Solar eclipse glasses have sold out a day before the biggest celestial spectacle in 27 years. Britain is set to witness its most dramatic solar eclipse in more than a quarter of a century on Wednesday evening. The event will be the deepest partial eclipse visible from these shores since the famous total eclipse of August 1999, when the path of totality swept across Cornwall. An empty box of sold out solar eclipse glasses in a shop window in London | REUTERSHarrison Maddox, a 27-year-old architectural assistant and keen amateur astronomer from West Kensington, spent hours trawling central London on Monday after striking out online, the Times reports. "Looking directly at the sun during a solar eclipse can cause damage to the retina, potentially damaging the cells responsible for sharp central vision.