Total eclipse — Australia & NZ (2037)
Australia's second totality in nine years, passing near Sydney and across New Zealand's North Island.
📍 Visible from where you are right now — computed in your browser
bearing · altitude · rise time · best time tonight
The moment of Total eclipse — Australia & NZ (2037): https://nowsky.org/e/solar-eclipse-2037 — opens at the right place and time, replayable, no login.
Available views: Orbit ✓ · Sky ✓
The story
On 13 July 2037 Australia enters the path of totality again, nine years after 2028. The shadow comes ashore on the Kimberley coast of Western Australia, cuts obliquely across the continent through the Northern Territory and inland Queensland, leaves over the northern New South Wales coast north of Sydney, crosses the Tasman Sea and reaches New Zealand's North Island near Auckland.
Australia sits in the middle of a "total eclipse triple" — 2028, 2037 and 2038. Three totalities over one region within ten years is rare fortune anywhere on Earth. As a mid-winter eclipse in the southern hemisphere the Sun is low, and totality is generous at up to 3 minutes 58 seconds.
On Australia's east coast totality comes in the afternoon, and in the path north of Sydney (around Newcastle and Port Macquarie) the Sun stands at mid-height. For New Zealand's North Island it is an eclipse near sunset — a black Sun low over the horizon, a rare picture.
Anyone who saw the Sydney eclipse of 2028 can compare, nine years later in the same country, a totality of an entirely different mood. The sky view replay previews the alignment over the path north of Sydney and over Auckland; central Sydney lies outside the path with a deep partial eclipse.
Why it matters
Australia's three eclipses — Sydney on 22 July 2028, 13 July 2037, and South Australia on 26 December 2038 — are members of different Saros series that happen to converge on one continent. The southern hemisphere is sparsely populated and total eclipses rarely cross inhabited land, so three in ten years make the South Pacific the centre of world eclipse observing in the 2030s.
A winter eclipse's low Sun is unfavourable for coronal work but favourable for photography. New Zealand's sunset totality gives a black Sun setting over the sea — a composition available only a few times a century.
2037 is predicted to fall in the rising phase of Solar Cycle 26, so the corona may be more active than in 2035 — a chance to compare a minimum corona (2035) with a rising-phase corona (2037) two years apart.
How to watch
Choose the 2037 eclipse in the sky view's event list to replay totality over the path north of Sydney on the afternoon of 13 July — the black Sun at mid-height in the north-west. Move the location to Auckland for totality low over the horizon near sunset, or to Sydney for the partial eclipse.
The orbit view's event replay shows the Moon's shadow cone crossing Australia from north-west to south-east and the Tasman Sea, lifting off the surface over New Zealand around sunset.
Placed beside the Sydney eclipse of 22 July 2028 and the South Australian eclipse of 26 December 2038 in the sky view, the three show how the Sun's altitude and the path direction differ.
A winter eclipse’s low Sun constrains the choice of site. Along the Australian east coast the Sun stands around 30° high at totality, so an open north-western view is needed; in inland Queensland it climbs to nearly 40° and conditions are better. Near Auckland the Sun is only a few degrees above the horizon, making a west-facing coast — somewhere like Muriwai Beach — effectively the only option. Changing the location in the sky view and measuring the Sun’s altitude at totality in advance is especially useful for this eclipse.
See this for yourself — open that sky at that moment · replay the moment in the orbit view
Background
The 2037 eclipse belongs to Saros 152; the previous member was the Chile–Argentina eclipse of 2 July 2019, and the next is 24 July 2055. Paths in the southern winter are characteristic of the series.
On the Australian east coast the main points in the path lie from north of Newcastle to between Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour; Brisbane and Sydney are outside. Inland Queensland and the Northern Territory are in the winter dry season with good odds of clear sky but difficult access.
Auckland lies inside the path but near sunset, so a coast with an open western horizon is needed. Auckland has no further total eclipse this century.
FAQ
How long is totality?
Up to 3 minutes 58 seconds.
Is it visible from Sydney?
Central Sydney is outside the path and sees a deep partial eclipse; totality begins north of Newcastle.
What about New Zealand?
Near Auckland, totality comes low over the horizon around sunset.
What are Australia's other eclipses?
Sydney on 22 July 2028 and South Australia on 26 December 2038 — three in ten years.
Related
- Total solar eclipse of 2028
- Annular eclipse — Wellington (2035)
- Total eclipse — South America (2020)
- The Sun — object index
- The Moon — object index
Times and figures are approximate — verify with official sources when planning travel. Simulation uses J2000 mean elements.