. The Moon will shine its light over Northern Europe, 2015, completely obscuring (total Solar Eclipse) the area between Iceland and Outer Hebrides. All of the UK’s other regions in darkness, ranging from 97% to the extreme north, to 85% south. The Moon’s position between the Earth, the Sun and Earth causes a solar eclipse. This is also known as the eclipse of the Sun. The Moon creates shadows on earth’s surface. There are actually two shadows. The umbra gets smaller the closer it gets to the Earth and the penumbra gets bigger. The total eclipse, which is a complete block of the sun’s rays, can only be seen by people who are in the shadow that crosses the Moon’s umbra. The penumbra will experience a partial blockage of sunlight. The only visible light in a total eclipse is the Sun’s glow behind the Moon. The British Astronomical Association’s (BAA) stated that the March 20th event will be more than 2 hours long. According to the BAA, the event will last more than two hours. You must protect your eyes. You could end up with severe damage to your eyes and possibly even blindness if you do. NASA states that the Sun cannot be seen safely by the naked eye during a partial eclipse or annular eclipse. This is only for a few seconds to minutes. It is not safe to view partial eclipses or annular total eclipses without special protections. You can use special filters to view the Sun or project it onto a screen. The BAA Solar Eclipse Safety Code states that you should not view the Sun with any kind of sunglasses (single, multiple, or single), nor any filter made from black and white, colour or photographic film. This includes any combination of photographic filters or crossed polarisers/gelatin filters. CDs, CD-ROMs. Smoked glass is also prohibited. They are not safe.” Only use special filters that allow safe solar viewing (e.g. aluminised mylar filters, or black polymer filters, identified as suitable for direct viewing of the Sun, bearing the CE mark AND a statement that it conforms to European Community Directive 89/686/EEC, or use a welder’s glass rated at No. 14 and higher Follow the instructions of your manufacturer carefully. Children must be watched when watching a solar eclipse. To view the solar eclipse, use a pinhole projection camera. This projector projects the Sun and Moon onto a projector. These are simple to create. You will need two sheets white cardboard. However, you could also use two sheets normal white printer papers. A pin or thumbtack. Pinhole projectors are easy to use, cost-effective and safe. Make a round hole with the thumbtack or pin in one of the sheets of white cardboard (or paper) using the pin. To protect your eyes, hold this sheet high up towards the Sun. Stand with your back toward the Sun. The second, unperforated sheet should be held below the one with the hole to project an inverted version of the Sun onto it. The sheets can be moved closer or farther apart to make the image bigger or smaller. European solar energy industry concerns about how it will cope with a sudden drop in electricity supply and then a surge of two hours later. BBC Video – Total Solar Eclipse 1999
