UKEclipseAlert: There's a solareclipse tomorrow morning, but I thought I'd better mention it today so that you don't miss seeing it. The eclipse isn't total, it's only annular, but up to 95% of the sun will be disappearing over Spain and North and East Africa. Here in the UK we'll see a partial eclipse, weather permitting, with an impressive 57% of the solar disc obscured as viewed from London. Starts 08:49 (BST), maximum coverage 10:01, ends 11:18. And there isn't a better eclipse to be seen in the UK until 2015. You have been warned. Here's an ultra clickable list of in-depth eclipse info:
• Solar eclipses: these occur when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and the Earth, i.e. when the Moon is New. But the Moon's orbit is tilted at about 5½° to the orbit of the Earth, so eclipses only happen about every 25 weeks, ish. It's more complicated than that really though... [details here] • Annular eclipses: these occur when the Moon isn't quite close enough to the Earth to cover the Sun completely, i.e. when the Moon is on the far side of its orbit. In this case the Moon appears as a large black disc across the Sun, surrounded by a narrow ring of fire. A third of all solar eclipses are annular (and only a quarter are total). [more here]
Tomorrow's eclipse • The path of tomorrow's annular eclipse sweeps a path approximately 200km wide, from sunrise in the North Atlantic to sunset in the Indian Ocean (almost 4 hours in total). [see the path here] • During this time the Moon's shadow will travel about 14100km and cover 0.57% of the Earth's surface. • Countries in the path of the annular eclipse:Spain, Portugal (slightly), Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia (slightly), Kenya, Somalia. [see maps] • Cities/towns in the path of the annular eclipse:Vigo (10:53, local time), Madrid (10:57), Valencia, Alicante (11:01), Benidorm (11:02), Ibiza (11:03), Algiers (11:37), a lot of desert. [see maps] • Cities from which the eclipse is partial: Reykjavik (38%), Dublin (58%), Lisbon (83%), Paris (63%), Barcelona (84%), Rome (66%), Athens (54%), Nairobi (83%) [see map here] • Cities from which the eclipse is partial (UK): Aberdeen (44%), Edinburgh (48%), Newcastle (49%), Manchester (54%) Birmingham (56%), London (57%, pictured) Cardiff (60%), Plymouth (64%) [tons more UK places here] • An animated gif showing the path of the eclipse[I could watch this for hours] • But will it be overcast? This climatic map shows the percentage chance of the sky being cloudy in October [and you can see other months here - fascinating stuff] • Full details of tomorrow's eclipse here, here and here
Future total solar eclipses of note • 29 March 2006: Brazil, Atlantic, W Africa, NE Africa, Turkey, Russia [the next one] • 1 August 2008: N Canada, Greenland, Arctic, Russia, Mongolia, China [this eclipse occurs one week before the Beijing Olympics] • 20 March 2015: North Atlantic, Faeroes, Arctic [the next best eclipse as viewed from the UK - 98% total in the Isle of Lewis and 84% from London] • 23 September 2090: the next total solar eclipse visible from the UK mainland [Cornwall, Devon and the southwest - just like 1999] • 14 June 2151: the next total solar eclipse visible from London [the last was on 3 May 1715, and the one before that on 29 October 878]
UK Eclipse Alert: There's a solar eclipse tomorrow morning, but I thought I'd better mention it today so that you don't miss seeing it. The eclipse isn't total, it's only annular, but up to 95% of the sun will be disappearing over Spain and North and East Africa. Here in the UK we'll see a partial eclipse, weather permitting, with an impressive 57% of the solar disc obscured as viewed from London. Starts 08:49 (BST), maximum coverage 10:01, ends 11:18. And there isn't a better eclipse to be seen in the UK until 2015. You have been warned. Here's an ultra clickable list of in-depth eclipse info:
