Will you be able to see ring of fire? Things you need to know about the solar eclipse on June 21

This is the first solar eclipse of 2020. The second and last solar eclipse of the year will take place on December 14, which will be a total solar eclipse.

A view of partial solar eclipse seen from Bhubaneswar. (File Photo| EPS)

India will witness a solar eclipse on June 21 and it will be annular in some parts of the country.

This is the first solar eclipse of 2020. The second and last solar eclipse of the year will take place on December 14, which will be a total solar eclipse.

What is annular solar eclipse? The annular solar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon and the earth come in a straight line and almost on the same plane The Moon covers the Sun from the centre leaving a ring of light visible in the sky. ​The Moon will be far away from Earth, that will make its relative size not big enough to cover the Sun completely

The ring of fire will be visible for that one minute from places such as Suratgarh and Anupgarh in Rajasthan, Sirsa, Ratia and Kurukshetra in Haryana, and Dehradun, Chamba, Chamoli and Joshimath in Uttarakhand.

However, the ring of fire will not be as prominent this time as it was on December 26 2019, according to Director of the MP Birla Planetarium Debi Prasad Duari.

Some facts about solar eclipse on June 21:  The solar eclipse will first be visible in Bhuj starting at 9:58 AM IST and will be seen ending last in Dibrugarh at 2:29 PM IST, according to the Nehru Planetarium According to timeanddate.com, the eclipse will be visible from much of Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, parts of Europe and Australia The solar eclipse on June 21 will be the last solar eclipse to be seen from India for the next 28 months according to the Nehru Planetarium The next solar eclipse that will be visible from India will take place on October 25, 2022

However, this is the first time a pandemic (Coronavirus) will restrict astrophiles and sky lovers to come out in large numbers to view the annular eclipse—'Ring of Fire'.

Which states in India can witness the full solar eclipse? Rajasthan Haryana Uttarakhand

On June 21, the annular eclipse will first start for the people of Congo in Africa and progress through South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the Indian Ocean and Pakistan, before entering India over Rajasthan.

It will then move on to Tibet, China, Taiwan, before ending at the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

What precautions one must take while seeing an eclipse? Use binoculars or small telescope mounted on a tripod to project a magnified image of the Sun on a white card Never look directly at the eclipse as it could cause permanent injury or loss of sight

How to watch the solar eclipse from home?​

(Inputs from Nehru Planetarium, ENS, PTI)