Partial Solar Eclipse Observed across Japan

January 6, 2019

Tokyo--A partial solar eclipse, in which part of the sun's disk is obscured by the moon passing between the star and Earth, was observed across Japan on Sunday morning.

In many parts of the country, the sun was seen starting to be blocked by the moon between 8 a.m. (11 p.m. Saturday GMT) and 9 a.m., according to the National Astronomical Observatory of

Japan. The area of the sun's disk obscured by the moon was the largest around 10 a.m. The astronomical event ended between 11 a.m. and noon.

Up to 40 pct of the sun's disk was seen missing in the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido, up to 30 pct in the Kanto eastern region including Tokyo and up to 20 pct in the Kyushu southwestern region.

This was the first eclipse of the sun seen in Japan since March 9, 2016, when a partial eclipse occurred in the morning.

Observation events were held at such facilities as Kodomo Yugakukan, a children's museum in the Hokkaido city of Kushiro, the Sendai Astronomical Observatory in the city of Sendai, the capital of Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, and the Miyazaki Science Center in the southwestern city of Miyazaki.

At Kodomo Yugakukan, special glasses and telescopes were made available for observing the solar eclipse.

"The weather was fine, and some 60 people, including parents and children, joyfully observed the solar eclipse," said Koichi Tago, a 44-year-old curator at the museum.

The next time a solar eclipse is visible in the country will be the afternoon of Dec. 26 this year, when part of the sun's disk is going to be seen missing. Jiji Press