Interactive Eclipse Path
Click anywhere on the path viewer for the local circumstances of the 22 July 2028 total solar eclipse — contact times, duration of totality, obscuration, and the Sun's elevation.
How to use the path viewer
Click or tap any point on the eclipse track to drop a marker and calculate its circumstances. On a keyboard, focus the path graphic and press Enter to query the marker. The Use my location button reads your device’s latitude, longitude and, when the device supplies it, altitude. A clicked point uses zero metres ellipsoidal height. Nothing you enter leaves your browser: the NASA elements, WGS 84 path fixtures and solver are self-hosted, with no tile servers, API keys or tracking.
What the numbers mean
- Magnitude — the fraction of the Sun's diameter covered at maximum. A value of 1.0 or more means the Sun is completely covered: you are in the path of totality.
- Obscuration — the fraction of the Sun's area covered at maximum.
- Sun elevation — how high the Sun sits above the horizon at maximum eclipse. The 2028 event is an early-afternoon, low-winter-Sun eclipse, so a clear view toward the Sun matters.
- Contact times — first contact (partial begins), the totality window (if any), maximum, and last contact (partial ends). UTC is shown first, followed by a regional July clock conversion.
How do I read the eclipse map?
The shaded band shows the predicted path of the Moon's inner shadow, or umbra. The centreline is a reference for comparing duration; near either edge, totality becomes shorter and the exact location matters. The displayed boundary is a prediction, not a surveyed line: the model omits the Moon's irregular limb and local terrain. Do not rely on a point near the edge for a filter-free interval. Check an exact coordinate against an independent prediction, allow a substantial margin inside the path, and confirm the Sun's sightline and safe access.
The shadow travels west to east: it makes landfall on the Western Australian coast in the morning, sweeps southeast across the continent to reach inland New South Wales and Sydney in the early afternoon (Bourke at 1:52 p.m., Sydney at 2:01 p.m. AEST), then crosses the Tasman Sea to the South Island of Aotearoa New Zealand late in the day. For the mechanics behind that motion, see how eclipses work.
Is a deep partial eclipse almost as good as totality?
No — and this is the trap in the numbers. A magnitude 0.95 partial eclipse is not “95% of the experience.” The remaining sliver of Sun is still thousands of times brighter than totality. There is no corona, no darkness, no stars — and suitable solar viewers stay on for the entire event. The difference between 0.99 and 1.0 is the difference between a dim afternoon and the most dramatic sight in nature. That is why people drive hundreds of kilometres for a number that changes by a few hundredths.
How do the numbers read for a real city?
Bourke, NSW — magnitude 1.022, totality 4 minutes 6 seconds. A magnitude comfortably above 1.0 and the longest city-centre duration in this guide tell you Bourke sits deep inside the path, close to the centreline. Anywhere in town delivers essentially the full event.
Sydney — magnitude about 1.025, totality about 3 minutes 48 seconds at the listed city-centre coordinate. Duration changes with location. Wollongong has a shorter city-centre totality, while Newcastle remains partial; solar viewers are required there throughout.
Try two coordinates
Enter latitude -33.2839, longitude 149.1009, and height 0 m for the Orange city-centre example. The NASA-based calculation gives maximum about 03:58 UTC and approximately 2 minutes 10 seconds of totality. Then enter -32.9283, 151.7817, and 0 m for Newcastle: the result is partial, with magnitude about 0.994 and no totality. These coordinates are calculation examples, not verified observing sites. Check the exact location, access and horizon, and compare an independent prediction before relying on the result.
Melbourne — magnitude 0.844, no totality. A value below 1.0 means the umbra misses the city entirely. The event remains partial, so filters stay on throughout. Use the coordinate calculator for local circumstances and the city hub for the travel-to-totality decision.
How accurate is the map?
The shaded totality band uses WGS 84 northern, southern and central-line coordinates from NASA GSFC’s 2028 path table; it is not a curve fitted through cities. The readout independently solves the selected geodetic coordinate from NASA’s VSOP87/ELP2000-85 polynomial Besselian elements with ΔT fixed at 72.1 seconds. It calculates first and last contact, maximum eclipse and, inside the umbra, second and third contact. It does not interpolate city values.
This is coordinate-specific, not survey-grade or lunar-limb-exact. NASA’s elements reference the Moon’s centre of mass and omit mountains and valleys on its edge. NASA says those features can shift the predicted path limits by roughly 1–3 kilometres and change duration by roughly 1–3 seconds. The solver also omits atmospheric refraction, terrain and your actual horizon. Near a path edge, move well inside the band and consult later limb-corrected predictions before committing to a site.
UTC is the authoritative time output. AWST, ACST, AEST and NZST are fixed regional standard-time conveniences for July, not a worldwide timezone lookup. The calculation and source data remain usable offline and are documented in the reproducible methodology.
Plan the rest of your day
To see where hills or mountains would hide a low Sun, use the visibility map. Once you have a location, check its cloud-cover prospects, read the eclipse-glasses safety guide before you go, and browse the detailed city guides. If you experience eye-safety symptoms afterwards, see the eye-safety information.