Parts of Europe will receive a brief respite from searing summer heat this week with the first solar eclipse in nearly three decades.
According to Nasa, on Wednesday parts of Greenland, Iceland, northern Russia, Spain and a small corner of Portugal will be plunged into darkness as the Moon briefly passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, the first time this has happened on the continent since 1999.
What about the UK?
A total solar eclipse occurs at a specific location on Earth on average once every 366 years, and the British Isles are currently in “no-man’s land”, with the next one not visible from the UK until 2090, said Space.
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This time around, most of the country will experience a partial eclipse where around 90% of the Sun’s rays will be blocked by the transit of the Moon. “First contact”, when the Moon first covers the disc of the Sun, will begin shortly after 6pm, reaching its “maximum”, when most of the Sun is covered, at 7.05pm in Scotland, 7.10 in Manchester and Liverpool, and 7.12pm in London, Bristol and Cardiff. Some parts of Cornwall will have a 95% blackout, rising to 97.7% in the south-west of Ireland.
For the rest of the country, enough of the Sun will be covered to make a “noticeable difference in the temperature and light levels” but “unlike with a total eclipse, the sky will not become dark – it will feel more like a cloudy day or close to dusk or dawn”, said Royal Museums Greenwich, home to the Royal Observatory.
“As always with astronomy, we’re at the mercy of the weather”, meaning “there’s always the possibility that clouds could obscure part or all of the eclipse”.
How should you view it?
Even with a partial eclipse, because the Sun is so bright it is still “extremely dangerous” to look at it without taking safety precautions, said the Royal Astronomical Society, otherwise it could cause permanent damage to your eyes or even blindness.
“Never look directly at the Sun without appropriate solar viewing equipment. Certified eclipse glasses, specially designed solar filters for telescopes and binoculars, or indirect methods such as pinhole projectors are all safe ways to observe the event”, said RAS President Professor Jim Wild.
If using eclipse glasses “make sure they work”, said Sky News, “as bogus retailers capitalise when an eclipse is due and you may be duped into buying a counterfeit pair”.
The American Astronomical Society advises trying them on indoors first. You should not be able to see anything through them, except very bright lights which should appear very faint. Even in regular sunlight outdoors you should only be able to see a slight reflection of the Sun off a shiny surface. Looking at the Sun for a second you should see a sharp-edged disk that is comfortably bright.
Wednesday is set to be an extra special evening for astronomy lovers, with the partial eclipse followed by the peak of the annual Perseid meteor shower a few hours later.
Anything else to know about it?
Octopus Energy is asking customers to delay using washing machines, dishwashers and other plug-in devices between 6pm and 8pm on Wednesday.
The eclipse “will send solar generation plunging just as electricity demand begins to rise as millions of people return home from work”, said The Telegraph.
While there is no suggesting that the eclipse could trigger outages, Octopus said it was encouraging people to use less energy to negate the need for carbon-emitting gas power.
