Manama: Kuwait will on January 4 witness a partial solar eclipse along with other Middle East countries, astronomer and historian Adel Al Sadoon said.
The eclipse will begin around 10:45 am and end at around 1:34 pm, he said.
"The centre of the eclipse will occur at 12:09 pm where the people see the maximum coverage of the sun by the moon," Al Sadoon said. "At this time, 31 per cent of the sun will be covered. It will be the first of six solar and lunar eclipses to be seen worldwide in 2011. There will be four solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses," the Kuwaiti astronomer said, quoted by Kuwait Times yesterday.
In Kuwait, people will see the partial solar eclipse on January 4 and two partial lunar eclipses on June 5 and December 10, he said.
"Those wishing to observe the eclipse need to take special precautions to protect their eyes from harmful Ultra Violet (UV) rays. It is very important when monitoring the eclipse not to look directly into the sun as it can cause serious damage to the eye's retinas," he said. "Prolonged viewing of the sun, especially during an eclipse, can cause loss of sight."
Al Sadoon warned that wearing regular sunglasses or films, X-ray or photographic film, computer disks or smoked glass would not be enough to block the harmful UV rays from causing damage to the naked eye. "In order to see the eclipse safely, you should only use special eclipse glasses. If these are not available then welder's glasses with a number 14 filter can be used," he said.
The last total solar eclipse took place on July 11 and lasted six minutes and 39 seconds.
