Bridge Pupils See Solar Eclipse
On the 20th March staff and pupils came to school, anticipating with great excitment, a sighting of a solar eclipse. This much talked about event was due to be seen in Banbridge around 9.30am. Sadly but also thankfully it was rather cloudy and we were able to go outside and have a look. We did notice a significant darkening of the sky and could at stages see the eclipse well, whilst trying to avoid looking directly at the sun.
The next time a decent eclipse will be visible from the UK of this magnitude will be on the 12th August 2026. The next total solar eclipse for the Uk will be on the 23rd September 2090.
Emilie from P.6T was our photographer for this event but sadly the images of the eclipse taken by the iPad did not come out very clearly.
Enjoy reading Will's report below.
Solar Eclipse: A Report by Will P.6T
A Solar Eclipse occurs when the moon lines up with the Sun, blocking most of it or all of it out and creating a shadow on some parts of the Earth. On the 20th March 2015, this happened around Europe, eastern Asia, northern and western Africa, The Faroe Islands and Svalbard (Norway).
If there is a Solar Eclipse, it will either be partial or total Solar Eclipse. A partial Solar Eclipse is when most of the sun is blocked but not all of it and a total Solar Eclipse is when all of the sun is blocked out.
This time, the total Solar Eclipse happened around The Foroe Islands and Svalbard but sadly, most of the rest of the places where you could see a total Solar Eclipse was in the ocean. You could’ve seen a partial Solar Eclipse in Europe, eastern Asia, northern and western Africa.
The last time there was a total Solar Eclipse in the U.K was in 1999. However, the next total Solar Eclipse is on the 23rd September 2090 so we might not see a total Solar Eclipse in the U.K in our lifetime!
