The partial eclipse started at 9.30am and lasted for about 90 minutes. Mr Atterbury said there was quite a bit of cloud, especially at mid-eclipse, but he got some reasonable images by attaching various special filters to the front of his short focus Celestron refracting telescope.

It was the filter which gave the clouds a strange tint and he used an old Canon Rebel EOS300 SLR digital camera.

He said: "Only a quarter of the sun's disc was covered by the moon's disc from Melton, but from Northern Greenland into Eurasia it was a total eclipse and totality ended in China just short of Shanghai.

"There is a particularly long total eclipse from China next year on July 22. I have been to a few total solar eclipses, the last one was in Zimbabwe in 2001 and it is something, I think everyone should see at least once in their lifetime.

"From our location it was only partial because the moon's shadow cone is always very narrow and only a small area of the earth's surface experiences totality."

Mr atterbury is treasurer of the Leicester Astronomical Society, which meets at the National Space Science Centre in Leicester, and is president of Melton Astronomical, which meets in Gaddesby Village Hall.

The next meeting is on Friday, August 29, at 8pm when local photographer Richard Adams, is giving a presentation on landscapes and skies. "

• A solar eclipse happens when the moon's disc covers either part or all of the sun's disc and the sun, moon and then the earth are all in alignment, with the moon between the earth and sun. A lunar eclipse is the reverse of this.