u/ekurutepe

With the August 2026 eclipse getting closer, I wanted to share something I've been building that might be useful here.

SolarWatch has a Solar Eclipse Catalog that covers every solar eclipse from 2000 to 2200. For each one you can:

• See the umbra and penumbra sweep across the Earth in a real-time simulation
• Explore obscuration bands by region
• Get local contact timelines (C1–C4) and obscuration curves for any location

For the August 2026 eclipse specifically, you can pull up your exact location and see your local obscuration percentage, timing, and how the shadow tracks across Europe.

SolarWatch is free to download and most features including Solar Eclipse Catalog are free to use. I'm a solo dev and built this because I wanted a tool to help me plan my eclipse trip with my family. We're planning to be near Llanes during the eclipse, I hope the clouds will be in our favor. With the coming updates, I'm planning to add more detailed weather data to help planning where to be during the day of the eclipse.

👉 solarwatch.app (for iOS / Apple Watch)

Happy to answer questions and curious what tools others here are using to plan for August.

Lunar shadow over the Atlantic west of Ireland

Aug 2026 Eclipse overview showing a popup with local circumstances.

Hey r/IMadeThis! I'm a solo indie developer based in Berlin, and I've been building SolarWatch, a sun-tracking app for iPhone and Apple Watch, since 2017.

My latest big update is the Solar Eclipse Catalog: a database of every solar eclipse from 2000 to 2200, built right into the app.

The lunar shadow west of Ireland

The first screenshot is the lunar shadow simulation: you can watch the umbra and penumbra sweep across the Earth in real time or scrub through it manually.

The overview of the August 2026 Total Solar Eclipse

The second is the August 2026 total eclipse, which crosses most of Western Europe. That one felt personal to build: I'm based in Berlin, we won't get totality, but we'll get a deep partial, and building this made me genuinely jealous of everyone in the path.

The catalog also lets you:

• Explore obscuration bands showing partial vs. total coverage by region
• See contact timelines and local obscuration curves for any location
• Plan around eclipses using SolarWatch's existing sunrise/sunset quality forecasts and threshold alarms

I wanted people to have a serious tool to understand and experience the August eclipse not just a "when does it happen in my city" lookup. Free to explore in the app.

👉 solarwatch.app — iOS / Apple Watch

Happy to answer questions about how I built it!