Eclipse 2 Friday March 20th 2015

Continued: March 12th

Glasses
My eclipse glasses are here, and safely stored where I can see them. Don't want to be scratting around for them on Friday morning, in 8 days time. I ordered mine from eclipseglasses.co.uk/  but they had temporarily sold out. eBay have some, this month's Sky at Night Magazine has a pair on the front, and Telescope House currently have stock too. You can safely view through a no. 14 welders mask, the number reflecting the shade of glass, higher number better protection.

What time and how much?
This map from NASA is great. you click on the UK where you are/will be and it tells you the times of eclipse and amount of sun obscured 
NASA Eclipse Map 
So Channel Islands have 82% and things kick off at about 8:20aam and Western Isles have 97% and start at about 8:30am. 

Weather update
Some hope of fine weather currently for much of UK but not great in the far north (where 97% obscurity will occur). Still a fair way off, plenty can change.

ECMWF models have a high over the UK early Friday but it is fading in the north. So Wales, much of England, N.Ireland and Eire look dry, could have breaks in the cloud and a view. Cloud cover within a high is very wind dependant, so will have to wait a while.  Scotland however looks more unsettled with the most cloud in the north.

The GFS for today shows a much gloomier picture with a lot of cloud over the UK and a rather unsettled picture thanks to a low pressure over Denmark. The northeasterly flow would bring a lot of cloud from the east with more breaks possible for W.Britain, N.Ireland away from any assciated fronts and rain.

These synoptic patterns are still varying greatly run to run. 

For your location: 10 day ahead forecast

Update on Friday 14th