By IRNA,
New Delhi : A rare celestial treat, the century’s longest “Annular Solar Eclipse” will occur Friday.
The 21st century’s longest annular solar eclipse occurs on January 15, apart from India, will be visible across Africa, the Indian Ocean, Maldives, Sri Lanka and south-east Asia.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the Earth’s view of the Sun, while an annular eclipse occurs when the Moon is farther from the Earth than normal, and hence its apparent size is not quite sufficient to cover the Sun completely.
In annular solar eclipse, the Sun appears as a very bright annulus, which in Latin means ‘ring’, surrounding the outline of the Moon, giving the appearance of a ‘Ring of Fire’.
The photosphere of the sun shall be covered by the moon thereby forming a ring of fire in the sky for more than 10 minutes in some parts of India. The path of the annularity in India will pass over the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Mizoram while the partial phase of eclipse will be visible all over the country.
The eclipse would begin at 0935 hours IST (Indian Standard Time) when the shadow of the Moon touches the Earth at local sunrise at a point in Central Africa. The eclipse ends at 1538 IST when the Moon’s shadow finally leaves the Earth at local sunset at a point in South China, said a release issued by India Meteorological Department (IMD).
At approximately 1048 hours IST, the annular path of the eclipse will touch the Earth at sunrise at a point in the Central African Republic. The shadow will cross over the southern tip of Chad, the Central African Republic, northern Congo, Uganda, Kenya, southern tip of Somalia, the Indian Ocean, the southern tip of India, northern Sri Lanka, the south-eastern tip of Bangladesh, Myanmar and south-eastern China.
The maximum duration of annularity of 11 minutes and 4 seconds will ccur at 1237 IST at a point in the Arabian sea. The annular phase will end at 1425 IST at a point in south-east China near the Yellow Sea coast.
In Delhi, the annular eclipse will start at 11:53 AM and end at 15:11 PM, with a maximum at 1:53 PM.
The north tip of the path of annularity will touch India first at 8.801 N longitude, 76.656 E latitude, about 10 km south of Kollam and about 2 km south west of a nearby place Paravur in Kerala. Vedaranyam in Tamil Nadu will witness the last touch of the annular solar eclipse.
Some of the places in India from where the annual phase will be visible are Kanyakumari, Madurai, Rameswaram, Tanjore and Thiruvananthapuram.
The best place in India to see the annual phase is Dhanuskodi in Pamban Island off the Tamil Nadu coast, which falls on the central line of the annular path.
Only properly designed and certified solar filters or goggles should be used to view the annular solar eclipses, Nehru Planetarium Director Rathnasree said.
The safest way to view the Sun’s disk is by indirect projection using pinhole cameras, created by projecting an image of the disk onto a white piece of paper or card using a pair of binoculars (with one of the lenses covered), a telescope, or another piece of cardboard with a small hole in it (about 1 mm diameter), he said.
The last time India saw this Ring of Fire was Nov 22, 1965, and it will not be witnessed again before June 21, 2020.