The amount of sun that is blocked out will vary across the British Isles, with it being more obscured in the north.
Simon Griffiths, treasurer of the Jersey Astronomy Club, said that although Jersey will not go completely dark, Islanders would still be in for a treat.
He said: ‘A total eclipse will take place in Iceland and the Faroe Islands and we are expecting about 88 per cent coverage here. The coverage reduces the further south you come.
‘It won’t go particularly dark because even 12 per cent of sun light is quite bright.
‘It will be a bit like a cloudy day but it will seem quite eerie. Shadows will look a little bit crisper as the light has been polarised.’
What is a partial eclipse?
Partial eclipses happen when the moon comes between the sun and the earth, but they don’t align in a perfectly straight line.
There are three distinct stages of a partial eclipse:
– the moon begins to move over the sun’s disc. This will begin in Jersey at around 8.20 am.
– maximum eclipse where the moon partially covers the sun. If you’re somewhere in the eclipse’s path it’ll appear that the moon has taken a bite out of the sun. This will happen in Jersey at around 9.25 am.
– the moon begins to move away from the sun’s disc. The sun will be completely uncovered by 10.35 am
Weather forecast:
Forecasters says overcast conditions predicted tomorrow could cloud Islanders view of the partial eclipse.
Currently Cornwall and south Wales are forecasted to be the best parts in the UK to watch the spectacle.
Joanna Chambers, duty forecaster at Jersey Met Office, said: ‘We are going to be a little bit cloudy but there are some breaks forecasted in the cloud sheet. It is a question mark of whether these breaks will be over the top of us at the right time.
‘At the moment it looks like it will still be quite cloudy at around 9.20 am. The cloud breaks are just to the north of us and we need them to be more to the south but that picture could change.’
Click here for the latest weather forecast.
How to watch safely:
Consultant ophthalmic surgeon and amateur astronomer Anthony Spiteri urged Islanders to take care when watching the partial eclipse as looking at the sun even briefly can cause burns to the back of the eye which can lead to blindness.
He advised people to use eclipse glasses to watch the event – but only if they were scratch free as any damage to the glasses renders them useless.
Mr Spiteri also warned Islanders who were using a telescope or binoculars to project the eclipse onto a piece of card to not look at the sun while setting up the equipment and advised them to wear sunglasses to look at the card as the image would sill be bright.
Meanwhile, he stressed the danger of taking photographs as photographers may look inadvertently at the sun while setting up the shot.
Mr Spiteri said: ‘If you get an eclipse burn, known as solar maculopathy, you get thermal damage to the cone cells which are mainly concentrated in the middle of your retina.
‘It’s the same effect as you get if you happen to laser your retina directly. Initially you will get a bit of visual disturbance as the body tries to heal it.
‘It often does so by forming a scar that maybe larger in the long run than the initial area of exposure. You will get a blind spot, known as a scotoma. A central scotoma affects your fine vision, the bit you use for reading.’
Mr Griffiths said that the eclipse could even be viewed by holding a cooking colander on your shoulder or next to your head to project multiple images of the eclipse onto a piece of paper or card.
The last time Jersey experienced a eclipse:
At around 11.15 am on 11 August 1999, Jersey came to a virtual standstill as the Island was plunged into the twilight world of a partial eclipse.
Alderney experienced a total solar eclipse – when the moon passes between earth and the sun totally obscuring the sun – while around 95 per cent of the sun was blocked out in Jersey.
However, a veil of low cloud meant that only brief glimpses of the eclipse was visible.
The cloud cover also meant that a specially equipped telescope rigged up by the Jersey Astronomy Club could not get a fix on the moon.
The Jersey Arts Centre relayed the event on a big screen to Islanders while other solar gazers watched the event in the People’s Park.
Twilight love – how eclipses can affect the animal kingdom:
While birds fell silent across the Island during the last eclipse, a group of Hermann’s tortoises at the Tortoise Sanctuary in St Helier fell into a mating orgy.
The behaviour of the 16 tortoises was totally unexpected for sanctuary founder Shirley Neely who said it was a little late in the year for their courting rituals.
However, Mrs Neely said she is not expecting a repeat performance this time as she believes that the temperature is too cold to get the tortoises’ blood pumping.
She said: ‘During the last eclipse the tortoises had a big orgy. I expected all the tortoises to go to sleep. All the species did apart from the Hermann’s tortoises. They went into the greenhouse and had a big orgy.
‘It was just ridiculous. I’ve not seen anything like it before.
‘I will be watching them again this year but I don’t think the same thing is going to happen simply because of the temperature. They are cold-blooded so they need it to be warm to function.’
However, Mrs Neely added: ‘You never know.’
IT HAS been quite a few years since we had a good eclipse of either the sun or the moon, but this year makes up for it with excellent examples of both.
The second eclipse will be a total one of the moon in the middle of the night of 27/28 September. It will start just after 2am, as the moon enters the Earth’s shadow, and by 3.10am it will be totally eclipsed.
The total phase will last over an hour, until 4.25am, and by 5.30am the eclipse will be over. No special equipment is needed to watch a lunar eclipse, but binoculars or a small telescope will give a better view.
At totality the moon usually turns a deep, blood-red colour because of sunlight being refracted (bent) through the Earth’s atmosphere and impinging on the eclipsed moon.
