Total solar eclipse happening tomorrow, but not in SA

POLOKWANE – Not only will there be an eclipse, but there will also be a supermoon!

A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between earth and the sun every month, but a total solar eclipse happens when the three celestial bodies align perfectly. A supermoon will occur tomorrow due to the moon being at its closest point to earth, this is called “perigee”.

In South Africa, things will remain normal, but for certain areas in the world, especially in the northern hemisphere, the moon will cast its dark shadow (the umbra) onto a narrow strip along the surface of the earth. This strip will be visible over the Pacific ocean.

Over a period of three hours, this dark shadow will first land over Indonesia and the path in which the entire face of the sun is covered will be over Borneo, Sulawesi (in Indonesia) and then the International Date Line and will disappear over Hawaii.

What this means is that these areas will go from broad daylight to twilight for approximately four minutes.

Unfortunately for South Africa, we won’t experience this transition and you might just catch a glimpse of the eclipse if you have the right equipment, but according to the Planetarium in Johannesburg, the next visible solar eclipse in South Africa will happen on 1 September from 09:30 am to 12:30 and will be visible to the whole country as a partial eclipse, but Musina will experience 50% of it.

If you want to see the eclipse you can stream it online from any news corporation or National Geographic.