A Rare Threesome

There will be a total eclipse of the sun today* (Friday, March 20, 2015). This is also the first day of spring. As an added bonus, tonight will feature a Supermoon.

* The total eclipse will not be visible anywhere in the USA and will be seen only by folks on some rather remote islands in far northern Europe Friday morning. Residents of the Danish-owned Faroe Islands and the sparsely inhabited Norwegian island group of Svalbard will be the only lucky ones to see the full spectacle.

A partial solar eclipse will be visible across all of Europe, northern Africa and much of northern Asia, according to Space.com. A partial solar eclipse occurs when the moon obscures only part of the sun from Earth's view.

"Depending on where you are in Europe, you will see anywhere from roughly 50 to nearly 99% of the sun's diameter eclipsed by the moon," according to Space.com's Joe Rao.

Those of us in the USA can watch the eclipse online starting at 4:30 a.m. ET Friday on Slooh.com.

Still, today offers a rare celestial three-fer.

Solar eclipse, Supermoon, Spring equinox: Friday will see three rare celestial events

As the eclipse plunges the UK and other places (but not, alas, the US) into darkness this Friday, two other rare if less spectacular celestial events will be taking place, too: a Supermoon and the Spring equinox.

A Supermoon, or perigee moon, happens when the full or new moon does its closest fly-by of the Earth, making it look bigger than it normally does. And the spring equinox refers to the time of the year when the day and night are of equal duration, mid-way between the longest and shortest days.

The equinox will also happen on March 20. While it won’t have any discernable, direct impact on how the solar eclipse looks, it will contribute to a rare collision of three unusual celestial events.

On March 20, the Earth’s axis will be perpindecular to the sun’s rays — which only happens twice a year, at the two equinoxes. After that, it will start tipping over, making the days longer in the northern hemisphere.

Given the weather we've suffered through this winter, Spring can't get here soon enough.