UK experiences partial eclipse of Sun
Friday, 01 Aug 2008 12:48
Some parts of the world had a total eclipse of the Sun
A partial solar eclipse occurred over the whole of the UK and Ireland this morning, taking a 'bite' out of the Sun.
The eclipse took place as the moon moved between the Earth and the Sun from 09:32 BST in London and the maximum eclipse, when 12 per cent of the Sun was blotted out, took place at 10:16.
Coverage of the Sun varied across the UK; in Edinburgh 23.5 per cent of the Sun's disk was covered and in Lerwick in the Shetland Isles, the moon hid 36 per cent of the sun.
In other parts of the world the eclipse was total, including Canada, Greenland, Russia and China.
As it took place in countries with clear weather, day turned into night, with the silhouette of the moon surrounded by the glow of the Sun's atmosphere, called the corona.
Totality lasts for about two and a half minutes at the most.
The last total eclipse of the Sun from the UK happened on August 11th, 1999.