This Friday’s eclipse coincides with the March equinox and will be visible across the whole of the north Atlantic extreme, the Faroe Islands, Svalbard (Norway) and the Arctic Region through to the North Pole, covering a band measuring between 410 and 480 kilometres.
It will last for around two hours, beginning at around 8am, peaking at 9am and finishing at around 10am, and also falls on what will be for most students the last day of school before the Easter holidays.
The astronomical event will be a Total Solar Eclipse in Svalbard (Norway) and the Faroe Islands, and a Partial Solar Eclipse in Europe.
But, as fascinating and rare as the occurrence may be, Portugal’s National Health Board, the DGS, has issued a number of recommendations to members of the public intending to watch it.
To observe the event safely, the DGS advises against looking straight at the sun without proper eclipse glasses for the occasion.
“People should not use dark glasses, black smoked glass, and photographic film or negatives, x-rays, floppy disks, CDs, DVDs, gelatine filters or aluminium foil”, it stressed.
The DGS further advised that the proper lenses for watching the eclipse “should not be used in combination with binoculars, cameras, telescopes or any other types of optical instruments.”
“Before wearing, eclipse glasses should be adequately tested because they could have tiny holes, scratches or imperfections that let more light through than that allowed.”
The National Health Board also warned that “observation should not exceed 30 seconds at a time with intervals of at least three minutes’ rest in between.”
It listed a number of places where the phenomenon can be watched in safety, alongside qualified professionals, which included the Lisbon Astronomical Observatory, Lisbon’s Faculty of Sciences, the Oporto Planetarium, and the Astronomical Observatory of Coimbra.
Damage caused to the eyes by the sun can be irreversible.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes between the sun and the Earth and casts the darkest part of its shadow, the umbra, on Earth.
When it peaks, the darkest point of the eclipse can be almost as dark as night.
The next total eclipse occurs in March 2016 but won’t be visible to Europe. The next event that will be at least partially visible to Europe – but only Western Europe – occurs in August 2017.