It’s a classic location – one that five members of the Fantha Tracks team along with an amazing group of fellow travellers, shall be visiting next week – and while we’ll be filming video, recording audio and taking photographs galore in search of some lifelong Star Wars memories, we’re not anticipating a lunar eclipse. However, if you’re in Tunisia on 2nd August 2027 you can delve into darkness at one of the most iconic places in the Star Wars galaxy.
On Aug. 2, 2027, the moon’s shadow will sweep across some of the most iconic filming locations from Star Wars, plunging them into darkness during what’s being called the “eclipse of the century”.
The path of the 2027 total solar eclipse will cross southern Tunisia, where several locations were used to bring the fictional desert planet Tatooine to life. From the dunes of Mos Espa to the rocky Jundland Wastes, Star Wars fans will have the rare opportunity to experience totality at the very places where their favorite scenes were filmed.
With a massive budget and three prequels to make, Lucasfilm built a new film set that would double as the Mos Espa spaceport on Tatooine for The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. This is where Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jar Jar Binks and Padme get stranded, where they meet Anakin Skywalker and where the podrace takes place. Now abandoned, it’s in the middle of nowhere, between two huge salt lakes and subject to the intense heat and moving Eriguet dunes — but it is firmly within the path of totality. Nearby are two other shooting locations — the Ong Jemel outcrop, where Darth Maul arrives on the scene, and Yardang, where Qui-Gon and Darth Maul battle — the first-ever lightsaber duel filmed on location.