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A total solar eclipse will occur on March 9 but sky gazers in India will only be able to see a partial solar eclipse at sunrise.
In most places of India, partially eclipsed sunrise will take place and the start of partial phase of the eclipse will take place just after sunrise from extreme north east India.
“As one moves towards the east of the country, the duration of the partial eclipse increases reaching up to a duration of about one hour and more in extreme north east India and in Andaman and Nicobar Islands,” said an official of ministry of earth sciences.
Considering the Earth as a whole the partial phase of the eclipse will begin at 4:49 am while the total phase will begin at 5:47 am. The total phase will end at 9:08 am and partial phase 10:05 am.
In India obscuration of the Sun by the Moon at the time of greatest phase of partial eclipse will be around 24.5 percent in Bhubaneswar, 18.5 percent in Kolkata and 49 percent in Port Blair.
However, the greatest phase of the partial eclipse will not be seen from many places in India as the sunrise will take place after the time of occurrence of greatest phase at these places.
The Moon's penumbral shadow produces a partial eclipse, visible in the region covering South East Asia including India, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Australia and the North Pacific Ocean.
The total eclipse of the Sun would be visible within a narrow corridor in the northern Hemisphere. The totality path would pass through Sumatra, Borneo, Indonesia and the North Pacific Ocean.
Eclipsed Sun should not be viewed with the naked eye, even for a very short time. It will cause permanent damage of the eyes leading to blindness even when the moon covers most portion of the Sun.
Safe technique to observe the solar eclipse is either by using proper filter like aluminized Mylar, black polymer, welding glass of shade number 14 or by making projection of Sun’s image on a white board by telescope.