Those that are into what happens with our sun, will no doubt know that there is a solar eclipse due to happen in four days time on the 20th of this month, and apparently this particular solar eclipse is a tad different from other solar eclipses, as this one is an annual solar eclipse.

According to an article over on Global Post, as the 20th of May solar eclipse is an annular solar eclipse, it means at its peak the eclipse will block out roughly 94 percent of the sun. So with that in mind we thought we’d bring a few mobile apps to do with solar eclipses for our iOS and Android readers consideration.

So we’ll kick off with the solar eclipse app for the iOS platform with the Annular Solar Eclipse 2012 app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and Apple iPad, which is actually a simulation and countdown app for the annular solar eclipse on the 20th of May 2012.

The Annular Solar Eclipse 2012 app has augmented reality available to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, and is apparently useful to determine observation location, whilst a pause and play button has now been added to the lower left corner of the simulation screen. The Annular Solar Eclipse 2012 iOS app can be downloaded for free from iTunes.

Next up we have the Eclipse Calculator app for iOS devices, which is a tool for calculating eclipse local circumstances, by defining location coordinates, choosing a city, or calculate local circumstances for both Solar eclipses and Lunar eclipses.

The Eclipse Calculator app has data available on solar eclipses from 1500 BCE to 3000 CE and lunar eclipses data from 2000 BCE to 3000 CE, and calculations include eclipse type, eclipse start time, partial eclipse start time, total eclipse end time and more. The Eclipse Calculator app can be downloaded to your chosen iOS device from iTunes at a cost of $0.99.

Last of the iOS platform app we have the Total Solar Eclipse app for iOS devices, an application that gives the times in Universal Time of solar eclipse phases along with geographical coordinates where the eclipse can be best observed, along with minimum duration and width of the lunar umbrella.

The Total Solar Eclipse app also offers Google Map, movie and Earth Map visualisations, and it is possible to change the geographical coordinates of the observer so you know if and how he eclipse will be seen from other points of the Earth. The Total Solar Eclipse app can be purchase at a cost of $1.99 from iTunes.

Moving on to the Android platform we have an app called Annular Eclipse Simulator 2012, an app that simulates the annular eclipse on the 20th of May 2012, and features calculation of the eclipse high accurate time, real time mode and simulation mode.

The Annular Eclipse Simulator 2012 app for Android also offers a countdown from eclipse time, and can be used across the globe to view the eclipse of the sun and offers a test version augmented reality. The Annular Eclipse Simulator 2012 app is available from Google Play at a cost of £3.80.

Next up we have the Solar Eclipse Photography app for Android, an application that obviously offers photos of eclipses that can be saved to the SD card, set as wallpaper and viewed in full screen, but other than that the app description doesn’t reveal much about the app.

Having said that, apparently at least 2 and up to 5 solar eclipses occur each year, so if you would like to view pictures of solar eclipses then maybe this app is for you, and can be downloaded from Google Play as a free download.

Lastly we have an Android app simply called Solar Eclipse, which basically offers the same as the Solar Eclipse Photography app for Android in as much as you can view numerous graphics of eclipses.

Again, the Solar Eclipse Android app is probably a good app to have if you like viewing images of eclipses, and as with most Android apps the Solar Eclipse app can be downloaded to your chosen Android device for free by hitting up Google Play.