The total solar eclipse of 2 August 2027, from Luxor, Egypt

Luxor, Egypt: over six minutes of totality, within two seconds of the longest available anywhere on this eclipse, with the monuments of Thebes underneath it.

Planning to stand here? Your Eclipse Day prints this morning to the second for your coordinates, as a printable plan, a pocket field card and a calendar file with alarms.

Local contact times

All times are for Luxor on Monday, 2 August 2027, in local clock time, computed for latitude 25.699, longitude 32.642 at sea level. A few hundred meters of elevation moves these by well under a second.

Sun altitude at maximum

82 degrees (almost directly overhead)

Most of the Sun covered

100 percent

Duration of totality

6 min 21 sec

Whole eclipse lasts

2 hr 46 min

Time zone

Africa/Cairo

Coordinates used

25.699, 32.642

Which way the shadow moves

The Moon's shadow reaches Luxor from the northwest and leaves toward the southeast, crossing at about 2,400 km/h. In the final minute before totality the darkening builds in the northwest sky, sweeps over, and races off toward the southeast. CycleCalcs computes this from the local timing gradient around the town.

How much room is there

Luxor sits about 143 km from the nearest edge of the path, measured along its own meridian (the perpendicular distance is less), which is comfortable margin.

It is close enough to the center line that a short drive gains little.

Distances are measured due north along this town's meridian. The path runs southeast here, so the true shortest hop is a little less than these figures: treat them as an upper bound. And on eclipse morning every road toward the center line carries everyone else's identical plan, so be in position early.

What 6 min 21 sec of totality actually is

For 6 min 21 sec the Moon covers the whole of the Sun's disk. Daylight collapses into a deep, strange twilight, the temperature dips, and the corona, the Sun's outer atmosphere, invisible from the ground at any other time, stands out around a black disk. Because the shadow is only a few hundred kilometers wide, the horizon glows with sunset colors in every direction at once. The brighter stars can come out; among the planets, Jupiter stands about twenty degrees from the eclipsed Sun, while Venus, the showpiece of most total eclipses, sits within three degrees of it that morning and stays lost in the glare. Nothing at 99 percent resembles this. A deep partial eclipse dims the day but never reveals the corona, which is why the margin section above matters.

What to expect here

Luxor sits almost exactly on the center line, and it is the reason this eclipse has been circled on calendars for decades. Totality runs well over six minutes with the Sun more than 80 degrees up, which is close to straight overhead: there is no horizon haze to fight and no need for a raised viewpoint. Early August in Upper Egypt is also about as reliable a sky as eclipse chasing offers, which is a rarer combination than it sounds. The real planning problem is the heat.

On weather there is little left to plan: August cloud over Upper Egypt is about as close to zero as climatology gets. Heat, and at worst a little wind-blown dust, are the practical concerns.

Frequently asked questions

What time is totality in Luxor?

Totality in Luxor begins at 13:02:06 GMT+3 and ends at 13:08:27 GMT+3 local time, lasting 6 min 21 sec. In UTC, that is 10:02:06 to 10:08:27. CycleCalcs computes these times for latitude 25.699, longitude 32.642.

Is Luxor in the path of totality on August 2, 2027?

Yes. Luxor is inside the path: the Sun is completely covered for 6 min 21 sec, with maximum eclipse at 13:05:17 GMT+3 local time.

Which direction does the eclipse shadow come from in Luxor?

The shadow reaches Luxor from the northwest and leaves toward the southeast, crossing at about 2,400 km/h. In the final minute before totality the darkening builds in the northwest sky.

Can I see the eclipse from my location?

These times hold for Luxor and a few kilometers around it. Totality exists only inside a narrow path, though a partial eclipse covers a far wider region. For any other spot, the CycleCalcs Eclipse Explorer computes local contact times and coverage for coordinates you give it.

Is the eclipse safe for children to watch?

Yes, with the same rules as adults: certified eclipse glasses meeting ISO 12312-2 for every partial phase, and bare eyes only from the last bead of sunlight to ten seconds before the computed end of the 6 min 21 sec of totality. The moments that need an adult's attention are around 13:02:06 GMT+3, when filters come off once the last bead of sunlight is gone, and 13:08:17 GMT+3, ten seconds before the computed end, when they go back on, or sooner at the first bead of sunlight: totality can end a few seconds before the computed time.

Checking another location

This page is computed for one set of coordinates. For anywhere else, including a specific hotel, a viewpoint or a spot out on the path, the Eclipse Explorer computes local contact times and how much of the Sun is covered for any location you give it, and the main page for this eclipse carries the global circumstances, the Saros series and the shape of the path.

These are smooth-limb times, at the lunar radius NASA's canon adopts for totality. The Moon's edge is mountainous, so the exact instants totality begins and ends shift by a second or two depending on which lunar valley the last sliver of Sun drains through. That correction is smaller than the difference a short drive makes, and smaller than the error in standing somewhere other than these exact coordinates. Every figure here is a computed fact you may reuse freely; see how these were computed.

The same eclipse from other towns

Every town below is computed the same way, so the durations are directly comparable.