Experts urge Brits to avoid looking directly at solar eclipse as they warn over lasting damage to eyes
NASA advises that people should not look at the sun "through a camera lens, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device while wearing eclipse glasses or using a handheld solar viewer"
Doctors and astronomers have issued a health warning ahead of this evening's solar eclipse, which is expected to be the best in decades.
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More than 90 per cent of the sun will be obscured by the moon between 6.17pm and 8.06pm on Wednesday, the most it has been blocked above UK skies since the total eclipse in 1999.
However, the public has been urged to avoid looking directly at the sun and advised not to use knock-off glasses as it could cause lasting vision damage.
Supermarkets and corner shops, national parks and the Royal Greenwich Observatory have all exhausted their glasses supplies ahead of the eclipse, which will be the country’s fullest for the next 54 years.
The Royal Greenwich Observatory said it had sold approximately 15,000 pairs of eclipse glasses – a sell-out – in the last month.
Only special solar eclipse glasses that are ISO 12312-2 certified for the safest eye protection should be used to view the eclipse and sunglasses are not sufficient, experts said.
Read more: What happens when millions of Brits stop at once to watch the eclipse?
Devon, Cornwall and the westernmost parts of Pembrokeshire in Wales are set to see the eclipse at its fullest, with a range of 94 per cent to 96 per cent of the sun obscured by the moon.
Plymouth in particular is forecast to see the moon cover 94.66 per cent of the sun at 7.16pm on Wednesday, according to the Met Office.
The rest of Wales, Northern Ireland, parts of the West Midlands and the South West, and the westernmost parts of Scotland can expect to see 92 per cent to 94 per cent solar coverage.
In Cardiff, the moon is forecast to obscure 93.24 per cent of the sun at 7.13pm while in Belfast it will cover 93.09 per cent of the sun at 7.08pm.
Skygazers in the rest of the UK will likely see the moon obscure 90 per cent to 92 per cent of the sun – with 91.79 per cent expected in Birmingham at 7.12pm, 91.41 per cent in London at 7.13pm, 90.74 per cent in Inverness at 7.03pm, 90.71 per cent in Edinburgh at 7.06pm and 90.22 per cent in Newcastle at 7.07pm.
Those most keen to catch a sight of the fullest possible solar eclipse should avoid the easternmost parts of the UK, where only 88 per cent to 90 per cent of solar coverage is expected.
These include the coasts of Norfolk, Yorkshire and Aberdeenshire, as well as the Orkney and Shetland Islands.
In an added bonus for stargazers, the annual Perseid meteor shower reaches its peak on the night of August 12-13, hours after the eclipse.
The shower is produced as Earth ploughs through a stream of dust left behind by Comet Swift–Tuttle.
Each tiny grain strikes Earth’s atmosphere at about 60 kilometres per second, burning up in a brief flash that takes the appearance of a shooting star.