3 days ago
11
People across the northern hemisphere have gathered to catch a glimpse of the partial solar eclipse.
The eclipse peaked in London at about 11am on Saturday and was visible in parts of the UK between about 10am and noon.
The phenomenon occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. As the three are not completely aligned, only 30-40% of the Sun was obscured when viewed from the UK.
Robert Massey, the deputy executive director of the Royal Astronomical Society, speaking from the town of Lewes, Sussex, said: “There’s a really nice crowd of people, everybody’s really excited. There’s people wearing eclipse glasses, looking through the telescopes we’ve got set up.
“We’re loving it and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a great public atmosphere, it’s a really nice event. There’s a huge amount of enthusiasm about it.”
Massey added: “As expected, the moon started moving in front of the Sun about an hour ago; it’s got a bit under an hour to go and it’s blocking out some of the Sun.”
Skygazers across a broad swathe of the northern hemisphere had a chance to see the moon appear to take a bite out of the sun as the eclipse swept from eastern Canada to Siberia.
Imo Bell, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said at 11.15am: “There’s been nothing unexpected, but that’s the cool thing, we’ve known this has been coming for a very long time.
“We have the technology and the understanding of space now to predict these things almost to the second.”
“I’ve heard a lot of people in the UK where they have higher obscurity have bad cloud coverage, though. If you’ve got good weather, you’re pretty lucky.”
Jake Foster, an astronomer at the Royal Observatory, said: “These eclipses, whether they be partial or total, it is effectively watching the clockwork of the solar system in action.”
The Met Office said earlier on Saturday that southern and eastern areas of the UK would have the best viewing conditions, with cloudier skies in the north and west.
The partial eclipse, which is the first of the year and the 17th this century, lasted about four hours from 8.50am GMT to 12.43pm GMT.
The next partial solar eclipse visible in the UK will be in August 2026, which is expected to reach 90% obscurity.
However, it will be visible as a total solar eclipse across much of Europe, including parts of Spain. The next total solar eclipse visible from the UK is in 2090.
