First Photos of Total Solar Eclipse Capture Stunning NASA Images

A total solar eclipse crossed a narrow path of totality on August 12, 2026, plunging the daytime sky into twilight for roughly 90 seconds and allowing NASA scientists to capture rare imagery of the sun’s outer atmosphere. According to NASA, the livestreamed event showed the moon completely blocking the visible surface of the sun from a path that stretched from near the North Pole to Greenland, western Iceland, and northern Spain.

Captured Solar Features and Corona Imagery

Images captured by NASA scientists using a solar-filtered telescope revealed the sun’s elusive corona shining as white spikes of light around the black circle of the moon. According to NASA, the corona remains mysterious because it is millions of degrees hotter than the sun’s surface, a temperature disparity scientists do not yet fully understand.

The telescope imagery also captured a bright-pink prominence on the left side of the solar surface. NASA identified the feature not as a solar flare, but as a towering structure of plasma held in place by powerful magnetic fields. These prominences often measure many times taller than Earth is wide, making them visible from 93 million miles away. Additional imagery taken just before totality showed Baily’s Beads and the diamond ring effect shining through uneven mountains on the edge of the moon.

Viewing Conditions and Regional Coverage

While the path of totality offered a complete view of the solar blockage, viewers outside that narrow corridor experienced partial eclipses. According to observations detailed in NASA’s livestream coverage, parts of Europe experienced partial coverage of up to 90 percent. Meanwhile, observers in the northeastern United States and Canada saw a much humbler partial coverage ranging between 10 percent and 25 percent.

The celestial events continued into the night following the eclipse as the Perseid meteor shower reached its peak. Because the solar eclipse coincided with a new moon, NASA noted that stargazers faced an especially dark sky that allowed for the potential visibility of up to 75 shooting stars per hour.

Upcoming Lunar and Solar Eclipses

The August 12 event marks the beginning of a sequence of astronomical occurrences, with a lunar eclipse scheduled to follow in two weeks. According to NASA, a deep partial lunar eclipse will be visible across most of North and South America starting around midnight EDT on August 27 through August 28. During that event, the moon will become almost completely engulfed in Earth’s shadow, taking on a faint reddish hue.

Looking further ahead, astronomers are already preparing for the longest total solar eclipse of the century. That upcoming solar spectacle is scheduled for August 2, 2027, when totality will be visible from southern Spain and northern Africa.