And just where does one have to travel to see Moon completely blot out the Sun? Antarctica.

At least one man I know wouldn't miss it for the world.

The path of the Moons dark umbral shadow will touch down at 22:19 GMT in the southern Indian Ocean about 680 miles (1,100 kilometers) southeast of the tiny Kerguelen Islands (annexed by France). Sixteen minutes later the shadow, just 300 miles (500 kilometers) wide reaches the frozen landscape of Antarctica.

Totality will last less than two minutes and will be accessible from the Shackleton Ice Shelf as well as Russias Mirnyy research station. The shadow will then curve from southwest to northwest across the American Highlands and into the region known as Enderby Land.

The shadow will then reach the Antarctic coast in Queen Maud Land and a few more research stations (Asuka, Novolazarevskaya and Maitri) before the path ends and the shadow leaves the Earths surface at 23:19 GMT.

Meanwhile, most of Australia and New Zealands South Island as well as Patagonia will receive a consolation prize: a view of a partial solar eclipse. Because of their proximity to the International Date Line, Australia and New Zealand will see the eclipse during the morning hours of Nov. 24. [Timing for select cities below]

It has been written that those who have witnessed the beauty of a total solar eclipse firsthand describe it as the most awe-inspiring event Nature can offer. People have traveled great distances just to experience those few precious moments of seeing the Suns corona, chromosphere and prominences, which peak out from the limb of the darkened, intervening Moon.

You might figure that aside from a few scientists stationed at bases in Antarctica, nobody else will experience this eclipse. That might have been true 20 years ago. In fact, the last total solar eclipse that touched Antarctica back in November 1985 was probably only witnessed by a few lucky penguins on the flanks of Mount Sabine.

But Glenn Schneider is on his way.

Schneider, a personal friend of mine, is the Instrument Scientist for the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on the Hubble Space Telescope.

When I first met Glenn, we were high school students living in The Bronx, New York. He had already experienced the total eclipses of March 1970 and July 1972 and he told me way back then that his intention was to journey to every total solar eclipse that would occur during the rest of his lifetime.

And with the sole exception of that aforementioned eclipse in November 1985 (the ice pack was too thick even to get an ice-breaking ship into the eclipse path), Schneider has indeed attended every total solar eclipse since 1970 -- 23 in all. He has been clouded-out only three times.

Schneider has basked in the shadow of the Moon for an incredible 66 minutes 45.7 seconds!

Schneider describes himself as an "umbraphile" who is hopelessly addicted to the glory and majesty of a total solar eclipse. For this upcoming Antarctic eclipse, he intends to fly into the totality path on a specially chartered Boeing 747-400 aircraft, along with a few others who can't think of missing the event.

A total solar eclipse can only occur at New Moon, when the Moon is directly between Earth and the Sun. Because the Moon's orbit is tilted about 5 degrees compared to the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun, not all New Moons generate and eclipse.

Oddities of time and distance

The Moon's orbit around Earth is not circular, so it's distance constantly varies. Interestingly, on the day of this eclipse, the Moon will be making its closest approach to Earth, called perigee, for 2003. It will be 221,712 miles (356,811 kilometers) away.

Even more interesting is that the Moon comes closest to the Earth at 23:00 GMT (or 6:00 p.m. EST), just one minute after the official occurrence of New Moon.

So both the Sun and Moon will be positioned on the same side of the Earth, with the Moon practically at its closest possible point to the Earth. Such "Proxigean" Moons can produce the highest tides of the year and indeed, ocean tides will be experiencing a far larger than normal range during the few days immediately following this New Moon. Low tides will be much lower and high tides much higher than usual (hence the term "spring tide," to "spring up").

Ill be thinking of Glenn on eclipse day as he embarks on his 24th eclipse chase.

"If you want to experience the ultimate in human emotion, curiosity, and imagination," he once wrote, "then see a total eclipse of the Sun. Even if you are poor, starving, in hock, in trouble with the law, unbalanced and totally addicted . . . see it anyway, its worth it!"

The eclipse occurs on Nov. 23 in Antarctica, but on Nov. 24 in Australia and New Zealand. Local times for the Nov. 24 are given. Magnitude refers to the percentage of the Suns diameter that will be covered at maximum eclipse. From Perth the eclipse begins before local sunrise. At sunrise (5:05 a.m.) the eclipse magnitude will be roughly 15%.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: Of course those who are in the zone of visibility for this eclipse should never look directly toward the Sun without proper filtration. Some safe viewing methods include projecting an image through a pinhole, or through a telescope onto a sheet of paper, or looking through No. 14 welders glass. DO NOT USE smoked glass, sunglasses or crossed polarizing filters.