The BBC’s Stargazing Live returns tonight, 8pm BBC 2, with three consecutive nights of live programmes to coincide with the total solar eclipse on Friday 20 March 2015. [It is an annual series! – Ed]. Stargazing Live is, yes. Not necessarily total solar eclipses, though. And this solar eclipse is the only one, total or otherwise, to be visible from Europe for the next few years. ESA’s mini-satellites will have a better view. But not as good a view as this… The BBC has some tips on how you can watch a solar eclipse safely.
Unless you’re planning to be on the Faroe Islands on Friday morning, you’ll probably have to make do with a partial solar eclipse. That said, as this Met Office map from the BBC shows, the view from the UK and Ireland will be of an up to 97-98% eclipse of the solar disc. This will be the deepest eclipse in the UK and Ireland since 1999, and until 2026.
More precise details about Friday’s solar eclipse are available from here. For Belfast, the eclipse begins on Friday morning [20 March] at just after 8.26 am, maximum (94% solar disc coverage) at around 9.30 am, and ending just before 10.39 am [all GMT].
All visibility weather permitting, of course…
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