A solar eclipse is taking place next week and some in the UK could be lucky enough to catch a glimpse.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves directly between the Sun and the Earth. During an eclipse, the Earth is basically in the Moon’s shadow.
Because the Moon is much smaller than the Earth, however, its shadow only covers a small area of the Earth’s surface. Any solar eclipse therefore will only be visible from a certain region on Earth.
This is a bit of an anomaly as total solar eclipses are only meant to happen once every 375 years in any one place in the world – yet the US state of Illinois will see it for the second time in seven years.
Carbondale in Illinois saw a total solar eclipse in August 2017 and the fact they’ll now see one again so soon after is incredibly rare, earning it the nickname of “the eclipse crossroads”.
The US, Mexico and Canada will be in the totality path of the eclipse, meaning more than 31 million people will be able to witness the sun being obscured by the moon.
NASA has said that the first place in North America that will see the eclipse in totality will be Mexico’s west coast at 11.07am PDT on April 8.
The eclipse will then pass over Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Maine.
It will pass over Southern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breto in Canada. Its last sighting will be in Newfoundland.
NASA will livestream the celestial event on YouTube and its website, providing views from several sites along the eclipse path.
A partial solar eclipse may be visible, according to TimeandDate.com, in the UK over Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester.
The start of the partial eclipse will be at 7.52pm (BST) and end at 8.51pm, according to TimeandDate.com.
Another partial eclipse will pass over 90 percent of the country in 2026, but there won’t be a total one until 2081 in the Channel Islands or 2090 in the South West.
The last full solar eclipse in the UK was in 1999, which was spotted over Cornwall and parts of Devon. Unfortunately, clouds covered it from view in most other areas it should have been spotted over.