Cloudy Beirut Skies Witness Partial Solar Eclipse

Onlookers were gazing at the skies Friday as Lebanon and other Arab states witnessed a two-hour partial eclipse that was not clearly visible to sight in much of Lebanon's regions because of the cloudy weather that prevailed.

The eclipse started at around 10:45 a.m. Beirut time and lasted for a couple of hours.

A partial eclipse of varying degrees was visible across most of Europe, northern Africa, central Asia and the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Syria, Libya, Tunis, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania, according to the International Astronomical Center based in Abu Dhabi.

The total solar eclipse offered spectacular views, only in the far northern Svalbard archipelago and Faroe Islands.

The moon's shadow alighted on Earth's surface at 0741 GMT in the eastern central Atlantic, according to Britain's Nautical Almanac Office.

Die-hard eclipse junkies have flown in to the Faroe Islands, a Danish autonomous territory, and Norway's Arctic Svalbard archipelago from around the world to observe the less than three minutes of daytime darkness, a phenomenon that has fascinated mankind since the beginning of time.

More than 8,000 visitors were expected in the Faroes, where the total eclipse was due to begin at 9:41 am (0941 GMT), and some 1,500 to 2,000 were expected in Svalbard, where started at 11:11 am (1011 GMT).

Meanwhile, a group of 50 Danes have bought tickets aboard a Boeing 737 chartered by a science magazine to watch the event from the skies above the Faroe Islands.

Total eclipses occur when the moon sneaks between Earth and the Sun, and the three bodies align precisely.

The moon as seen from Earth is just broad enough to cover the solar face, creating a breath-taking silver halo in an indigo sky pocked by daytime stars.

Elsewhere, the eclipse was partial, to varying degrees: the sun was 97 percent hidden in Reykjavik, 93 percent in Edinburgh, 84 percent in London and 78 percent in Paris.

In places like London and Paris, observers did not get much of a sense of darkness.

The next total solar eclipse visible from Europe is not due until August 12, 2026.