welcomed the world's first solar eclipse of the year

The moon will obscure part of the sun for about three hours today and people in many parts of the world will have the opportunity to admire the eclipse.

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People in northern Algeria will be the first to see the eclipse, the BBC reported. They saw the sun being obscured from 06h40 GMT (1:40 am Vietnamese time). In European cities like London and Paris, the sun is obscured since the first rays of sunshine appear. The moon obscures 70% of the solar disc in London at 8:12 GMT (12:12 Vietnamese time).

The region of northeastern Sweden will be the most ideal eclipse viewing place. At 8:50 GMT, if you look closely at the Swedish city of Skelleftea, people will see the moon covering nearly 90% of the solar disk. But the observer must choose high positions, because when the solar eclipse reaches its maximum, both the moon and the sun are close to the horizon.

The farther east, the more eclipse will happen near the time of sunset. People in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, central Russia and northwestern China will see the eclipse of the western horizon at sunset. Mr. Nguyen Duc Phuong, an expert of the Vietnam Astronomical Society, said know, solar eclipse cannot be observed in Vietnam.

Real Japanese happens when the moon moves between the sun and the earth. That position caused the moon to block light from the sun and create a dark space on the globe. Total solar eclipses can occur up to 5 times a year, but may not appear in certain years due to the position of the earth compared to the sun.

The world will witness a partial solar eclipse 4 times in 2011, but Vietnamese people will not observe any solar eclipse this year, Mr. Ward informed. In 2012, the annular eclipse will extend from Japan to the Pacific and to the US on May 20. On November 14, 2012, the total solar eclipse will start from northeastern Australia and extend to the southern Pacific Ocean.