A partial solar eclipse occurred on Tuesday but a cloudy sky restricted its visibility from Delhi and certain other parts of northern and western India.Director of Nehru Planetarium N Rathnasree said, the eclipse which is the first in 2011, began at 1210 pm and ended at 4.31pm while the maximum phase of eclipse was at 2.21 pm.A solar eclipse happens when the moon lines up between the Sun and the Earth, casting a lunar shadow on the Earth's surface and obscuring the solar disk. During a partial solar eclipse, only part of the sun is blotted out.Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators said, the maximum portion of the Sun covered during the eclipse was only 3 per cent. In India, the eastern fringe of the penumbral shadow of the Moon passed over the Kutch and other parts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.The eclipse was also visible from most of Europe, the northern half of Africa, the Middle East, western Asia, north-west China and western Mongolia. The next best opportunity to see a solar eclipse covering major parts of the country will be on December 26, 2019. In 2011, a total of six solar eclipses will occur – four solar and two lunar.