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