A partial solar eclipse will be visible in Scotland's skies on Tuesday. 

People across the country will witness the rare celestial event which will see around a sixth of the sun being blocked by the moon. 

However, those further north will see more of the sun obscured - but a lot will also be riding on cloud cover. 

In the UK, between 10 and 20 per cent of the sun will be obscured at the mid-eclipse. 

The rare event, which is not expected again until 2025, will begin around 10.01am in Shetland and end around 11.56am. 

Further south, the partial eclipse will kick off slightly later.

Lerwick in the Shetland Isles is expected to have a better view, with 28% of the sun obscured at mid-eclipse.

According to one meteorologist, the best-placed locations for the morning eclipse will be Fife, Edinburgh, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Caithness and Orkney, where there will be gaps in the cloud cover.

STV's Sean Batty said the best way to view the event "will be via a live feed on the internet, or using eclipse glasses if you have them".

Dr Robert Massey, of the Royal Astronomical Society, said the phenomenon will cause the moon to block the view of “some or all of the bright solar surface”, and the sun will “appear to have a bite taken out of it”.

Dr Massey said looking directly at the sun can cause serious damage to the eyes, even when a large fraction of the solar disc is blocked out.

It is also not wise not to look at the sun through binoculars, telescopes or a telephoto lens on an SLR camera.

He added: “The simplest way to watch an eclipse is to use a pinhole in a piece of card.

“An image of the Sun can then be projected on to another piece of card behind it (experiment with the distance between the two, but it will need to be at least 30 cm).

“Under no circumstances should you look through the pinhole.”

Dr Massey said another popular method used to view an eclipse is the mirror projection method.

He said: “You need a small, flat mirror and a means of placing it in the sun so that it reflects the sunlight into a room where you can view it on a wall or some sort of a flat screen.

“You may also have eclipse glasses with a certified safety mark, and these are available from specialist astronomy suppliers.

“Provided these are not damaged in any way, you can then view the sun through them.”

Binoculars or telescopes can also be used to project the image of the sun.

Dr Massey said: “Mount them on a tripod, and fit one piece of card with a hole in it over the eyepiece, and place another between 50cm and a metre behind it.

“Point the telescope or binoculars towards the sun and you should see its bright image on the separate card.”

For those keen to follow the event, the Royal Observatory Greenwich will live-stream the eclipse on its website.