A total solar eclipse occurred at the Moon's descending node of orbit on Sunday, August 9, 1896, with a magnitude of 1.0392. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is larger than the Sun's, blocking all direct sunlight, turning day into darkness. Totality occurs in a narrow path across Earth's surface, with the partial solar eclipse visible over a surrounding region thousands of kilometres wide. Occurring about 2.5 days before perigee (on August 11, 1896, at 18:30 UTC), the Moon's apparent diameter was larger.

The path of totality was visible from parts of northern Norway, northern Sweden, the Russian Empire, and the Empire of Japan. A partial solar eclipse was also visible for much of Europe, Central Asia, East Asia, Northeast Asia, Alaska, and Greenland.

This event was the subject of the first organized eclipse expedition by the British Astronomical Association. A group of 165 amateur and professional astronomers sailed from Tilbury, England on July 25, heading toward Vadsø, Norway. This expedition failed to produce any usable results as they were frustrated by the weather conditions at the time of the eclipse. However, a smaller expedition to Novaya Zemlya on Sir George Baden-Powell's yacht Otario met with success.

Shown below are two tables displaying details about this particular solar eclipse. The first table outlines times at which the Moon's penumbra or umbra attains the specific parameter, and the second table describes various other parameters pertaining to this eclipse.

This eclipse is part of an eclipse season, a period, roughly every six months, when eclipses occur. Only two (or occasionally three) eclipse seasons occur each year, and each season lasts about 35 days and repeats just short of six months (173 days) later; thus two full eclipse seasons always occur each year. Either two or three eclipses happen each eclipse season. In the sequence below, each eclipse is separated by a fortnight.

This eclipse is a member of a semester series. An eclipse in a semester series of solar eclipses repeats approximately every 177 days and 4 hours (a semester) at alternating nodes of the Moon's orbit.

The partial solar eclipses on March 26, 1895 and September 18, 1895 occur in the previous lunar year eclipse set, and the partial solar eclipse on December 13, 1898 occurs in the next lunar year eclipse set.

This eclipse is a part of Saros series 124, repeating every 18 years, 11 days, and containing 73 events. The series started with a partial solar eclipse on March 6, 1049. It contains total eclipses from June 12, 1211 through September 22, 1968, and a hybrid eclipse on October 3, 1986. There are no annular eclipses in this set. The series ends at member 73 as a partial eclipse on May 11, 2347. Its eclipses are tabulated in three columns; every third eclipse in the same column is one exeligmos apart, so they all cast shadows over approximately the same parts of the Earth.