The forthcoming solar eclipse is actually a total eclipse, although only viewable as a partial eclipse in the UK.

A total solar eclipse occurs on Friday, 1 August, 2008, in northern Canada, the Arctic, and Asia.

It is known as the China Olympic Total Solar Eclipse because a week later the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games will begin.

The eclipse begins in far northern Canada, at about 10:24BST; the zone of totality is 206km wide, and the eclipse will last for 1 minute 30 seconds. The track then heads north-east, crossing northern Greenland at about 10:30, and passes near the pole before dipping down into Russia.

The eclipse reaches the Russian mainland at 11:10BST, with a path 232km wide, and a duration of 2 minutes 26 seconds. Greatest eclipse occurs shortly after, at 11:21BST, when the path will be 236km wide, and the duration up to 2 minutes 27 seconds.
The path then moves south-east, crossing into Mongolia and just clipping Kazakhstan at around 11:58BST. The path here is 252km wide, but the duration is down to 2 minutes 10 seconds. The path then runs down the China-Mongolia border, ending in China at 12:18BST, with an eclipse lasting 1 minute 27 seconds at sunset.

The partial eclipse will be visible over north-eastern Canada, most of Asia and Europe, and the Middle East between 09:04:07BST and 13:38:28BST.

For the UK, the event starts between 09:23-09:30BST (earlier the further north you are), finishes between 10:59-11:11BST (earlier the further west you are), with a maximum of 30% of the Sun covered around 10:12-10:18BST(earlier the further west you are).

This animation shown illustrates the motion of the shadow of the Moon at five minute intervals - it shows the grey penumbral shadow where the eclipse will be seen as a partial one and the much smaller black umbral shadow where the eclipse will be seen as a total one. The clock is in UT, which is 1 hour behind BST.



More information:
Hermit Eclipse: Total Solar Eclipse: August 1 2008
Total Eclipse of the Sun: 2008 August 01

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I just found this amazing site related to the eclipse not only for the 1st August but for past and present ones. It shows you how much of the Sun will be covered, which parts of the Sun will be covered, at what time, anywhere within the 'eclipse region'

Please note: You need Adobe Flash Player to view the content

URL: Shadow & Substance Home Page

On a side note, i plan to do a forecast for the event, similar to the one i did back in February for the Lunar Eclipse, nearer the time.

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Hi there, I have been researching this eclipse and created this map which shows (approximately) how much of the Sun will be covered where you live at the peak of the eclipse, between 10:12-10:18am BST (depending on your location) on 1st August.

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That is really useful sunshine, thank you for taking the time to do it

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Lets hope we get to it with the weather and all O and thanks for the tip

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cheers and no problem let's hope it doesn't rain, because then it would be useless

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Thanks for this matey-not trying to do commentator's curse here but i hope it will be similar weather as today meaning visible!?Let's wait and see.

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No chance of seeing anything in Falkirk not unless the torrential rain moves through

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If you want to watch the total eclipse across china live as it happens, I have posted the details here South Weather | Weather for Southern England Allow a few seconds for the video to load, live streaming starts at 11.30 BST, but I would allow for traffic load and connection speeds.