Monday, January 11, 2010

On Jan 15, watch the ring of fire

In a week, a rare celestial event will mesmerise skygazers in southern Tamil Nadu and parts of Kerala. A ring of fire will adorn the afternoon sky

over Dhanushkodi near Rameswaram, Thiruvananthapuram, Tirunelveli, Nagercoil, Kanyakumari, Madurai, Thanjavur and Nagapattinam for 10 minutes on January 15, making it the first annular solar eclipse to be seen from India in 45 years. The rest of India will have a partial sighting.

An annular solar eclipse happens when the disc of the moon covers the central part of the sun, leaving only a ring-like peripheral region visible from some parts of the earth. This happens when the earth comes closest to the sun while the moon is at its farthest position in orbit. In such a situation, the disc of the moon cannot completely cover the sun's surface and a fiery ring is visible beyond the moon's edge. The last time an annular eclipse was viewed from India was on November 23, 1965. The next one will be on December 26, 2019.

The track of annularity, or the patch of land from where this celestial event can be viewed, will start from Africa and cross the Indian Ocean to end at Shandong Peninsula in China. "The temple town of Rameswaram will lie very close to the central line and the annularity there can be seen for a duration of 10 minutes and 7 seconds starting at 1.17 pm and ending at 1.25 pm. This is a very long period given the average durations of annular eclipses," said M P Birla Planetarium director (research & academic) Debi Prosad Duari.

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