Video: If you’re in the northern half of Australia, next Wednesday 9 March is the day you should get out of bed early. There will be a solar eclipse occurring, where the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun. It’ll be a complete and total eclipse for Indonesia and the central Pacific region, but even in Australia — especially Darwin — you’ll be able to see it happening.
The March 9 solar eclipse starts at approximately 9:29AM local time in Alice Springs, and before it ends at 11:06AM it’ll peak (at 10:16AM) with 11 per cent coverage of the Sun — meaning a noticeable drop in solar brightness for a short period of time. Darwin has it even better, with a 9:07AM local time kick-off, 11:34AM end time and a peak 50 per cent brightness drop at 10:17AM. ABC News has an excellent overview of the start, peak and end times for each region of Australia. [YouTube / ABC News]