Thursday, July 23, 2009

LONGEST SOLAR ECLIPSE OF THIS CENTURY

 
A Total Solar Eclipse will be visible in India on July 22, 2009 from early morning 05:28 hrs to 07:40 hrs (Indian Standard Time). The total solar eclipse will last nearly four minutes — from 6.26 am to 6.30 am — in India and the sun will not be visible at all. In India, Total Lunar Eclipse will be visible in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Varanasi, West Bengal and Northeastern States. According to NASA, the solar eclipse on July 22, 2009 is a ‘Total Solar Eclipse’ and the Moon's umbral shadow on Sun begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and ends in the Pacific Ocean.

It is the longest total solar eclipse in the 21st century and will not surpass in duration until next 123 years.

The total solar eclipse in India will be visible in regions around Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Surat (Gujarat), Darjeeling (West Bengal), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Patna (Bihar).

Majority of the regions in India will not have a view of the Total solar eclipse. As per NASA data, it will be a partial eclipse in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.

The path of the Surya Grahan Through India (Image from NASA)

  * The dark blue double line with circles indicates the path of Total Solar Eclipse which includes central India, Bhutan and parts of China.
 

Update: You can see Solar Eclipse July 2009 Videos here.