* Astronomy

Annular Solar Eclipse of 2006 September 22
On Friday, 2006 September 22, an annular eclipse of the Sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor which traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon's antumbral shadow begins in northern South America and crosses the South Atlantic with no further landfall. A partial eclipse will be seen from a much larger region including South America, the eastern Caribbean, western Africa, and Antarctica.



The path of the annular eclipse begins in Guyana at 09:48 UT when the Moon's antumbral shadow meets Earth and forms a 323 kilometre wide corridor. Guyana's capitol city Georgetown lies just a few kilometres outside the path's northern limit. Here, a magnitude 0.920 partial eclipse will be seen at sunrise. On the central line 160 kilometres south, the duration of annularity is 5 minutes 31 seconds).
Rushing east, the antumbra quickly enters Surinam where its capital city Paramaribo lies deep within the antumbral path. Maximum eclipse in Paramaribo occurs at 09:51 UT, the Sun's altitude is 5° and the duration of annularity is 5 minutes 1 seconds. Continuing into French Guiana, the capitol city Cayenne stands just 10 kilometres south of the central line. Maximum eclipse occurs at 09:53 UT as the Sun stands 8° above the eastern horizon during an annular phase lasting 5 minutes 42 seconds.

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Exceptionally high tides could occur over the next few days due to the moon being at 'perigee' (closest to the Earth), combined with a full moon, ( when the Moon, Earth and the Sun are aligned).

The tides are expected to rise an extra 15cm, putting at risk lower lying ground.

A partial lunar eclipse will be visible from Korea early on Friday morning. Between 3:45 and 4:38 a.m., the Earth will block the sun's rays on the full moon in the southern skies, the Korea Astronomy Observatory said Wednesday.
A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the three bodies are not exactly in line and the moon is only partly within the Earth's umbral shadow. Starting at around 1:42 a.m., the full moon will grow reddish and by 3:51 a.m. the eclipse will reach its zenith, with about 20 percent of the moon in the shadow. The next lunar eclipses visible in Korea will be on March 4 and Aug. 28 next year, and they will be total.

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The Cassini spaceprobe makes a Titan Flyby on September 7, 2006, at an altitude of 1000 km and at a speed of 6.0 km/sec .