Where to watch in Gibraltar

Totality here

4 min 28 sec

It begins

10:45:33

Look

High, south-east

Cloud on this date

17% since 2000

The southern tip of the peninsula: open sky in every direction, the whole Strait in front of you, and the African shore on the horizon. The Moon's shadow arrives across that water at over two thousand kilometres an hour, and this is the one place in Gibraltar where you can watch it come. Totality over the lighthouse will be the photograph everyone attempts.

Height changes the event. From the ridge you get a horizon on every side, which matters for the thing photographs never capture: during totality the sky at the edge of the shadow glows like sunset around the entire compass at once. The Skywalk's glass platform is the most dramatic single vantage on the Rock, and the reserve around it offers a hundred quieter ones.

The practical choice. First contact to last runs well over two hours, and the marinas keep you beside a table, a drink and shade while the Moon does the slow work. Open sky over the harbour, and the town's restaurants a few steps behind you.

The east side faces the open Mediterranean: a clean sea horizon, sand to sit on, and the morning sun high over the water. A dark mid-morning sky over silver water is its own kind of memory, and the beaches hold a crowd more comfortably than any street does.

• Filters on for every partial phase, off only during totality. Our glasses guide covers exactly what to buy and how to check it.
• Early August is this coast's driest, clearest stretch. timeanddate's records put cloud on this date at 17% of years since 2000 — no guarantee, but you could not pick a better month.
• The event is high in the sky, so a clear southern horizon is a bonus rather than a requirement. Shade, water and somewhere to sit matter more across a two-hour morning.