The first solar eclipse of 2011

Yesterday a partial solar eclipse took place, observable through most of Europe and northwestern Asia. Over parts of Europe, as much as two-thirds of the sun slipped from view behind the moon. The region that saw the greatest eclipse was in northern Sweden. This was the first of four partial solar eclipses which will occur in 2011, the others taking place on June 1st, July 1st and November 25th. Collected here are photographs of yesterday's celestial event and observers here on Earth as they tried to catch a glimpse. (25 photos total)

A seagull is silhouetted against the sun at dawn during a partial solar eclipse on Guadalmar beach in Malaga, Spain on January 4, 2011. The partial eclipse was visible near sunrise over most of Europe
and northeastern Asia. (REUTERS/Jon Nazca)

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Tunisians observe the first partial solar eclipse of 2011 using a telescope on January 4, 2011 in Tunis, Tunisia. (FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images)

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A combination of photographs shows the partial solar eclipse above Vienna, Austria on January 4, 2011. (REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader)

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A view of a partial solar eclipse in Amman, Jordan on January 4, 2011. (REUTERS/Ali Jarekji)

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People are silhouetted against light pollution in the sky before daylight beside telescopes setup up to view the partial solar eclipse from Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath in London on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. Cloudy skies hung over London on Tuesday morning, preventing a view of the partial solar eclipse that began over the Mideast and extended across much of Europe. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

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A man watches a partial solar eclipse through a filter in Galyateto, some 100 km (62 miles) east of Budapest, Hungary on January 4, 2011. (REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo)

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A photo of the partial solar eclipse, seen from Locon, northern France, on January 4, 2011. (PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP/Getty Images)

8

Venezuelan tourists watch a partial solar eclipse in front of the Giza Pyramids in Egypt on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

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A Jordanian man uses his hand to show an image of the partial solar eclipse, in Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday Jan. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Nader Daoud)

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A Jordanian man watches the partial solar eclipse through a telescope, in Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Nader Daoud)

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A woman uses eye protection to look at a partial solar eclipse in the sky on January 4, 2011 in the town of Givatayim, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

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Lubna, a nine-year-old handicapped girl, lies buried in sand up to her chest during a partial solar eclipse at Karachi's Clifton beach in Pakistan on January 4, 2011. Children with disabilities were buried chest-deep during the partial solar eclipse on Tuesday, as part of a traditional superstition that it would bring healing to their bodies. (REUTERS/Athar Hussain)

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Pakistani families bury their children during the partial solar eclipse in Hyderabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. Followers of a traditional superstition hope that burying ailing persons during a solar eclipse will help cure them. (AP Photo/Pervez Masih)

14

A Pakistani man waves in front of a partial solar eclipse in Lahore, Pakistan on on January 4, 2011. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)

15

An unidentified employee of the Stefanik Observatory in Prague uses a projection shield to show the partial solar eclipse visible in the Czech capital on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/CTK, Michal Kamaryt) Slovakia Out

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The view of a partial solar eclipse in the sky on January 4, 2011 seen from the town of Givatayim, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

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A boy uses eye protection to look at a partial solar eclipse in the sky on January 4, 2011 in the town of Givatayim, Israel. (Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

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A bird flies during a partial solar eclipse over the city of Warsaw, Poland on January 4, 2011. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel)

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People observe the world's first partial solar eclipse of 2011 on January 4, 2011 at the Zugspitze near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. (TOBIAS HASE/AFP/Getty Images)

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A partial solar eclipse is seen through clouds and snow flurries on Vodno Mountain near Skopje, Macedonia, on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

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Israelis watch at a partial solar eclipse in the town of Givatayim near Tel Aviv, Israel on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

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A partial solar eclipse is seen next to a tower in Hami, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region province, China on January 4, 2011. (REUTERS/Stringer)

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An image of the eclipse caught by photographer Wiphu Rujopakarn in Moscow, Russia. In his words: "The eclipse caught me completely off-guard as I gazed up at the first sunshine in Moscow in two weeks. I happened to be wandering in Red Square so I snapped a picture of the eclipse alongside the crazy historical architecture of Saint Basil's Cathedral". (© Wiphu Rujopakarn)

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A fisherman is silhouetted against the sun at dawn during a partial solar eclipse near Guadalmar beach in Malaga, Spain on January 4, 2011. (REUTERS/Jon Nazca)

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An image of the January 4th partial eclipse seen by the SWAP telescope aboard PROBA2, an ESA micro-satellite launched back in November of 2009. (ESA / PROBA2 Team)