New Moon March 20, 2015, Totally Eclipses Sun and Welcomes Equinox

Summary: The new moon March 20, 2015, participates in a natural trifecta of new supermoon, spring equinox and total solar eclipse.

GOES-13 satellite captures spring equinox, March 20, 2013, with full disk image of Earth + artificially created sun image: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr

The third appearance of the new moon in 2015 occurs Friday, March 20th, at 5:59 a.m. Universal Coordinated Time. Across the Atlantic Ocean in the U.S. capital of Washington D.C., the new moon rises at 7:16 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (11:16 a.m. UTC).

The new moon is not always visible per se in the sky because of its orbital position in the shadow of the sun. March's new moon happens only 14 hours after perigee, the orbital point closest to the Earth. The moon reaches perigee Thursday, March 19, at 19:39 UTC, with a distance from lunar to terrestrial centers of 222,192 miles (357,583 kilometers).

Closeness to Earth makes the moon appear larger to Earthlings in its visible phase as a full moon and garners for this event the nickname of new supermoon. The technical term for this proximity is new moon perigee syzygy (pronunciation: per-i-jee siz-i-jee), which refers respectively to the moon's closeness and straight-line formation with the Earth and the sun.

Coincident with March's new supermoon is the Northern Hemisphere's spring, or vernal (Latin: ver "springtime"), equinox (Latin: aequus "equal" + nox "night"), which is known oppositely as the fall, or autumnal, equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. The Earth's biannual equinoxes, which occur in March and in September, derive from the perpendicular position of the Earth's axis with respect to the sun, as opposed to the 23.5 degree tilts, away or toward the sun, experienced on all other days of the year. The Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox occurs March 20 at 22:45 UTC, which equates to 6:44 p.m. EDT.

Also set to occur on March 20, 2015, is a solar eclipse, starting at 7:41 UTC and ending at 11:50 UTC. The astronomical event is triggered by the hiding, or occultation, of the sun from the view of Earthlings by the moon. The solar obscuration is viewable as a total solar eclipse in Denmark's Faroe Islands, located between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, and in Norway's Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean.

The solar blockage is viewable as a partial solar eclipse across Europe, northern Africa and northwestern Asia. Reykjavikers may expect 98 percent obscuration of the sun over Iceland, with the same percentage viewable in Inverness, northeastern Scotland and in Scotland's subarctic archipelago, the Shetland Islands. Dubliners may expect 92 percent occultation of the sun over Ireland, while a 95 percent eclipse is viewable in Belfast, Northern Ireland, as well as in Edinburgh, southeastern Scotland. Muscovites may expect 65 percent coverage of the sun over northwestern Russia.

Friday, March 20, 2015, presents one of nature's perfect trifecta of astronomical events for Earthlings by way of encompassing within the day's parameters a new supermoon, the spring equinox and a total solar eclipse.

The spring equinox spotlights the Earth in the solar system while the supermoon and the solar eclipse highlight the placement of the moon in the solar system and its effects on the visual perspective of Earthlings.

The new moon phase, which marks the beginning of another lunar orbit around the Earth, makes a spectacular debut in March. The new moon's cyclical appearances serve as a reassuring reminder of the orderly predictability of lunar, solar and terrestrial interactions.

path of solar eclipse, March 20, 2015: Fred Espenak/NASA/GSFC Eclipse Web Site, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

GOES-13 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite) captures Spring Equinox, March 20, 2013: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA Goddard Photo and Video), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/8575328570/

path of solar eclipse, March 20, 2015: Fred Espenak/NASA/GSFC Eclipse Web Site, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SE2015Mar20T.png

For further information:

McClure, Bruce. “Supermoon total eclipse of equinox sun on March 20.” EarthSky > March 19 – March 25 . Tonight for March 19, 2015.
Available @ https://earthsky.org/tonight/supermoon-to-stage-total-eclipse-of-the-sun-on-march-20

“Total Solar Eclipse of 2015 Mar 20.” NASA Eclipse Web Site.
Available via NASA @ http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2015Mar20Tgoogle.html#footnote-1

“What Is a Perigean Spring Tide?” NOAA National Ocean Service > Ocean Facts.
Available @ http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/perigean-spring-tide.html