This eclipse of the sun, on January 5 and 6, is the first of two eclipses to look forward to in January. Today’s partial solar eclipse will see up to 40 percent of the sun disappear. Unfortunately for British sky-gazers, this won’t be visible from the UK, but read on for where you can catch this brilliant sight.
During the partial eclipse, the moon will pass between the earth and the sun.
The result gives us the eclipse, with a big chunk of the sun seemingly vanishing into darkness.
Millions of people from Russia to Taiwan will be able to witness this dazzling sight.
The most optimally placed nations to see the eclipse are in the North Pacific and East Asia regions.
These include Beijing in China, Irkutsk in Russia, Tokyo in Japan and Taipei in Taiwan.
Essentially, it is only people who find themselves in the moon’s shadow at a specific angle that will see the eclipse, making it a very special event.
Maritime astronomer Bruce McClure of EarthSky explained: “2019’s first New Moon falls on January 6 at 1.28am UTC.
“This New Moon will pass between the Earth and Sun, to stage a partial eclipse of the Sun.
“It happens on the night of January 5 for time zones in the Americas, and thus we won’t see it.
“But – if you do reside at the right spot on the globe – you can see the Moon taking a bite out of the solar disk.”
The eclipse will start at sunrise over Asia before it heads off in an eastward direction.
The first location to see the eclipse start will see it as early as 11.34pm UTC on Saturday, January 5.
The eclipse will then reach so-called maximum eclipse around 1.41am UTC on Sunday and wrap up by 3.48am UTC.
From start to finish the eclipse will last just over four hours.
You can see on the map above whether you will see the eclipse from your location.
Some of the best-positioned cities to see the partial eclipse are Taipei in Taiwan, Yakutsk in Russia, Adak in Alaska, Tokyo in Japan and Seoul in South Korea.
Excitingly, an eclipse never comes alone, and a solar eclipse is always followed by a lunar eclipse about two weeks later.
The next lunar eclipse will occur on January 21, 2019.