Total Solar Eclipse Today is Last Until 2015

By Mike Wall | SPACE.com

The skies over a slice of northern Australia will darken for a few minutes today as the planet experiences its first total solar eclipse in more than two years.

Today's total solar eclipse — the first since July 2010 and the last until March 2015 — begins at 3:35 p.m. EST (2035 GMT) today, which corresponds to shortly after dawn Wednesday (Nov. 14) local time in Australia. Weather permitting, will be visible from slivers of the continent's Northern Territory and state of Queensland, as well as a large, empty stretch of the Pacific Ocean.

More than 50,000 spectators are expected to watch the celestial event from Queensland, according to tourism officials. But forecasts of cloudy weather may put a damper on their viewing experience, according to media reports.

Most of the world's population will be far from the eclipse's path. But anyone with access to the Internet can follow the action live, for several organizations will provide free webcasts of the alignment of sun and moon. Two such outfits are Tourism Tropical North Queensland and the Slooh Space Camera, which will begin their broadcasts at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) and 2:30 p.m. EST (1930 GMT) on Tuesday, respectively.
You can watch both webcasts of the total solar eclipse live here at SPACE.com.