People wait for the start of a total solar eclipse from a hill beside a hotel overlooking the sea and Torshavn, the capital city of the Faeroe Islands, Friday, March 20, 2015. For months, even years, accommodation on the remote Faeroe Islands has been booked out by fans who don't want to miss an almost three-minute-long astronomical sensation. Now they just have to hope the clouds will blow away so they can fully experience Friday's brief total solar eclipse. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)(The Associated Press)

A visitor waits for the start of a total solar eclipse on a hill beside a hotel overlooking Torshavn, the capital city of the Faeroe Islands, Friday, March 20, 2015. For months, even years, accommodation on the remote Faeroe Islands has been booked out by fans who don't want to miss an almost three-minute-long astronomical sensation. Now they just have to hope the clouds will blow away so they can fully experience Friday's brief total solar eclipse. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)(The Associated Press)

People watch as a solar eclipse begins over the Eden Project near St Austell in Cornwall, England Friday March 20, 2015. An eclipse is darkening parts of Europe on Friday in a rare solar event that won't be repeated for more than a decade. (AP Photo/PA, Ben Birchall) UNITED KINGDOM OUT: NO SALES: NO ARCHIVE:(The Associated Press)

The total solar eclipse seen from Svalbard, Norway Friday March 20, 2015. An eclipse is darkening parts of Europe on Friday in a rare solar event that won't be repeated for more than a decade. (AP Photo/Haakon Mosvold Larsen, NTB Scanpix) NORWAY OUT(The Associated Press)

People wear protective glasses to watch the solar eclipse at the Kalemegdan citadel in Belgrade, Serbia, Friday, March 20, 2015. Clouds moving over the city allowed only brief views of the partial eclipse. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)(The Associated Press)

TORSHAVN, Faeroe Islands Thousands of sky-gazers on the Faeroe Islands are hoping for the clouds to part so that they can get a clear view of a total solar eclipse.

The tiny island group in the North Atlantic and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard are the only places on land where the sun will be completely obscured by the moon during Friday's eclipse.

Clouds are covering the sky over the capital, Torshavn, but with the sun occasionally breaking through, as the big moment nears.

More than 11,000 tourists, eclipse chasers and scientists with telescopes, cameras and glasses for safe direct solar viewing have invaded the Faeroes for the almost three-minute-long astronomical sensation.

The phenomenon will later be seen in Svalbard, more than 2,000 kilometers (1,270 miles) to the northeast.

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Faeroe Islands and Svalbard get ready for total solar eclipse