Mansfield astronomer captures partial eclipse despite cloudy skies

Cloud cover prevented many folk from seeing the event but some lucky residents were able to spot the moon move in front of the sun.

One individual to do so was Mansfield astronomer Michael Knowles who captured these images – which were taken with a DSLR camera and 300mm lens and filter.

The partial eclipse on Thursday began across the area at 10.08am, with a full eclipse at 11.14am before finishing at 12.26pm.

Michael said: “A partial eclipse is when the moon transits between the earth and the sun obscuring the sunlight. England was not on the central eclipse track on this occasion, which means observers saw a smaller percentage of the disc covered.

“The central eclipse corridor path tracked through Greenland, Russia, and northern Canada, where observers saw a full total eclipsed disc barring its circumference edges of a fiery ring.

"This is due to the moon orbital position currently at an apogee further away from the earth and therefore the sun’s disc not 100 per cent covered, which is why it is termed as an annular total solar eclipse."

The next partial solar eclipse will take place in October 2022 and will be visible across Europe, while the next total eclipse is taking place in Antarctica later this year.

However, there is a long wait to the next total eclipse in the UK – with the next one taking place on September 23, 2090.

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