On the 4th of January, 2011, the Sun will be obscured by the Moon during a partial solar eclipse. The rare phenomenon will be visible from most of Europe, parts of Asia and the Middle-East. The Moon will cover nearly 80% of our star in the morning hours. In the animation below, the event can be viewed from various perspectives.

As the Moon orbits around our planet, from time to time it gets between the Sun and Earth. When this happens, the Moon casts a shadow on us, this we experience as a solar eclipse. As the Moon is about 400 times smaller than our star, but by mere coincidence it is nearly exactly 400 times closer, the two bodies appear in similar size on the sky. Thus the Earth is a rare and exceptional planet, as near exact total solar eclipse can happen, meaning the Moon can entirely block the sundisk, but not its corona. In Europe, such a rare event happened in 1999, but just Tuesday morning a near total overlap will happen. Over Hungary, this will mean an approximately 77-78% coverage, which will happen in the morning hours, reaching its peak at 9:37 local time at Budapest.

The video above prepared by our Pál Gábor Vizi of Puli shows the event from various perspectives. First the solar system is shown form an external point of view, showing the planets circling around the Sun. Next we can see how the Moon casts shadows over Earth in the few days prior to the eclipse. After that the camera switches to the Suns's point of view, showing the the Moon and its shadow cast over the planet. Then we can see up close how the lunar shadow travels over the Earth's surface. It covers nearly entirely Europe, parts of North Africa and Asia, and much of the Middle-East. In the end it is shown how the event will appear from Europe. The Sun will chase the Moon in the morning sky, form a ring around it, and then slowly overtake it by 11 o'clock.

In the likely case of cloudy weather this time, the next partial eclipse will be visible from Hungary on the 20th of March, 2015, however the next total eclipse will only take place in 2081 over the country. If you plan to catch a glimpse of the vanishing sun, be sure to use protective eyewear, as for the naked eye staring into the Sun can be hazardous.