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.

Sandusky convicted of 45 counts, seeks an appeal

By Kimberly Kaplan, NBC News, and M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

Updated at 11:37 p.m. ET: BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse Friday night and faces spending the rest of his life in state prison. His attorney said he would appeal the verdict.

Sandusky's attorney, Joseph Amendola, asked Judge John Cleland to allow Sandusky to be released on house arrest, but Cleland summarily rejected the request, saying: "Bail is revoked. Mr. Sandusky is remanded to the custody of the sheriff."

Michael Isikoff, John Yang, Ron Allen, Marianne Haggerty and Hannah Rapplye of NBC News and Jim Gold of msnbc.com contributed to this report by Kimberly Kaplan of NBC News and M. Alex Johnson of msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

Sandusky was immediately led out of the courthouse in handcuffs as a large crowd of onlookers cheered. Sentencing was set for late September.

Sandusky, 68, the former longtime defensive coordinator for the Penn State University football team, had denied all 48 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years. Two grand jury reports accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the boys, whom he met through his Second Mile charity for troubled children, for sexual relationships.

Several of the counts are so-called mandated felonies, meaning Cleland has no discretion in sentencing. NBC News reported that he faces a minimum of 60 years in prison.

NBC News
Jerry Sandusky is led from the Centre County Courthouse in handcuffs Friday night.

Cleland, who is a senior judge in McKean County, was brought to Centre County to oversee the trial after local judges recused themselves.

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