Astro enthusiasts in the country will miss an opportunity to watch the largest partial solar eclipse of the year as it will be visible only from the deep Southern Hemisphere.

A partial solar eclipse will take place tomorrow which will only be seen from southern South Africa, Antarctica, Tasmania and most of New Zealand, except for the far north of the North Island.

At the instant of greatest eclipse, the eclipse magnitude will be 0.905, making it the largest partial eclipse of the year. At that time, the lunar shadow axis will pass just 330 km above Earth’s surface near the coast of Antarctica.

This eclipse will be visible across Antarctica in its summer 24 hour day sunlight, and New Zealand near sunset with less than 20 per cent of the sun obscured, Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) President, Mr C.B. Devgun, said.

Parts of the western Antarctic Peninsula will also experience nearly 90 per cent obscuration of the Sun.

This will be the last of four partial solar eclipses in 2011, with the others occurring on January 4, 2011, June 1, 2011, and July 1, 2011.

The partial solar eclipse will begin at 9:53.3 IST and will end at 13:47 PM IST. Maximum eclipse is in a remote region of the Atlantic Ocean at 11:50 AM IST.

The total duration of the celestial phenomenon is about four hours.

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the sun for a viewer on the earth.

A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the earth when the centre of the moon’s shadow misses the earth.

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