(CNN) – If photos of the dazzling “ring of fire” that danced across the skies over South America on Wednesday sparked eclipse fever, sky watchers won’t have to wait too long to see more celestial spectacles next year.
While there won’t be another “ring of fire” event until 2026, opportunities to see the Moon obscure part of the Sun’s surface are just around the corner.
Annular solar eclipses like the one that just occurred happen when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. The silver orb is near or at the farthest point in its orbit from our planet, so it cannot completely block the Sun. as he does during a total solar eclipse. But the alignment allows the Moon to obscure most of the Sun, creating the amazing “ring of fire” effect.
In 2025 there will be two partial solar eclipses. A partial solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth without being perfectly aligned, causing the Moon to partially obscure the Sun and form a crescent shape.
The first partial solar eclipse will occur on March 29, 2025, and will be visible from a portion of the northeastern United States and Canada, as well as Greenland, Iceland, and parts of Europe and northwest Africa.
A second partial solar eclipse will arrive six months later on September 21, but only a few lucky nations in Oceania, including New Zealand, Fiji and a small part of Australia, and Antarctica will be able to see the spectacle.
Another annular solar eclipse will arrive on February 17, 2026. The full spectacle will only be visible from Antarctica, but a partial eclipse will still be seen off the main path from southern Africa and South America, according to NASA.
Finally, a total solar eclipse, like the one that attracted millions of viewers in North America last April, will once again grace the skies on August 12, 2026. A total solar eclipse is very different from a partial eclipse or solar eclipse event. ring of fire, as the Moon completely covers the Sun, casting a shadow that plunges a swath of the Earth into darkness for minutes.
The total eclipse will pass through Greenland, Iceland, Russia, Spain and a small part of Portugal, while a partial eclipse will be visible in parts of Europe, Africa and North America.
To witness any of these solar eclipse events, be sure to wear certified eclipse glasses or a portable solar viewer to protect your eyes from the sun’s harmful rays and view the event safely. If you don’t have these glasses, you can use a telescope, binoculars, or a camera that has a special solar filter on the front, which acts the same way eclipse glasses would.
But don’t look through any optical devices (camera lens, telescope, binoculars) while using eclipse glasses or a portable solar viewer, according to NASA. The sun’s rays can still burn the filter of your glasses or visor, given the concentration they can have through an optical device, and can cause serious eye damage.
For globetrotters eager to see more events, below are the dates of other upcoming total solar eclipses and where they will traverse their paths:
July 22, 2028: Australia and New Zealand
November 25, 2030: Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, Australia
March 20, 2034: Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China
September 2, 2035: China, North Korea, South Korea, Japan
July 13, 2037: Australia and New Zealand
December 26, 2038: Australia and New Zealand
April 30, 2041: Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia
April 20, 2042: Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines
April 9, 2043: Russia
