From about 9.23am onwards this morning (that’s very very soon!) there’s going to be a solar eclipse. This is when the moon blocks out all the light from the sun because it’s in front of it. Obvs the moon is a lot smaller than the sun so can’t block out every single last bit of its light, but Britain is at the right position to have 83%-98% of the sun eclipsed by the moon.
That is, of course, if today’s clouds aren’t eclipsing all the planets, stars and moons!
Due to the different orbits the earth is on, those in the north east of Scotland are going to experience the eclipse the most, and those in the south east of the UK the least. Luck’s out for all those in London and the south east, too, because over the past two days, they've been seeing the best of the cloud of smog that’s plodded over from France.
Experts say that we should definitely not be looking towards the sun to see the solar eclipse’s effects (even if we think we can’t see it, clouds can get pretty bright sometimes). Instead, we recommend you quickly cut a circular hole in a piece of paper (a hole-punch can do this, or if you want something bigger just shove a pen through a piece of paper) and hold it with your back to the sun’s light.
Hold another piece of paper a little further from it, so you can see a bright circle of light on the second piece of paper from through the first piece’s hole.
When the eclipse happens, you should see the bright circle of sunlight fading…fast.
If that sounds complicated, don’t worry, we figure it’s way too cloudy (and early) to try that technique. So just watch outside and see just how gloomy the official first day of spring can get.
And if you don't see it, just crack this out. It always cheers us up when the world is plunged into darkness:
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.