DARKNESS fell across the UK last Friday morning as people positioned themselves in open spaces to watch the partial eclipse.

Across West Devon and East Cornwall people were out with their cameras, pinhole cameras and special glasses witnessing the first eclipse in 16 years.

A selected number of students from Callington Community College were lucky enough to be able to watch the eclipse with the help of telescopes and specialist equipment from the college's Space Centre and the expertise of resident astronomer Clive Purchase.

Mr Purchase said after the darkest point of the eclipse: 'It has been absolutely fantastic, it has been really good. Scientifically, there is no value in what we are doing here, but I'm hoping that it will motivate them and encourage them into careers in science or engineering.

'It's just a shame we don't have totality here.'

Mr Purchase said people in the Arctic, Iceland and some parts of Sweden were able to see a total eclipse.

The students involved were chosen because of their scientific ability or interest in the subject. They were able to look at the eclipse through a 14 inch Schmidt Cassergrain telescope and another telescope that projected the image onto a blank surface.

Mr Purchase said that the eclipse was around 85% coverage of the sun. The next partial eclipse is due to take place in 2026 and the next total eclipse is due on September 27, 2090.