Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey Topics), 15 March 2015

HAPPY NEW WEEK!

Last week's Chat Thread is here.

This is an important week with several major events for the global community!

SPRING EQUINOX

Spring arrives Friday, 20 March 2015, in the Northern Hemisphere at:

22:45 GMT/UTC
10:45 p.m. in the U.K.
06:45 p.m. in the eastern United States
03:45 p.m. in California

Autumn Equinox is Saturday, 21 March 2015, in the Southern Hemisphere. Fall arrives at 09:15 a.m. in Adelaide, Australia.

NEW MOON

The Moon turns new on the day of the equinox at 09:36 GMT/UTC, only 14 hours after reaching lunar perigee (the moon's closest point to Earth in its orbit). The New Moon is at 09:36 a.m. in the U.K., 05:36 a.m. in the eastern U.S., 02:36 a.m. in California, and on 20 March at 08:06 p.m. in Adelaide, Australia. 

SOLAR ECLIPSE

Here's the big news! On Equinox day, 20 March, the close perigee New Moon will swing right in front of the Sun to totally block out the solar disk. It's a Total Solar Eclipse!

You have to be in the right location -- the Faroe Islands or the Svalbard archipelago... -- to witness the eclipse in totality, but a much larger swatch of the globe will see varying degrees of partial solar eclipse -- Europe and parts of Africa and Asia. In much of the U.K., your view will be near total! (Oh, how I envy you. It won't be visible in the U.S. or Australia, I regret to say.)

For children who might read this, I have to add: Looking directly at the Sun during the eclipse could cause blindness or severe eye damage.

Eclipse information HERE

Watch a livestream broadcast of the event HERE

Edit: Slooh has redesigned their site. Here's an updated link for the livestream broadcast of the total solar eclipse: HERE

  • Limpy saw this on Facebook - check it out!

    An Eagle Eye over Dubai

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Diane - I have to disagree LOL. Autumn begins 1 March DownUnder. Aussieland media ignores scientific things like equinoxes and goes for the calendar!

    I’ve been AWL and not even lurking. I hurt my back & couldn’t sit, stand or walk for more than a few mins until I was able to get to Physio after a week of lying flat. It was a pinched disc in lower back. My own stupid fault. I was hunting in garage for my knitting patterns. These boxes were stashed when we had new carpet last year & I had been culling stuff before bringing anything inside. Alas nanny days took up so much time that I haven’t looked at boxes for months. Today I was able to sit up to eat breakfast – just. This is the first day I’ve felt improvement. Sadly I missed my bus trip yesterday but I hope to be OK for the next at end of month. Meanwhile OH has been feeding, shopping and fitting in 3 days of nanny duty last week.

  • Thanks Diane for starting us off and giving us all the info re spring etc.  Lovely card too.

    Rita - lovely card 

    Hi all, and hope you all had a lovely Mothering Sunday.  Kids took me out to a gastric pub in south northants where we all had a lovely meal.  Son, Dau, DiL, St.GD and fiance, and OH - lovely to meet up with them all.

    The young ospreys at Yadkin were there again tonight - early evening there. At least I think they are young ones judging by the chosen "nest" site.

    Its a nice note to end the day on as its been a real grey and cold day down here

  • AQ - According to the Met office here they start spring on March 1st but true spring is mid month.  Ooh, that sounds painful, do hope you are making progress no and that it won't be too long before your back is a whole lot better.  Take care.

    Thank you too, to Keith for the MD card.

  • Feeling bit under the weather doing too many hours me thinks! Other than that ok

  • I'm sorry to hear that, Alicat - I was hoping this job would be easier for you than the agency work.  It's good to see you posting.

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Good morning all and back again after another course of chemo. It seems to leave me very tired now, I soppose because there is not much of a gap between treatments. Stomach problems too but over the course of this week things will improve. Had a build up of potassium which caused a bit of concern as it can cause heart problems. They did an ECG and all was normal. I just had to drink lots and after amother blood test lasThursday potassium level went down. Terrible problem finding a vein that would cooperate and eventually got some from the back of my hand. Unfortunately havr lots of bruising where they were unsuccessful. Good job that arms are covered as it is not very warm at the moment. Billie was a little devil last night. She woke me up at 1am wanting to play. Coukd hear her galloping round in the front room attacking her scratching post and playing with various toys. Eventually got back to bed but could not get sleep again . Needless to say she is now fast asleep and will probably stay that way for a few hours.

    Thanks to all for all posts and pics, just managed to catch up again. Will participate more this week hopefully.

    Have a good day and take care. 

  • Hi, Margo - it's good to see you, though not so good to hear you've had a rough time.  I hope you manage to catch up on some sleep today.

    I've been catching up with posting some of my most recent photos if anyone would like a look.

    Our herring gulls are red listed birds.  Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.

  • Good Morning Everyone. The morning started very cloudy and everywhere is wet from some overnight rain, but we now have some sunny intervals.

    AQ, How painful for you. Carrying the babies has probably weakened your back and then working in the garage was the ' last straw'. Sorry you were forced to cancel your weekend trip. So good that your husband was able to cover 3 days of nanny duty, but I guess he must be feeling the strain, as well as yourself. Take care of yourself.

    Alicat, Sorry you are feeling so tired from working so many hours, but good that you are ok.

    Margo, Good to see you posting. Sounds painful to have blood taken from the back of your hand. Glad to see that your potassium has returned to normal. Billie does seem to be a 'night owl'. If she was human, she would be at the nightclubs until the early hours.

    Diane, It is doubtful how much of the eclipse we will be able to see, as the forecasters think that it may be very cloudy !!!!!!

  • Alicat - take care of yourself, too many hours and you'll eventually burn out. Try and get some "me" time.

    Margobird - nice to hear from you and sorry you are going through the mill a bit but do hope that over this week things will again improve for you.  Take care.