Solar eclipse to be witnessed on March 29

Hyderabad, Mar 16: The rare total penumbral eclipse witnessed in the early hours, before the Holi celebrations will be followed by a solar eclipse on March 29.

Unlike the two eclipses witnessed in October 2005 in India- an annular solar eclipse on October 3 and a partial lunar eclipse on October 17, this time the Lunar Eclipse preceeded the Holi celebrations on March 15 and the solar eclipse on March 29 will herald in The lunar eclipse, a total penumbral eclipse, was visible in India except the ending. The "total" eclipse of the Sun, will be visible only in some regions of North and North-Eastern regions of the country, A lunar eclipse can occur only at Full Moon day when the Moon passes through a shadow portion of the Earth. The shadow is composed of two cone-shaped components, one nested inside the other, The outer or penumbral shadow is a zone where the Earth blocks part but not all of the rays of the Sun from reaching the Moon. The inner or umbral shadow is a region where the Earth blocks all the direct sunlight from reaching the Moon.

All total eclipses start with penumbral followed by partial eclipse before they attain totality. Before they end, they become partial once again, followed by another penumbral phase, "The penumbral phases of eclipse will be a bit difficult to see while the partial and total phases can be seen with the naked eye," astrophysicists said.

The first contact occurred at 0240 hours on March 15 in the constellation of Leo when the moon entered the penumbra, peaking to the greatest eclipse with a penumbral magnitude of 1.0565 at 0518 hours, before leaving the penumbra at 0743 hours- when the sun had already risen.

During the eclipse the whole moon lay completely within the penumbral shadow, whose beginning was only visible in India, astrophysicists said. Unlike a total lunar eclipse which would present a vibrant range of colours on the moon during its period of totality, the penumbral one, astrophysicists explained, occurring when the moon passes through the faint penumbral shadow of the earth, will be subtle and difficult to observe especially during the beginning and late stages.

Unlike the normal partial and total lunar eclipse' the Moon passes through only the penumbral shadow of the Earth and does not enter the umbral shadow at all in the penumbral lunar eclipse- and more than a third of all eclipses are penumbral. During the March 15 event, the first eclipse of Year 2006' and a total penumbral the Moon passed through only the penumbral shadow of the Earth and was visible in parts of America, Africa, Europe and Asia.

The first Solar eclipse of Year 2006 will occur on March 29 and will be a 'total eclipse' for those in the narrow corridor which traverses half the Earth.

The path of the umbral shadow the Moon begins in Brazil and extends across the Atlantic, North Africa and Central Asia where it ends at sunset in western Mongolia.

A partial eclipse will be seen within a much broader path of the penumbral shadow of the Moon which includes the northern two-third of Africa Europe and Central Asia. The total solar eclipse slated to begin at 1307 hours and end at 1816 hours on March 29 will be visible in North eastern parts, It will be seen from 1634 hours to 1802 hours at New Delhi and between 1648 hours to 1755, a duration of 1.07 hour at Varanasi thogh the maximum of 1:48 hour duration will be over Srinagar.

UNI