View the solar eclipse

Here’s one astronomical event you don’t need to visit a Dark Sky Park to see…

A solar eclipse it set to block out up to 90% of sunlight for the majority of the UK on 20th March 2015. The Solar Eclipse will occur across Northern Europe – so, the farther North you are, the more of the Eclipse you’ll be able to see and the closer to totality you’ll get. Here in the UK we should be able to see about 90% of the sun covered by the moon.

The cosmic light show will begin at approx 8:45am (check your local times as your location will affect this) when the Moon starts to touch the edge of the Sun. The maximum part of the eclipse will occur at about 9:30am, it’ll get pretty dark for a few minutes with the whole show ending at around 10:40am when the Moon leaves the Sun’s edge.

It’s been 16 years since the last eclipse, so it’s worth trying to catch a glimpse of it!

How to view the eclipse

It’ll be pretty hard to miss the eclipse… after all it going to get pretty dark for a few minutes.
Here are some tips to enjoy the event safely.

• Never look at the Sun directly without protective eye gear. Even sunglasses cannot protect your eyes from the damage the Sun’s rays can do to them.
• Do not look at the Sun through a pinhole device or through binoculars!
• When using binoculars or a telescope to project the image of the eclipse, do not keep anything flammable close to the lens.
• Always keep your back towards the Sun while looking at a pinhole or a binocular projection.

For more tips on how to safely view an eclipse, check out the video below.

We’ll be live-tweeting the eclipse on March 20th so make sure you follow us.
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Are you going to watch the eclipse, have you seen one before? Do you have any tips? Tell us below