New Delhi: A partial solar eclipse will occur January 4, 2011. This will be the first of the six eclipses - four solar and two lunar - that people around the globe will see in the new year.
The eclipse will be visible over most parts of Europe, the Arabian peninsula, North Africa and western Asia.
"In India, we will be able to see only a smaller partial eclipse in the northern regions, but the obscuration will be minimal. In Delhi, the sun would hardly be (one percent) covered by the moon," said Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) director C.B.Devgun.
SPACE is a private organisation working for popularising science among people.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring earth's view of the sun.
Devgun said viewing the sun during eclipses requires special eye protection, or indirect viewing methods.
"The sun's disk can be viewed using appropriate filtration to block the harmful part of the sun's radiation," he said.
IANS
First Published: Wednesday, December 29, 2010, 19:38