Watch The First Partial Solar Eclipse of 2011

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The Kremlin's star is silhouetted against the sun during a partial solar eclipse in Moscow on January 4, 2011. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin

The moon passed between the earth and the sun this morning around 3 am EST, but the resulting eclipse wasn’t visible in the United States. Fortunately NewsFeed’s friends in Europe have camcorders.

Stargazers in Europe, North Africa and central Asia have already uploaded dozens of videos on YouTube that capture the celestial event. We’re partial to this video shot in the rural district of Beernem, Belgium and dramatized with Adiemus by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins.

(See pictures of a total eclipse of the sun.)

Looking up from Israel, the moon appeared to bite off 46% of the face of the sun and 57% of its diameter. But northeast Sweden offered the best view: the moon covered almost 90% of the sun’s diameter from that vantage point.

Three more partial solar eclipses will take place in 2011. The next total solar eclipse will be visible in the South Pacific in November 2013. (via The Telegraph)

(Read, “Was Venus Once Wet? The Atoms Say Yes.”)