SOLAR ECLIPSE IN THE TOP END

A total solar eclipse will be visible today, Thursday 20^th April in some parts of the world including Exmouth and Barrow Island in WA, eastern regions of Timor-Leste and West Papua in Indonesia.

Astronomy fans will still be able to see a partial eclipse in other parts of the world including here in the Top End all the way down to Alice Springs

Eclipse peak from Darwin                                                            Eclipse peak from Alice Springs

In the NT, we will witness a partial eclipse in the early afternoon and the effects will go for about three hours.

In Darwin, the partial eclipse begins about 12.20pm, will peak around 2.04pm and about 80 percent of the sun will be obscured, the eclipse will then end at 3.25pm.

Although most of the sun is obscured, there will only be a slight change in light levels – remember though – even a 99 percent obscured sun is too bright to look at without protection and projection does not include sunglasses or welding helmets.

To watch any eclipse you should wear solar eclipse glasses that meet the international safety standard ISO 12312-2. If you can’t get your hands on these, you can build a pinhole camera – check out this handy YouTube video thanks to Dr Brad Tucker, an astrophysicist at the Australian National University.

Link

Here’s a handy chart for other capital cities in Australia:

And click below to go to a more detailed Eclipse Map to find out what’s happening where you live:

Story compiled from various sources including news.com.au, theguardian.com | images courtesy of news.com.au