Partial Solar Eclipse of 2011 on Tuesday

The moon will partially cover the sun on Tuesday , to see this phenomenon is is paramount  that you  must  use protective equipment such as sunglasses and solar telescopes and not look directly at the sun without these.

This event can be seen at sunrise in north Africa and much of Europe and at sunset in central Russia and northwest China.  Near the city of Skelleftea in northern Sweden will be the best observance at 0850GMT when the moon will cover almost 90% of the sun’s diameter. In the UK there will be  a series of events tied into the BBC’s Stargazing Live programs,  astronomy groups both professional and amateur will be setting up safe observing systems in many places , to see the partial solar eclipse. The weather will hold the key as to how clear and what location on the planet you are in , the skywatchers  will be able to see the eclipse.

The phenomenon  occurs when the sun and moon do not quite align in the sky when seen from earth and the deep shadow cast by the smaller body passing along the larger on just misses the planet resulting in a dip in light, depending on how big a chunk the solar disc the moon can obscure. The first place to see the eclipse will be Northern Algeria at 0640GMT with European cities such as London and Paris seeing the eclipse getting underway as the Sun rises and the moon covering up to almost 70% of our star by 0812GMT in the British capitol and at  0809 GMT in Paris 65% of the solar disc will be covered. Central Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northwest China will all see the sun dive over the horizon the closer it gets to the local sunset time. In November 2013 over the South Pacific is the next total solar eclipse