Friday 20th March 2015 is a big day in Ibiza for the stargazers amongst us. At 23:45 the sun crosses the celestial equator and spring begins, bringing longer days, shorter nights and better weather. However, the most momentous event in the heavens takes place earlier in the day when the island experiences a partial eclipse of the sun.
What's happening is that the moon passes between the earth and the sun, blotting it out completely or partially depending on your earthly location. Lucky Faroe Islanders get the full monty version of the eclipse whereas here in Ibiza we'll see the moon pass over the upper portion of the sun leaving just an upturned crescent visible.
The exact timings for this fabulous free show are;
Begins: Friday 20th March 2015, 09:07
Maximum: Friday 20th March 2015, 10:12
Ends: Friday 20th March 2015, 11:22
Duration: 2 hours, 15 minutes
This eclipse will be very similar to the last one which took place on October 3rd 2005 when the moon passed in front of the lower portion of the sun, leaving just the upper part exposed as you can see on our photo from that day.
Just in case you don't already know, solar eclipses come with a health warning; don't look at them directly, it's really bad for your eyes. Instead use the 'camera obscura' technique – stick a pinhole in a piece of paper and let the sun project its light through it onto another piece of paper.
Now, the weather forecast isn't looking so good with clouds and rain on the meteorological horizon for Friday, but you never know, we might just get lucky. If not, don't worry because we have not one, but two, total eclipses coming up in Ibiza – on the 12th August 2026 and 2nd August 2027 when I can confidently predict that the weather will be very hot!
Astrologically, eclipses can be represent both good luck and bad luck. It's bad luck for most people in Ibiza come Sunday 29th March, as it's also the time the clocks 'spring' forward by one hour, meaning we lose an hour on a day we don't have to go to work!
