What is the Great American Eclipse, when and where is best to watch it in the UK tonight and what is a total solar eclipse?
TODAY, large parts of the US will experience a total solar eclipse for the first time in nearly a century.
The Great American Eclipse will plunge 14 states across the country into complete darkness temporarily by covering up the sun. We've got all the info you'll need...
The Great American Eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse in the US for almost a century
What is the Great American Eclipse?
The total solar eclipse is the first over any part of the US since 1979 - and the first over the entire continent since 1918 - but it will be travelling so fast you couldn't even chase it in a supersonic jet.
It will first enter the US on the West Coast over Oregon TODAY, from 10am local time.
The eclipse will then speed in a 67-mile path south east across the country at an astonishing 1,700mph.
Only lasting for around an hour-and-a-half, it will leave the US on the East Coast near Charleston, South Carolina, at 2.48pm local time where it will not be visible from land again.
Where will the eclipse be seen?
It has been named the Great American Eclipse because it can only be seen in the US.
Around 12 million people in 14 states live in the zone of totality - where the full solar eclipse will pass.
Kentucky will experience most of the action with the sun due to be blocked out for around two minutes and 41 seconds.
But in Nashville, Tennessee, people watching the eclipse there will only get see one minute and 57 seconds of it.
I'll be in the States, how can I watch it safely?
There are a number of ways to watch the eclipse without looking directly at the sun.
These are:
- holding up an object with a small hole (or series of small holes) in it to create an image of the sun on the ground
- putting one lens from a pair of binoculars in the path of the sun - creating a magnified projection on the ground beneath you
- allowing sunlight to filter through leaves on a tree, where the light pattern on the ground will show evidence of the sun's eclipsed phase
Can I watch it in the UK?
The best way to watch the Great American Eclipse from the UK is online.
, the American space agency's television service will be broadcasting live footage from several ground-based feeds as well as special 'eclipse jets' and telescopes.
Also, 55 different teams are taking part in the which will involve video being streamed from special balloons which have been sent into the sky. The balloons will use GPS satellites and Raspberry Pi computers to record and transmit their data.
Other websites offering live streams of the Great American Eclipse are , and .
However there will also be a partial eclipse in the UK starting from around 7:35pm this evening.
Parts of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will see very minor eclipses but nothing like what our friends across the pond will witness.
What is a solar eclipse?
A total solar eclipse is when the moon passes directly between the sun and the Earth.
When the moon passes, it then blocks the sun for an hour or longer, creating a solar eclipse.
The upcoming August event is a total eclipse as there will be 99.1 per cent darkness.
According to Nasa, there are three classifications of solar eclipse:
- A total solar eclipse - only visible from a small area on Earth. The people who see the total eclipse are in the centre of the moon’s shadow when it hits Earth. The sky becomes very dark, as if it were night. For a total eclipse to take place, the sun, moon and Earth must be in a direct line.
- Partial solar eclipse - this happens when the sun, moon and Earth are not exactly lined up. The sun appears to have a dark shadow on only a small part of its surface.
- Annular solar eclipse - this is when the moon is furthest from Earth. It does not block the entire view of the sun. The moon in front of the sun looks like a dark disk on top of a larger sun-coloured disk. This creates what looks like a ring around the moon.
