Published: August 16, 2026 3:15 pm
Author: RT
The rare celestial event, visible across much of Europe and northwestern Russia, was caught on camera from orbit
Striking footage from Russia’s Arktika-M satellite has been released of this week’s total solar eclipse, showing the Moon’s shadow sweeping across Earth.
Russian space corporation Roscosmos shared the video on Telegram, giving viewers a glimpse of the eclipse from hundreds of kilometers above Earth.
Roscosmos also shared another view from orbit, publishing four photographs taken by cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov from the International Space Station, around 400 km above Earth. The images show the Moon progressively ‘eating’ into the Sun from different sides.
The total eclipse occurred on August 12, with the path of totality stretching from Greenland and Iceland across the Atlantic to parts of Spain, Portugal, and northern Russia. A partial eclipse was visible across much of Europe, North America, and northwest Africa.
Total solar eclipses occur somewhere on Earth roughly every 18 months, but any given location can wait centuries to experience one.
© Roscosmos
The next total solar eclipse is due on August 2, 2027, when totality will pass across southern Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen, according to the US National Solar Observatory.
