About the 2028 Guide
Eclipse 2028 is a static guide to the 22 July 2028 total solar eclipse across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, edited for practical viewing decisions rather than tour sales.
About the editor
The site is written and operated by Mark Mayo through the Eclipse 2028 Project. Mark has stood in the Moon's shadow at three total solar eclipses: in Siberia on 1 August 2008, in Patagonia on 11 July 2010, and at Cairns, Queensland on 14 November 2012 — the last total solar eclipse to cross Australia before the 2028 event. That experience shapes the editorial bias of this guide: totality is worth travelling for, weather planning beats optimism, and the difference between a good viewing site and a famous one matters more than most first-time viewers expect.
The project is independent: it does not sell eclipse tours, reserve viewing sites, or take payment for placement in the city guides. The editorial goal is to give readers a clear starting point for choosing where to watch, what time local events occur, what safety equipment is required, and when a location is partial rather than total.
Contact is available through the contact page for corrections, source questions, media requests, astronomy-club coordination, and public-viewing feedback. Please include the affected URL, the proposed correction, and the source you are using so the issue can be checked quickly.
Source methodology: reproducible eclipse calculations
The interactive calculator uses one coherent prediction set: Fred Espenak’s detailed NASA GSFC VSOP87/ELP2000-85 Besselian elements for 22 July 2028, published with ΔT = 72.1 seconds and a 03:00 TDT polynomial epoch. The matching map uses NASA’s WGS 84 northern limit, southern limit and central-line table. The coefficients, path fixtures, source URLs, retrieval date and assumptions are checked into the site at data/eclipse-2028-nasa.json so another person can reproduce the inputs without inspecting minified code.
For a supplied WGS 84 geodetic latitude, longitude and ellipsoidal observer height, the browser evaluates NASA’s x, y, declination, l1, l2 and ephemeris-hour-angle polynomials at each trial TDT, including the standard 0.00417807° per second ΔT correction to rotate the terrestrial observer into the dynamical-time fundamental plane. It converts the observer to geocentric coordinates using an equatorial Earth radius of 6,378,140 metres and polar ratio 0.99664719, then solves the shadow-axis separation. Bracketed bisection finds first and fourth contact where the separation equals the local penumbral radius, and second and third contact where it equals the local umbral radius. A bounded minimisation between first and fourth contact finds local maximum. TDT is converted to UTC with the stated 72.1-second ΔT; no browser clock or network service enters the result.
Magnitude is derived from the local fundamental-plane radii and axis separation. Obscuration uses the unequal apparent solar and lunar disc radii and their circle-overlap area, rather than treating the discs as equal. Sun elevation is calculated from the Besselian declination, local hour angle and observer latitude at maximum. Automated checks cover the published coefficients, contact ordering, the NASA greatest-eclipse location, several NASA central-line samples, city-centre comparisons, path-edge behaviour, altitude sensitivity and UTC conversion.
Prediction-set choice: NASA’s Five Millennium search page also exposes an older ELP2000-82 set with ΔT = 76.6 seconds. The calculator does not mix those coefficients with the newer detailed path table. Keeping the 72.1-second VSOP87/ELP2000-85 elements and their WGS 84 table together makes the calculation internally reproducible. The selected ΔT is still a prediction of Earth rotation for 2028, not a measured future value.
Limits: this is a coordinate-specific Besselian calculation, not a claim of lunar-limb exactness. NASA’s model references the Moon’s centre of mass and omits its mountain-and-valley profile; NASA estimates roughly 1–3 kilometres of path-edge movement and 1–3 seconds of duration change from that omission. The solver also omits atmospheric refraction, terrain and horizon obstructions. Zero metres is used when no observer height is supplied. UTC is authoritative; fixed AWST, ACST, AEST and NZST labels are transparent regional conveniences for July rather than a global timezone service.
Static city pages retain their named city-centre source values and link to the source used for each row. They are editorial planning anchors, while the interactive tool is an independent coordinate calculation. That distinction matters because duration and total-or-partial status can change quickly near a path edge.
Weather notes are planning context, not forecasts. The weather guide uses named Australian Bureau of Meteorology stations and preserves each published metric and record length. Mean cloudy days, rainfall, and rain days answer different questions; none is a direct probability that totality will be obscured. Final decisions should use current Bureau forecasts, satellite imagery, warnings, road conditions, and local advice closer to 22 July 2028.
Editorial standards
Each guide separates verified circumstances from planning judgement. When a city is outside totality, the page says so directly. When a duration depends on the observation point, the page describes it as a city-center value. Direct-viewing guidance follows NASA and the American Astronomical Society: use solar viewers that conform to ISO 12312-2 during every partial phase, and secure a suitable solar filter over the front of any camera lens, binoculars, or telescope.
Medical review limit: the solar-retinopathy guide is edited from linked National Eye Institute and American Academy of Ophthalmology material, but it has not been reviewed by an optometrist, ophthalmologist, or other medical professional. It is educational content, not diagnosis or individual medical advice.
The site avoids account walls, booking forms, and server-side personalization so pages remain fast, crawlable, and usable on weak connections during trip planning.
Correction policy
Corrections are prioritized when they affect a reader's decision: contact times, totality status, duration, magnitude, safety wording, city-center assumptions, broken source links, and travel guidance that could mislead visitors. Minor style suggestions are welcome, but factual corrections should include a source or enough detail to reproduce the issue.
When a correction is accepted, the affected page is updated and the sitemap date is changed so search engines have a recrawl signal. If a source disagrees with another source, the page will state the uncertainty rather than hiding it behind a false precision.
Human review cadence
Core pages are reviewed after source updates and after any change to the generated city guides. Current editorial priorities are deeper location-specific viewing guidance, clearer sun-geometry explanations for the low winter Sun in the South Island, and expanded planning content as public eclipse-day events are announced.
Before eclipse week, the review cadence should increase because travel conditions, official public-event planning, accommodation pressure, and safety-equipment availability will matter more than they do in the early planning years.
What this site does not do
The site does not promise clear skies, provide medical advice, certify viewing glasses, sell tour packages, or guarantee access to any named viewing location. It is a planning guide and source index. Final travel decisions should include official local advice, road conditions, current forecasts, accessibility needs, and safe equipment for every person in the group.