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Strictly speaking you should not be able to see an image of First Contact
that would differ from the normal sun as the moon and sun only just touch.
This image is as near as you can get and shows the moon just starting to cover
the sun.
The sun must be observed or photographed using protective filters until the partial phase is complete. The same filters can of course be used normally to observe sunspots and are not exclusive to watching an eclipse. A sunspot can be seen on this and the other partial phase images. It is just left and below centre. |
| Though this image was taken at the beginning of the eclipse in Turkey, totality would be almost about to happen for observers in the UK. The above image was taken at around 13:10 in Turkey which equates to 10:10 UT (Universal Time). In the UK totality was at around 11:12 BST depending on the location which equals 10:12 UT. This is because the moon's shadow took about 80 minutes to travel between the UK and central Turkey. | |