It is one of nature’s most spectacular shows. Next week – for the first time in almost two years – the Earth, Moon and Sun will fall into perfect alignment and produce a total solar eclipse. The Moon’s umbra (the dark part of the Moon’s shadow, where the Sun is completely obscured) will touch down in the South Pacific on 2 July and, in just 2 hours 44 minutes, trace a path of totality that extends more than 11,000 km around the globe.

Yet a total eclipse is also one of nature’s most elusive shows. The path of totality may be thousands of kilometres long, but it is only about 160 km wide. Plus, the umbra seems to enjoy making things complicated. For the first 10,000 km of its journey across the Earth next week, for instance, the only landmass that the umbra encounters will be the remote coral atoll of Oeno (part of the Pitcairn Islands group). And although the umbra completes its journey by crossing Chile and Argentina, the average cloud amount is more than 50% for most of this overland phase.

The point is, catching totality is not a straightforward exercise. You have to make sure you’re in the right place at the right time, and it helps to pay attention to the weather prospects. There are many people who have a total solar eclipse on their list of things to do in life; there are far fewer people who manage to plan ahead, put everything together, and actually get to experience totality.

With this in mind, here is a guide to the next seven total solar eclipses, which takes us up to the end of the 2020s. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to watch the Sun slowly be eaten away, to feel the change in the air as totality approaches, to hear the gasps of the people around you as they behold the solar corona – “one of the most brilliant and splendid phenomena that can well be imagined” as the astronomer Francis Baily said in 1842 – it’s time to start thinking ahead.

The above map shows the next seven paths of totality, and the notes below highlight some of the places that the umbra visits. The map and the following data on length of totality and average cloud cover are from timeanddate.com/eclipse.

14 December 2020: Chile and Argentina

It hardly seems fair. Next week’s total solar eclipse crosses Chile and Argentina; the one after that, 17 months later, crosses the same two countries again. (Fun fact: Chile and Argentina also shared/share annular eclipses – where the moon is too far away to cover the sun completely – in 2017, 2024 and 2027.)

4 December 2021: Antartica

One of the interesting points about this eclipse, other than its inaccessibility, is the shape of the path of totality on the map. Usually, the umbra sweeps gracefully from left to right, but in the polar regions the distortions of the map can make it appear as if the umbra turns back on itself.

20 April 2023: Australia, Timor-Leste and Indonesia

A rare hybrid eclipse. It begins as an annular eclipse over the southern Indian Ocean; turns into a total eclipse; crosses Australia’s North West Cape (a 100 km-long peninsula, 1000 km north of Perth), Timor-Leste (also known as East Timor) and the sparsely populated Indonesian province of West Papua; then turns back into an annular eclipse over the western Pacific.

8 April 2024: Mexico, USA and Canada

Seven years after the Great American Eclipse swept across the US from Oregon to South Carolina, the Great North American Eclipse runs from the Mexican state of Sinaloa to the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

12 August 2026: Greenland, Iceland and Spain

An evening total eclipse across Spain, from the coast of Galicia to the island of Mallorca. “Observers should look from elevated sites or places with no tall buildings or mountains towards the west horizon,” says Amelia Ortiz-Gil, an astronomer at the University of Valencia. “The sun will be quite low in the sky.”

2 August 2027: Atlantic, Mediterranean, Red Sea and Indian Ocean

The decade’s most multinational total eclipse crosses 12 countries/territories from Morocco to the British Indian Ocean Territory. The duration of totality at the point of greatest eclipse – which reaches 6 min 23 sec near Luxor in Egypt – will be the longest until the year 2114.

22 July 2028: Australia and New Zealand

This kicks off something of a golden period for Australasian total eclipses: the umbra will cross Australia again in 2030, and both Australia and New Zealand in 2037 and 2038.

Good luck with your planning, and always remember: NEVER look directly at the sun without protecting your eyes.