Friday 1st August 2008 :Total Solar Eclispe !

This Friday, August 1, a total solar eclipse will occur as the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth for the first time in more than two years. For a few minutes, the moon will blot out the sun, casting its dark shadow over a narrow, moving strip of land and revealing the sun's corona.

Sadly, this eerie, awe-inspiring event—known as totality—will be visible only from remote parts of the Northern Hemisphere: Starting in northern Canada, the moon's shadow, or umbra, will glide across the Arctic into central Asia.

"It is best to see the eclipse live," says Paul Doherty, a senior staff scientist at the Exploratorium science museum in San Francisco. "If you don't want to travel," he says, "you will wait an average of 300 years for a total solar eclipse to come to you.

But that doesn't mean you can't share in the experience remotely. Doherty will be part of an eclipse expedition broadcasting the eclipse live via the Web from Xinjiang Province in northwestern China, near the Mongolian border, beginning at 3:30 A.M. Eastern time through totality at 4:09 A.M.

so it is a one time opportunity which is not to be missed.