A star-gazing expert from the University of Surrey has spoken about next Friday's (March 20) total solar eclipse which will plunge Surrey and north-east Hampshire into darkness.

Astro-physics professor Mark Gieles has talked about the science and history behind the natural phenomenon.

He has worked as a research fellow at the European Southern Observatory in Chile and as a support astronomer on the Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal in the Atacama desert.

Prof Gieles explained how because of a "freak coincidence" the sun and moon occupy the same sized space in our sky.

The celestial anomaly is a result of the sun's diameter being 40x bigger than the moon, but the grey planet being situated 40x closer to the earth than our burning star.

When the moon covers the sun on its orbital path, that's when eclipses occur.

"If the moon was 10 times larger then we would have an eclipse every month," said Prof Gieles.

Eclipses still occur regularly but can be either full or partial depending on the orbiting moon's position from earth.

Its orbit is also tilted at five degrees in relation to earth so the moon's shadow will normally pass under or over.

The last total eclipse viewable from Great Britain happened in 1999 and before that in 1927!

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Total Solar Eclipse: University of Surrey astronomy expert provides fascinating insight