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/UTC10:45 p.m. in the U.K.06:45 p.m. in the eastern United States03:45 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
Clare Bailey said: Great photos, Lmac! Tapaidh is gorgeous.
Great photos, Lmac! Tapaidh is gorgeous.
Was looking at Rutland today and they had some curious visitors
The Yadkin ospreys are building up their nest, a long way to go yet though.
http://scottishwildlifetrust.org.uk/things-to-do/wildlife-webcams/loch-of-lowes/
RSPB Giving Nature a Home
Once the season really gets underway I probably won't be posting as many Africam pics, so here's one or two
one baby ele
the two black eagles - nesting season has started - nr Johannesburg, SA.
Omen, coincidence, whatever Linda. It can only be good :-)) i always loved that song.
I mentioned to Margo yesterday that I don't understand the metal trays that they put out as nest sites for the birds. Surely they can become, so cold or hot, whatever the weather, and retain that temperature for some time.
Brilliant chat, everyone !!
Just to say that OHs scan seems to be OK, he has gallstones which we knew anyway.Nothing else said so we will wait for the Official Results! We were both nervous, his next appointment is for endoscopy and colonoscopy on 30th March. He looks so well, surely nothing majorly wrong,fingers crossed.
Thanks Heather. Try and relax now. Sorry for him that he still has to undergo an endoscopy and colonoscopy. He must be 'fed up'. My daughter had both at the same time and she had a general anaesthetic. Made it a very long appointment though, as I had to wait for her to have a sleep afterwards.
Good morning, all! I got a surprise this morning - what I thought was a pigeon trying to sit menacingly still in the woodland did, in fact, turn out to be a beautiful sparrowhawk! I rarely see it sitting still - it usually arrives in a brown blur in my garden so I'm very happy.
Here's a picture:
It's not great as I took this through a window but the last thing I wanted to do was spook it.
Our herring gulls are red listed birds. Think about that the next time you hear some flaming idiot calling for a cull of them.
Lindybird said:Bad picture of her spread out on my OH's knee last night - she really relaxed once we settled down to watch TV!