How to watch the 'ring of fire' solar eclipse online today

Editor's note: The "ring of fire" solar eclipse of 2021 has ended. See video and photos of the eclipse here in our full story. And here's our photo gallery of the eclipse.


'Ring of Fire' solar eclipse 2021

June 2021 starry night New moon and annular solar eclipse

(Image credit: Starry Night)

If you snap a photo of the 2021 annular solar eclipse let us know! You can send images and comments to spacephotos@space.com.

If you can't catch the next solar eclipse in person, there are several places where you can watch the event live.

The 2021 "ring of fire" annular solar eclipse on Thursday (June 10) will be partially visible from the United States, northern Canada, Europe, northern Asia, Russia and Greenland, according to Time and Date (opens in new tab). Space.com has a detailed guide about how to view the eclipse safely in the United States — make sure never to look at the sun without proper equipment, which is listed in the Space.com article.

If you can't see the eclipse due to geography, cloudy conditions or quarantine restrictions, several online streams have you covered.

Related: Visibility maps to see the annular solar eclipse of 2021
More: When, where and how to see the 'ring of fire' solar eclipse of 2021

Virtual Telescope Project

The Virtual Telescope Project, which is based near Rome, will host yet another livestream with international participation from observers in Canada based in Ontario (Toronto, Thunder Bay and Ottawa), British Columbia (Victoria) and New Brunswick (Saint John). The event starts at 4 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), and you can watch it live on YouTube or via The Virtual Telescope Project's website (opens in new tab).

NASA

NASA will stream a live webcast showing views of the partial solar eclipse (not the "ring of fire" peak) on NASA TV. 

The livestream will begin at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT), but will appear dark until sunrise at 5:47 a.m. EDT (0947 GMT). The webcast is highly dependent on weather, NASA officials said (opens in new tab), but will be accessible via the agency's public NASA TV channel, which you can find on YouTube here.

TimeandDate.com

TimeandDate.com will livestream the eclipse on YouTube (opens in new tab) at 5 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT) and also has a web page showcasing several streaming partners (opens in new tab) that will be helping out from the United States and Canada.

Royal Observatory Greenwich

In the United Kingdom, Royal Museums Greenwich (near London) is hosting a livestream from the Royal Observatory (opens in new tab), which is the traditionally situated location of the prime meridian. The livestream starts at 5:05 a.m. EDT (1005 GMT) on both Facebook (opens in new tab) and YouTube (opens in new tab).

"Our expert astronomy team will help explain the science of solar eclipses and answer all your space questions," the observatory said in a statement (opens in new tab). "You'll see exactly the same view as our astronomers, with a live telescope feed of the Sun from our state-of-the-art Annie Maunder Astrographic Telescope."

The next solar eclipse — which is total in Antarctica and partial in South Africa and the south Atlantic — will take place on Dec. 4, according to NASA (opens in new tab). Solar eclipses happen when the moon moves between the Earth and the sun, but due to the small size of our moon compared with our solar neighbor, catching a total eclipse is a relatively rare event.

Editor's Note: If you snap an amazing night sky picture and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photos, comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com. This story was updated on June 9 to include NASA's webcast details.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

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Elizabeth Howell
Staff Writer, Spaceflight

Elizabeth Howell (she/her), Ph.D., is a staff writer in the spaceflight channel since 2022 covering diversity, education and gaming as well. She was contributing writer for Space.com (opens in new tab) for 10 years before joining full-time, freelancing since 2012. Elizabeth's reporting includes multiple exclusives with the White House and Office of the Vice-President of the United States, an exclusive conversation with aspiring space tourist (and NSYNC bassist) Lance Bass, speaking several times with the International Space Station, witnessing five human spaceflight launches on two continents, working inside a spacesuit, and participating in a simulated Mars mission. Her latest book, "Why Am I Taller?", is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University and (soon) a Bachelor of History from Athabasca University. Elizabeth is also a post-secondary instructor in communications and science since 2015. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday. Mastodon: https://qoto.org/@howellspace