The celestial event will begin on Tuesday in Iceland at 8:58 a.m. GMT (10:58 a.m. in Belgium) and cross Europe, north-east Africa at 1:02 p.m. GMT (3:02 a.m. Belgium time) to India. will end in and the Middle East, specifies the French Institute of Celestial Mechanics and Calculation of Ephemerides (IMCCE) of the Paris Observatory.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth align. When the alignment is nearly complete, the cone of the Moon’s shadow touches Earth’s surface and obstructs the entire solar disk: the eclipse is complete.
This time, the Moon’s shadow will not touch the ground and “it will not be possible anywhere to witness the complete disappearance of the Sun”, the Paris Observatory explained in a press release.
Astronomer Florent Delefly told AFP at the Observatory that in the expected maximum eclipse in Kazakhstan, the Sun would be 82.2% hidden, “but not yet enough for the perception of darkness”.
Because “to begin to sense darkness in the sky, to experience a kind of cool light, you need at least 95% opacity of the Sun”, he adds.
The eclipse will be below 20% in metropolitan France. It will begin at around 11:15 in the north of the country, at 11:30 in the south, and end at around 1:00.
Looking at the sun with new glasses, suitable to avoid eye irritation, will only tell when the weather is right. Or magnifying instruments (telescopes, binoculars) with filters, are available in the centers that will conduct an observation.
“We will see that a little bit of the Sun is missing. In France it will not necessarily be very spectacular, but it is still a phenomenon for amateur astronomers and it can make great pictures,” hopes Florent Delefli.
This is the sixteenth partial solar eclipse of the 21st century, and the second this year, visible in the South Pacific. In metropolitan France, the last partial eclipse will occur on June 10, 2021.
On August 12, 2026, a total eclipse will occur, whose overall field of view will not cross France, but which will lead to an obscuration of the solar disk of 92% as seen from Paris and 96% as seen from Marseille, declares the IMCCE.
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