On Thursday, June 21, 2001, a total solar eclipse will speed across the Southern Hemisphere. The shadow of the moon will first darken the South Atlantic about 250 miles east of the Uruguay coast. It will cross the Atlantic Ocean, traverse southern Africa and the island of Madagascar, and then vanish into the darkness as night falls over the Indian Ocean.

As part of a growing tradition, a team from the Exploratorium will be in Africa for this amazing astronomical event. We'll be reporting live for about 45 minutes from Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, where the eclipse will be total for 3 minutes and 14 seconds. In a separate Webcast, we'll have a live link to the International Space Station. We'll chat with the astronauts on board and broadcast video of the moon's shadow passing over the earth as seen from the ISS. Check back here for the live broadcast on June 21!

In partnership with NASA's Sun-Earth Connection Education Forum, we're making our eclipse report from Zambia available to other museums in full broadcast video. About 40 museums, planetariums, and other institutions throughout the world will be showing our Webcast to their visitors. (Institutions interested in hosting the eclipse event should contact www.museumeclipse.org for more information.)