Spectators at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich witnessed the Moon take a "bite" out of the Sun this morning, as a partial solar eclipse was visible across the northern hemisphere. Report by Etemadil. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00So a partial solar eclipse is where the Moon appears to pass ever so slightly in front of the Sun
00:06from our perspective here on Earth.
00:08From here in London we're expecting to see about a third of the face of the Sun covered by the Moon.
00:13It will kind of look like a bite has been taken out of the Sun.
00:16So the easiest and the safest way to observe the solar eclipse
00:19is to get yourself a pair of solar eclipse viewing glasses.
00:22However, there's an easier way to view it indirectly
00:25and that's by using one of these things which is called a pinhole projector.
00:28It's really simple. It's a piece of paper with a hole in it.
00:31All you need to do is hold it up at the Sun
00:33and you'll get a little shadow of the eclipse cast either on the floor
00:36or on a piece of paper that you put behind it.
00:38I think these days are really special.
00:40I really enjoy them because they don't come around too often.
00:42The next time we'll experience a partial solar eclipse in the UK
00:45is not until September 2026, so not for another year and a half.
00:48But also I think they're a really great opportunity to sort of
00:51watch the mechanics of the solar system and the orbits of the Moon
00:54playing out in front of us, in front of our eyes, which is pretty special.
00:57So basically we anticipated that it's going to be, you know,
01:01through this observatory we can see the solar eclipse
01:04and that's what happened. We just got lucky.
01:07And we knew that it's a solar eclipse day today
01:10and that's the reason we are here, actually.
01:12Well, we saw the full eclipse in upstate New York.
01:19And then since we're in London and we have one more day,
01:22this seemed like the perfect thing to do.
01:24I came visiting earlier in the week.
01:26It was working, so I brought them down.
01:28Really cool, yeah.
01:30I like how the Moon has just taken a large semicircle
01:33out of the edge of the Sun.
01:39Other guys.
01:45Onto the...
01:47You can see it better if you come round here.