Elaborate and expensive plans have been laid to cover the eclipse.

Broadcasters in the UK and the other countries where it will be visible are hoping the weather gives them a decent show. The event is made for television and the BBC will be on air live on BBC One from 09.45 BST to 11.30 BST.

The eclipse will also get comprehensive coverage on BBC News programmes, radio and television, and BBC News Online.

BBC News will have at least 20 camera crews out on the ground in Cornwall and the Channel Islands. But the most spectacular pictures should come from the sky. BBC, ITN and BSkyB, have pooled their resources to put cameras in an RAF Hercules and Concorde.

The Eclipse will be going live all over Europe

Both will be in the air all morning with Concorde firm favourite to land the shot of the day.

It is the only plane fast enough to chase the eclipse across the sky. The on board camera and passengers will get six minutes more totality than anyone else.

ITV's coverage will be led by ITN and the local company, West Country Television. BSkyB will be live throughout the morning.

Sight and sound

The eclipse presents formidable challenges for radio and will test every reporters powers of description. Radio One will have Zoë Ball and Simon Mayo in the field with the Radio 1 Roadshow.

When darkness overwhelms the site, near St Michael's Mount in Penzance, the music will fade in time to hear the audience reaction at precisely 11.11 BST. For two minutes and six seconds, Simon Mayo will have to describe to his listeners just what total darkness looks like.

Eclipse watchers are relying on the weather

It is just as big a story in other countries. At least 50 satellite dishes will be deployed across the Continent to track the progress of the eclipse.

Turkey is boasting the best view of all because of its clear skies at this time of year. A live link has been set up at Amasya in Northern Anatolia where an Austrian orchestra will play throughout the period of darkness.

Journalists covering the eclipse for the written media are determined not to be upstaged by TV and radio. Many science writers will be on the tiny island of Alderney, the only one of the Channel Islands in the path of the total eclipse.

Expert observers

Experts from the Royal Astronomical Society have gathered there to observe the phenomenon and detailed analysis is promised - even if you do have to wait for Thursday's papers.

But Nigel Hawkes, Science Editor of the Times, says he prefers not to hype events like eclipses or comets:

"In this country the weather so often puts a damper on these things and they turn out to be an anticlimax.

"But if it is a nice sunny day, it will be very exciting and a wonderful experience. I covered the eclipse of the century in Mauretania in 1973 and I shall be delighted if the eclipse next Wednesday comes close to that."

It will be one of the media events of the year. But it is still just a dress rehearsal for the really big one. Coverage of the Millennium will totally eclipse anything that has happened before.