This Weekend's Solar Eclipse, Can You See it?

(PHOTO: Flickr)On May 20, the moon will pass between the Earth & the Sun, creating a brilliant annular solar eclipse for some viewers & an equally amazing partial solar eclipse for many others. An annular solar eclipse happens when the moon is at a certain distance from the Earth, so that it appears relatively smaller than the sun; in a total eclipse, the moon appears to be the same size as the sun. This happens because the moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t a perfect circle but rather is an ellipse, putting it sometimes a bit further from the Earth than others. Not everyone will be able to see it. Only a relatively small number of people will be in just the right spot. Some of the major cities & places that lie along the path of best viewing for this annular eclipse include Tokyo; in the US-Alaska’s Aleutian Islands; Redding, California; central Nevada; southern Utah; northern Arizona; & Albuquerque, New Mexico.  If you live in East Asia & near the Pacific Ocean, you’ll also be able to see the partial eclipse.  The eclipse will begin on the west coast of the US at 6:30 pm PDT on May 20.  (Read more at Mashable)