for free near Luxembourg?
The Solar Eclipse Day at the Däichhal in Ettelbruck is free and needs no booking, with glasses provided. Thionville sets up telescopes on the Konrad-Adenauer bridge from 15:00 to 22:00. Metz hands out 2,500 pairs of glasses at the Plan d'eau from 18:30. The Peterberg observatory in Saarland opens free from 19:00.
Do I need special glasses for a partial eclipse?
Yes, from start to finish. Because there is no total phase in Luxembourg, there is no moment when looking with the naked eye is acceptable. You need filters certified to ISO 12312-2. Sunglasses are not a substitute, and neither is any improvised filter.
Will the weather be clear on 12 August 2026?
MeteoLux forecasts a clear evening sky, and four independent models give zero percent low cloud between 17:00 and 22:00. The ECMWF alone expects some high cirrus. A three-day forecast still moves, so check again the day before.
Local circumstances: timeanddate, TheSkyLive, time.now, and NASA GSFC for the magnitude and obscuration definitions. Weather: MeteoLux bulletin of 9 August, plus MET Norway, ICON, Météo-France and ECMWF through public APIs. Each venue was opened at its organiser's own page and then independently cross-checked.