On March 20 – same date as the 2015 March equinox – the moon turns new only 14 hours after reaching lunar perigee – moon’s closest point to Earth in its orbit. Thus this moon is a supermoon – at the new phase – not visible in our sky, but having a larger-than-average effect on Earth’s oceans. Plus this new supermoon swings right in front of the equinox sun on March 20, so that the moon’s shadow falls on parts of Earth. |
Who will see the March 20 eclipse?
Note on the worldwide map below
that the path of totality (in blue) passes mainly over the frigid waters of North Atlantic Ocean. In other words, only those along that path – at high northern latitudes, near Greenland and Iceland – will see the total eclipse. The path of totality starts at sunrise to the south of Greenland, circles to the east of Greenland and Iceland at midday, and ends to the north of Greenland at sunset. The best spots to watch this total solar eclipse from land are the Faroe Islands and the Svalbard archipelago, which reside right on the semi-circle path of totality.
A much larger swath of the world gets to see varying degrees of a partial solar eclipse (Greenland, Iceland, Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East and northwestern Asia) Below is another image
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
Partial solar eclipse begins: 8:39 a.m. Western European Time (WET) Total solar eclipse begins: 9:41 a.m. WET Maximum eclipse: 9:42 a.m. WET Total solar eclipse ends: 9:43 a.m. WET Partial solar eclipse ends: 10:48 a.m. WET
Longyearbyen, Svalbard Partial solar eclipse begins: 10:12 a.m. Central European Time (CET) Total solar eclipse begins: 11:11 a.m. CET Maximum eclipse: 11:12 a.m. CET Total solar eclipse ends: 11:13 a.m. CET Partial solar eclipse ends: 12:12 a.m. CET
March 20, 2015 partial eclipse times
Reykjavik, Iceland Solar eclipse begins: 8:38 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Greatest eclipse: 9:37 a.m. GMT Solar eclipse ends: 10:39 a.m. GMT Maximum obscuration of solar disk: 98%
London, England Solar eclipse begins: 8:25 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) Greatest eclipse: 9:31 a.m. GMT Solar eclipse ends: 10:41 a.m. GMT Maximum obscuration of solar disk: 84%
Algiers, Algeria Solar eclipse begins: 9:06 a.m. Central European Time (CET) Greatest eclipse: 10:11 a.m. CET Solar eclipse ends: 11:20 a.m. CET Maximum obscuration of solar disk: 53%
Istanbul, Turkey Solar eclipse begins: 10:53 p.m. Eastern European Time (EET) Greatest eclipse: 11:57 a.m. EET Solar eclipse ends: 1:02 p.m. EET Maximum obscuration of solar disk: 32%
Moscow, Russia Solar eclipse begins: 12:13 p.m. Moscow Standard Time (MST) Greatest eclipse: 1:20 p.m. MST Solar eclipse ends: 2:27 p.m. MST Maximum obscuration of solar disk: 58%