article_snippet: Astronomers are counting down the days before a total solar eclipse appears over Earth.
article_snippet: Eclipses happen quite often.
article_snippet: This means that the solar eclipse will take place just as the sun itself comes into view after six months of polar night.
article_snippet: In London, the partial eclipse - when the moon starts touching the sun's edge - will start at 8.45am GMT.
article_snippet: The maximum eclipse will hit at 9.31am and this will be the point when the moon is closest to the centre of the sun.
article_snippet: By 10.41am the moon will leave the sun's edge and the partial eclipse will end.
article_snippet: On the morning of the 20 March the moon's orbit will see the moon's orbit travel in front of the sun casting a shadow over Earth - and the eclipse will be the biggest event of the moon's orbit kind since 11 August 1999 (pictured over Germany)
article_snippet: This animation is designed to appear from the 'point of view' of the eclipse as This animation will occur on March 20.
article_snippet: There will not be another total eclipse until 2026.
article_snippet: What’s more, lunar perigee - the time in the Lunar month when the Earth and Moon are closest together - will occur the evening before the eclipse.
article_snippet: This makes our 2015 Spring Equinox eclipse a ‘supermoon’ eclipse - perhaps our should call that a supereclipse. '
article_snippet: Nevertheless, this’s nice to have a supermoon, equinox and eclipse all falling on the same day.'
article_snippet: Partial solar eclipse
article_snippet: People standing in the penumbra will see a partial eclipse.
highlights_snippet: Total solar eclipse set to take place over Europe on March 20 .
  
highlights_snippet: Astronomers said there will not be another total eclipse until 2026 .