Simon's Blog - The Solar Eclipse

You probably already know that on Friday a total solar eclipse will occur across the Arctic and in the far north of Europe and it’ll be the last one for over a decade, with the next one visible in Europe until 2026.

As the moon's orbit travels in front of the sun it will cast a shadow over the Earth and all of England will witness a partial eclipse. It’ll all start at around 8.30 with the maximum eclipse at just after 9.30, before the whole thing ends at about 10.30 when the moon will completely move away from in front of the sun.

The Met Office have produced a handy guide as to how much of the eclipse we'll get and where.

Obviously what we’ll actually see will be largely dependant on the weather and at this point it looks as though there might be a fair amount of cloud around on Friday morning which really isn’t going to help.

But you never know, you might be lucky enough to get a bright spell at the right moment.

A word of warning though, NEVER look directly at the sun even if it is partially obscured.

Here's a link that gives you a few tips on how to safely enjoy the event.

But it's just the eclipse, as there will also be a Supermoon the evening before the eclipse, meaning the Earth and Moon are as close together as they can be. This makes this 2015 Spring Equinox eclipse a supermoon eclipse, with the almost unique situation of a supermoon, equinox and eclipse all falling on the same day.

Hats off to resourceful John Cuthbert in Hedge End who couldn't wait until Friday so has already done his own version of the eclipse using the real sun but instead of the moon...

...a slice of bread!