The fireworks that will be shot into the sky to celebrate the opening of the Olympics next week will be as nothing compared with the celestial display over China tomorrow.

Sun and Moon will briefly come into alignment for a total solar eclipse and thousands of amateur astronomers will be in China and other parts of the world to see it.

The eclipse starts in Canada at 9.04am British time and tracks across Greenland and other parts of the Arctic into Russia and southeast to Mongolia and China, where it ends at 1.38pm.

The full eclipse will miss Britain by several hundred miles but there will be a partial eclipse here beginning about 9.30am and reaching as far south as northern Italy.

In China the sight of the Sun disappearing behind the Moon was traditionally interpreted as being the work of a hungry dragon that was eating it and people would shout, bang pans and let off fireworks to create enough noise to scare the beast away.

Similarly, the Inuit people of the Arctic regarded eclipses as a vision of godly rape and incest, as Anningan, the god of the Moon, chased, caught and abused Malina, his sister and the Sun goddess.

What was once regarded as an ill omen is now treated as a spectator event with its own dedicated band of enthusiasts who travel to see eclipses as avidly as art collectors buy paintings.

Suggestions that the eclipse may augur ill for the Beijing Olympics, which start next Friday, have been roundly dismissed in China.

Cheng Kai-ming, a physicist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that eclipses were so common that virtually any disaster could be blamed on them. “Any total solar eclipse is bound to occur before, during, or after one of these events.”

The timing of the Olympics, however, could have been seen as an ill omen by astronomers heading to China for the eclipse — they have had to pay more for hotels and travel.

Instead of fears that the eclipse was a harbinger of doom, there was more concern yesterday that people would cause irreparable damage to their eyes by looking at the Sun during the event.

Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society, said that while eclipses were spectacular, they should not be viewed directly except during the brief period of total coverage of the Sun by the Moon.

“Looking at the partially eclipsed Sun without appropriate protection can cause serious and permanent damage to the eyes,” he said.

Anyone wanting to see the partial eclipse was advised to get purpose-made filters or to view it indirectly, such as by projecting it by pinhole on to a card.

The best view of the eclipse in the British Isles will be from the Shetland Islands, where 36 per cent of the Sun’s face will be covered. Farther south, the proportion covered will be less. In Edinburgh it will be 23.5 per cent, in London 12 per cent and on the South Coast 10 per cent.

The partial eclipse will be over shortly after 11am. Maximum coverage will be at about 10.15am.

The full eclipse tracks the Earth’s surface for thousands of miles and at its broadest will cast a shadow 148 miles wide. The full eclipse will last for two minutes and 27 seconds.

The next total eclipse of the Sun will take place in July next year, when it will be visible in China and India, with a maximum duration of more than six minutes — the longest that will be experienced this century.

No shadow of doubt

— The last total eclipse will take place in 600 million years; after that the Moon will be too far away to cover the Sun completely.

— The Moon is moving away from Earth at a rate of 1.5in (3.8cm) a year

— Next year's eclipse across China and India is expected to be the most viewed in history

— Any spot on Earth can expect a total eclipse every 375 years

— Scientists observing eclipses have found that Earth's rotation slows by 0.001 seconds a century

— Two Chinese astrologers were executed for failing to forecast an eclipse in 2134BC

— In 585BC the Lydians and Medes made peace when an eclipse took place as they fought

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