Australians as well as residents of eastern Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Gilbert Islands would be able to view the solar eclipse on May 10.

The partial annular eclipse - which happens when the Sun and Moon are lined up exactly, but the Sun being bigger, it would appear as a very bright ring that will surround the dark disk of the Moon - will be visible in Australia, Indonesia, Oceania and a large part of the Pacific Ocean's central region.

It starts near Collier Range National Park in Western Australia at 22:33 Universal Time.

NASA provided more information about the event in an article titled Annular Solar Eclipse of May 10 in which the agency said the shadow would quickly sweep across the Northern Territory where Tennent Creek would experience the annular phase of 3 minutes, 4 seconds. Since it would happen shortly before sunrise, the Sun would be just 16 degrees above the horizon.

NASA explained, "The antumbral shadow crosses the Gulf of Carpentaria and reaches the Cape York Peninsula at 22:44 UT. As it does so, it crosses the track of the previous year's total solar eclipse (2012 November 13). Four minutes later, the shadow departs Australia at Lakefield National Park (22:48 UT)."

The next landfall of the eclipse path would be in Papua New Guinea at 23:00 UT where the annularity would last 4 minutes, 59 seconds. Then it move to the Solomons and would last 5 minutes, 16 seconds

More information about the event could be found in the following YouTube video.

People are reminded to wear protective eye wear when they view the solar eclipse. These include special protective lenses, cameras and telescope filters.

The eclipse could also be seen via the webcast of SPACE.Com.

Besides the solar eclipse, the National Geographic lists four other celestial events this week, namely the Eta Aquarid Meteors on Monday, Venus Returns to Evening Skies on Tuesday, the Moon Joins Venus on Friday night and the Moon Joins Jupiter on Saturday and Sunday evening.

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