article_snippet: The left-hand animation shows the totality of the 1999 eclipse.
article_snippet: The last solar eclipse of a similar size took place on 11 August 1999 and had an eclipse magnitude of 1.029.
article_snippet: An eclipse magnitude is the fraction of the sun’s diameter obscured by the Moon.
article_snippet: An eclipse magnitude is based on a ratio of diameters and differs from an eclipse obscuration, which is a measure of the sun’s surface area covered by the Moon.
article_snippet: The value given is taken at the moment when the eclipse is at The value given maximum.
article_snippet: It was said to have been the first total eclipse visible in Europe since 22 July 1990, and the first visible in the UK since 29 June 1927.
article_snippet: Dr Bell continued: 'In a global context, the maximum duration of totality for next month’s eclipse will exceed the maximum of two minutes and 23 seconds of totality for the 1999 eclipse, which occurred close to Ramnicu Valcea in Romania. '
article_snippet: The totality of the 11 August 1999 eclipse is shown .