Total solar eclipses used to be the reason for wars, famine, natural disasters and bad omens in the past but not anymore. Nowadays we’re really eager to see them and tell the story to our kids. To be brief, on August 1st the sun will be completely obscured for a short two and a half minutes, visible from a narrow arc spanning the Northern Hemisphere.

The Path of Totality which is where the the moon’s shadow sweeps over, obscuring the Sun, is going to be 10,000 miles long and only 100 miles wide. It will sweep across the Earth from remote Canadian territory of Nunatak, across Greenland, to Siberia, Mongolia, and China, making it hard for scientists to observe it.

We researched where the total solar eclipse is going to be on August 1, what are the local times and what would be the best places to see it, so seat back and enjoy this virtual ride.

Greenland, Canada and Iceland

The first contact of the eclipse with Earth is going to be over the Queen Maud Gulf close to Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, Canada, at 2:04 AM (8:04 UT) and leaves the country at Alert (the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world) at 5:29 AM. In Canada the average total sun eclipse lasts for 1 minute and 30 seconds and the shadow is 206km wide.

From here it travels over the sea and then touches parts of Greenland, with Godthåb being hit for the first time at 6:11 AM, the maximum eclipse at 7:03 AM and the shadow leaving at 7:59 AM.

Iceland gets to see the total sun eclipse, too. Reykjavík has the first contact at 08:14 AM, the maximum eclipse at 09:10 AM and the fourth (and last) contact at 10:09 AM.

Russia

Traveling over the Arctic Ocean, at 12:50 PM the shadow reaches the Franz Josef Land - a 191 ice-covered islands archipelago in the far north of Russia, east of Svalbard and from here it travels over the Barents Sea to get to the Novaya Zemlya Island (Goose Land in Norwegian) - the northern part of the Ural Mountains with a mountainous throughout interior, at 2:00 PM.

One last jump over the Kara Sea and the eclipse moves on land, on the Yamal Peninsula and goes deeper and deeper into Russia. After going over the Ob Gulf, the full maximum of the eclipse is reached at 4:27:01 PM. in the middle of the West Siberian oil fields, at Noyabrsk the largest town in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The sun has the maximum altitude (34°) and is blinded for a maximum of 2 minutes and 27 seconds, the speed of the shadow is at a minimum (503 m/s) and it has the widest value (237km) so far. The weather is not going to help, because it’s going to be cloudy and should rain.

But we go further and find out that Novosibirsk is the best place to view the eclipse. It sits in Siberia in central Russia and is the country’s third largest city with some 1.5 million inhabitants. Both satellite data and surface observations show a 54-percent likelihood of sunshine and no frigid conditions on August 1, making it the perfect spot. The first contact is at 4:41:19 PM, the second contact (total eclipse starts) is at 5:44:02 PM, the maximum is at 5:45:11 PM, the third contact is at 5:46:20 PM and everything ends at 6:45:08 PM.

China & Mongolia

After Russia the eclipse moves towards the border between China and Mongolia reaching the city of Altay somewhere at 7:00 PM. This is where the second best view is. Just past the Altai Mountains on the Russia-China border, where rainfall is uncommon because the mountains block much of the weather patterns moving through this region and because the eclipse path passes between the Taklimakan and Gobi deserts. 10 minutes later the shadow moves deeper into China closely passing by Hami and leaves really fast towards cities Jiuquan and Zhangye. The adventure ends in China close to Suining, at 7:27 PM, where a sunset total eclipse gets to be seen, while the partial eclipse “dies” east of India, in the Bay of Bengal, at 5:51 PM.

And the journey is over.

Knowing that the next total solar eclipses will occur in Northern America in 2017, in Europe in 2026 and in Russia in 2030, I’m pretty sure everyone will try not to miss the present opportunity. Just make sure you’re protecting your eyes and you’re watching it with caution not damaging anything.