KOCHI: While Central India can watch the last solar eclipse of the century with elan, people in this part of the country will have to be satisfied knowing that July 22 is a solar eclipse day.
“Since it will be sometime between 6.15 a.m.-6.30 a.m., the day will probably start a little late for us,” said V C Kuriakose, Interuniversity centre for astronomy and astrophysics, Department of Physics, Cusat.
But for the central part of the country, a total eclipse of the sun will be visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of earth. The path of the moon’s umbral shadow begins in India and crosses Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean where the maximum duration of totality reaches 6 min 39 sec.
A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the moon’s penumbral shadow, which includes most of eastern Asia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Ocean. As per Indian Standard Time, solar eclipse can be seen between 5:28 a.m. to 7:40 a.m. The total solar eclipse will last nearly four minutes from 6.26 a.m. to 6.30 a.m. in India and the sun will not be visible at all.
This is the second in the series of three eclipses in a month. There was a lunar eclipse on July 7 and now a solar eclipse on July 22 and then a lunar eclipse on August 6. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA, has affirmed after its two decades of research that Taregana, a place 25 km from Patna, Bihar was the best location on earth to watch the Total Clear Solar Eclipse.
More than a thousand years after astronomer Aryabhatta set up a camp in Taregna to study movement of stars, this will be the largest congregation of scientists and astronomy enthusiasts. This solar eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the twenty-first century, and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132. But Keralites can be happy that they can have a good look at the solar eclipse on Jan 15, 2010.
