For all you astronomy lovers out there, 2011 is going to be an exciting year. This year, NASA has stated that there will be four partial solar and two total lunar eclipses, an exceedingly rare combination. This will be the first time we’ve had this many eclipses in a year since 1982, and will be the last until 2029, so take it all in while you can.
Unfortunately for many of us, the first partial solar eclipse of the year can be seen only over most of Europe and northeastern Asia, and it has already taken place this morning, on January 4, 2011. Parts of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula were also able to see a bit of the eclipse.
The eclipse began at about 6:40 UTC and went until 11:00, when it ended with the sunset over western Asia. The best view of the eclipse, what is known as the “greatest eclipse,” was best viewed from Sweden at around 8:50, with about 85 percent of the sun being blocked as the moons shadow passed just 510 km above the surface of the Earth.
If you’re reading this from an area of the world when the beautiful eclipse couldn’t be seen, take a look at a few of the pictures we have found or check out the video here. If you have family or friends in Europe, northeastern Asia, Northern Africa or the Arabian Peninsula, give them a call on your StanaCard account to see if they caught the show!
.png "English"){kind=small}
