Solar Eclispe

There is an eclipse taking part now as i type this message i have had to turn the lights on.

Awesome. I knew it was happening today but we can't see it from here, we're too far away from the Moon's shadow and anyway, the Sun has just set here about half an hour ago.

Here's the position of the Sun and Moon viewed from here as of about 5 minutes ago (if they were still visible):



That's about as close as the Moon gets to the Sun from where I am. I can't see it, of course. That screenshot was taken from the program Stellarium.

http://www.stellarium.org/

Great program.

Yeh i am looking at vids on youtube.

Couldn't have gotten too dark there, George? Here's another screenshot showing the maximum eclipse visible from the UK (about one and three quarter hours ago):



A view of the total eclipse would have been spectacular.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_1,_2008

We did have it a little bit it was on the news aswell it went dark and we needed the lgights on.

The next one will be on January 26th, 2009 and it'll be visible from here in Perth, WA, at about 5 in the afternoon.



The Moon will be covering the Sun by about the same amount as it just did for you, George.

Here's what it will look like from the middle of the Indian Ocean, about halfway between Perth, WA and Cape Town, in South Africa.



It will be an Annular Eclipse.

cool we wont c it will we

windowsvista wrote:cool we wont c it will we

Nope, it'll be happening just after sunrise your time that day. But, the Moon will 'miss' covering any part of the Sun by just over one Sun (or Moon) diameter from where you are.

Cool ok.

This is a great picture:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap990830.html

First time I've seen that one.

Cool u r knowledgeable

windowsvista wrote:Cool u r knowledgeable

Yep! That's our ole knowledgeable Carl!

But it's the Observer that's REALLY knowledgeable! That guy knows everything (about everyone)!

Er no.

windowsvista wrote:Er no.

That's what Jimmy Hoffa thought, too.

BIG mistake, for him!

Here's a short video I made of today's eclipse using another program called Celestia.

http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=2m3lrf6&s=4

You can see the shadow of the Moon moving across the top of the Earth.

Time has been sped up x1000, of course.