Millions of people in the US, Canada and Mexico plan to gather to watch Monday’s solar eclipse, when the daylight sky will be momentarily engulfed in darkness as the moon passes between the sun and Earth.
More than 31 million people live in what is known as the path of totality — the area that will see a full total eclipse.
But there are people in the UK who may be lucky enough to see a partial eclipse if the weather is clear enough.
Dr Edward Bloomer, a senior astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said the UK would only get “a small grazing” of the eclipse in the west and north of the country.
The Outer Hebrides is the best place in the UK to see the eclipse, with Stornoway seeing a 34% eclipse at 8.14pm.
Belfast will get a 28% blackout and Glasgow a 12% blackout. It should even be visible in Liverpool, where 3% of the sun will be blocked.
Bloomer said: “I’m afraid the south and the east are unfortunate this time.
“We won’t be seeing anything from the observatory ourselves, which we’re a little sad about.”
But even those living in the path of the eclipse may still be out of luck as western parts of the British Isles are unlikely to get clear enough skies to ensure an unobstructed view, with weather forecasts predicting cloud and rain.
Nevertheless, it was still worth trying to see the eclipse, scientists said.
“Total solar eclipses are amazing and feel quite magical,” said Prof Don Pollacco, from the University of Warwick’s Department of Physics.
“From the right vantage point, you can see the moon’s shadow hurtling toward you at 1,000 miles per hour as totality approaches. When it is almost eclipsed, while the sun’s light shines through valleys on the moon’s limb [the edge of its visible surface]you see the famous Baily’s beads (beads of sunlight emerging from the eclipse shadow) and, when the last valley is illuminated, the “diamond ring” (which appears as a faint corona around the Sun, a glittering ring).
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“At this time, the shutdown of the sunlight has effects high up in the Earth’s atmosphere, which can affect communication and produce strange shadow bands on the ground – making the ground spin as you look at it.”
Eye protection is absolutely essential, Pollacco added.
He warned: “Without protection, you will at best damage your eyes, or you could blind yourself.”
It will be 2090 before the next total solar eclipse is visible from the UK.
While total solar eclipses are not rare and occur every 18 months, the path of a full total eclipse is only about 80 miles, so they are often not visible from inhabited areas of the planet.
