Just after 11am, day will turn into night.

Birds will start to roost, flower petals will close up and the stars will come out.

"You can understand why some people are quite afraid of a total eclipse," said Julia Hey, an education officer at Jodrell Bank.

"Nothing else quite shows us our very small place in the solar system."

Next month - on August 11 - a total eclipse of the sun will be visible from Cornwall.

The last time the moon's shadow blocked out the sun over the UK was more than 72 years ago.

Julia, 28, has never witnessed a total eclipse, and she won't see this one either.

Instead the graduate in astrophysics will be helping out at Jodrell Bank's gala day to celebrate the special event.

"It does feel a little bit like Cornwall is a special place and everybody else isn't invited to the party," she said.

"But up here we will still get to see 90 per cent of the sun obscured."

Over Cheshire a small crescent of light will remain visible throughout the eclipse, but Julia still believes it's a sight worth witnessing.

"This movement of massive celestial bodies will disrupt our daily life," she said.

"Even hardened eclipse chasers and scientists find it a magical event."

Astronomers know there are up to seven partial and total solar and lunar eclipses a year - but most pass by unnoticed.

"Most of the earth is covered by water so eclipses that happen over the ocean wouldn't be seen," said Julia.

"What makes this one so special is that the moon's shadow will pass over land with a high population density."

The shadow will be cast over Europe, passing over Cornwall, Luxembourg, Stuttgart and Bucharest.

But if it is cloudy, no one will see it, so many have chosen to travel abroad to escape the unpreditable English weather.

There is a total solar eclipse visible somewhere on earth about every 18 months.

They happen when the moon on its orbit around the earth lines up exactly with our planet and the sun.

The sun - which is 400 times bigger than the moon - is then blocked from our view by the moon's shadow.

"It relies on the fact that faraway objects look smaller than they are and can be covered by smaller objects nearer to you," said Julia.

An eclipse is awe-inspiring to watch, but it also gives scientists the chance to study characteristics of the sun which are usually hidden by its great light.

In Cornwall it will be dark for two minutes and the stars will come out.

But in Knutsford Julia expects 11.17am on August 11 to feel like dusk.

"Stars are always in the sky but the sun blots them out," she said.

"It is like trying to find a candle in a well-lit room. You can only see it if you switch the light off."

Small red ejections from the sun's surface, called prominences, may also be visible, Julia said.

These are energy shot out from the sun's surface and then pulled back in again in a loop by its magnetic field.

The corona - which is made of electrons reflecting sunlight and always surrounds the sun - will also be visible. Like the prominences the faint light normally cannot be seen, but during a total eclipse it appears as a white halo around the black disc covering the sun.

Baily's beads - named after the British astronomer Francis Baily - also may appear just before the sunlight is completely covered.

The thin slice of light seems to broken up into blobs as the sun shines through the jagged mountains of the moon's surface.

The effects is awe-inspiring, but Julia warned of the dangers of staring directly at the sun.

"People think that if they have blocked out the light from the sun then it is safe to look at it," she said.

"But UV and infra red rays are still being given off which can burn the eye."

When a person stares at the sun, their eye focuses its power on the back of the eye which burns but causes no pain.

"This makes it even more dangerous because people don't realise the long-term damage - maybe even blindness - they could be causing," said Julia.

Despite such dangers, she said people could still witness the eclipse safely by using special glasses or projecting the sun's image on to a screen.

The reflection can then be made on to a wall using a small hand mirror.

"Jodrell Bank's message is to enjoy the eclipse, but to enjoy it safely," said Julia.

"If not people will have to wait until 2090 to see another one over the UK."

Jodrell Bank are holding a gala day for the eclipse from 9am on August 11

For more information contact 01477 571339.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.