A PARTIAL ECLIPSE of the sun will happen this Saturday across Ireland – the biggest such eclipse in ten years.

Partial solar eclipses happen when the moon passes in front of the sun, giving the appearance that a “bite” has been taken out of it. 

This rare event of a “deep” partial solar eclipse hasn’t happened in Ireland since March 2015, according to Astronomy Ireland, a non-profit astronomy society.

In Ireland, the partial eclipse will happen at around 9.59am, with up to 57% of the sun’s width being covered by the moon at 10.59am, and the eclipse ending at noon.

The exact time of the eclipse will vary by a few minutes around Ireland.

Parts of Canada will experience the deepest eclipse, where up to 94% of the sun will be obscured.

Safety First 

Astronomy Ireland has warned people not to look directly at the sun, as the UV rays can be damaging to eyes. 

For direct views, you should use specially EU-certified filters that block out 100% of UV and infrared light and only let through 1/100,000th of the visible light.

Young man photographs Solar eclipse pinhole projection, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, August 2017. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Another technique to view the eclipse is the “pinhole” method with a tiny hole punched in a piece of thick paper or card (say with a sharp pencil, or a pin). This can let sunlight pass through it and an image of the Sun can be picked up a few feet away on a white sheet of paper.

Not a total eclipse

If the sun was fully obscured by the moon, it would be termed as a ‘total eclipse’.

The last total eclipse “path of totality” was visible from North America in 2024. 

The next total solar eclipse will be visible in Greenland, Iceland, Spain, Russia, and a small area of Portugal on 12 August next year.

“These are extremely rare and they last only a few minutes,” said David Moore, Astronomy Ireland magazine editor, who has seen two total solar eclipses abroad.

He said 1724 was last time one of these total solar eclipses was seen from Ireland. The next one on Irish soil will be 23 September 2090.