Partial Solar Eclipse August 12th 2026

Aug 19

On Wednesday, 12 August 2026, the Uk witnessed one of the most impressive solar eclipses visible from the UK in decades.

Totality fell across across Iceland and northern Spain, but the UK experienced a very deep partial eclipse with approximately 94% of the Sun obscured in London and the South East

Date : 12th August 2026

Location Epsom Downs, Surrey

Start: 6.17pm … 19 degrees above the horizon
Maximum: 7.13pm … 10 degrees above the horizon
End: 8.06pm … 2 degrees above the horizon
Sunset 8.29pm

Duration: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Location

Finding a suitable location to photograph this event took quite a bit of research

Using the augmented reality feature in the Photopills app I visited locations I thought would be suitable.
However, neither Box Hill, (recommended by ChatGTP), or Leith Hill provided clear enough views to the West
The maximum of the eclipse took place at 7.15pm, by which time the sun was already quite low in the sky, and it was only when I went to Epsom Downs in Surrey that I found an unobscured view

One spot on The Downs looked particularly good with the eclipse sitting above the Grandstand (below)

*Maximum eclipse from Tattenham Corner Epsom Downs*

Despite arriving an hour before the eclipse started, finding a parking spot was very difficult!

Equipment

Nikon Z8 camera
Nikon 180-600mm lens with home made solar filter
Seestar S50
Manfroto tripod

The Seestar S50 is a compact app-controlled telescope that automatically finds and tracks targets

It’s fantastic at photographing and capturing videos of the Sun

It includes a solar filter, allowing safe and clear imaging of sunspots and surface features

Nikon Z8 with a 180-600mm lens and solar home made solar filter from Badaar Solar Film

Settings

With the camera on the tripod, and the lens with the safety filter in place, I extended the lens to 600mm
Then I switched on live view so that I could focus, and view my images, on the monitor

Focusing worked very well when I put a single focus point on the edge of the sun , giving it an area of high contrast making focusing easier.
I could have also focused in one a few of the visible sunspots to ensure the sun was in sharp focus

With the camera on a tripod I still wanted to make sure I used a fast shutter speed which I set to 1/500
Aperture was set to f6.3 which is the widest possible at 600mm
Iso was set to Auto and was around 1000. This still gave very clean images on the Nikon Z8