A Total Eclipse of the Sun (for the early risers)

Friday, August 1st will feature a total eclipse of the Sun. Unfortunately, it is not visible from the the U.S. but we can watch it thanks to webcasts.

Unfortunately, due to the time difference, the eclipse starts at 5:09 am CDT and totality begins at 6:08 CDT if you want to watch the Exploratorium's covervage from China. The Exploratorium in is well known for its eclipse webcasts and you can watch it live online. If you don't want to get up this early, they archive their webcasts so you can watch them at a more reasonable hour! You can even watch the achived footage of previous eclipses.

Solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun. Total eclipses only cover a very small portion of the Earth since the Moon's shadow is pretty small (a maximum of 147 miles for this eclipse). People outside this line can see a partial eclipse, but we don't even get that.

For more info, Astronomy Magazine has a nice article online about the 2008 solar eclipse.