For the first time in 170 years, Sydney will see a total solar eclipse

Grab your glasses and some friends – Australia is set to witness something special: five total solar eclipses over the next 15 years. Total solar eclipses are rare and if you remain in a single location, you could be waiting 360 years for a second one.

“An eclipse path is only a few hundred kilometres wide, so you have to be lucky to have one pass over your area,” says astronomer Nick Lomb. “Luckily, Australia is a big place, so we do get our share. Looking back over the last hundred years or so, there was one in 1857, one in 1871, three in a very short period – 1908, 1910, 1911, then 1922 – and then nothing until 1974. One in 1976, then nothing for 26 years until 2002.”