Total solar eclipse today, partically visible in India

New Delhi, Mar 29 (UNI) A total solar eclipse, partially visible in parts of north-eastern, northern, central and north-western India, occurred this afternoon.

The eclipse began at 1307 hrs IST in the South Atlantic Ocean, West of St Helena, and ended at 1816 hrs IST at sunset in the North-Western parts of China, near Urumchi.

Its total phase began at 1405 hrs IST in the North-Eastern parts of Brazil in south America near Recite and end at 1717 hrs IST at a point west of Irkutsk near the border of Russia and Mongolia.

The duration of the eclipse was the longest at a point east of Murzug in Libya in Africa where it lasted for four minutes and 11 seconds.

It was visible in north-eastern, northern, central and north-western parts of India from 1633 hrs IST till sunset.

In the Capital, the partial eclipse was visible for around one and half hours, Nehru Planetarium Director N Rathnasree said.

''In Delhi, the eclipse was visible from 1633 hrs till 1802 hrs. The maximum of the eclipse was seen at 1719 hrs, during which people could see about 17.5 per cent obscuration, or the area of the sun covered by the moon,'' she said.

Many organisations, including the Nehru Planetarium here, had made special arrangements for people to view the rare celestial event ''We had organised a special sky watch for visitors. Using a telescope, we showed it through projection," she added.

Special arrangements had also been made at several places across the country, including the national capital, for people to take a holy dip in rivers in accordance with Hindu tradition.

A lunar eclipse also occurred this month, coinciding with the Holi festival. It is one of the rare occasions when both lunar and solar eclipse occurred in the same month.

Indian cities from where the eclipse was visible included Agartala, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Amritsar, Balasore, Bhagalpur, Chandigarh, Dehra Dun, Dwarka, Gangtok, Gwalior, Gurgaon, Guwahati, Imphal, Itanagar, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kathmandu, Kohima, Lucknow, Mt.

Abu, Patna, Raipur (MP), Rajkot, Ranchi, Sambalpur, Siliguri, Shillong, Simla, Surat, Udaipur, Ujjain and Varanasi.

The celestial event was also witnessed in Chittagong and Dhaka in Bangladesh, in Rawalpindi and Lahore in Pakistan and Kathmandu in Nepal.

In general, the celestial event was seen in Brazil, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, North-Western parts of Chad, Libya, North-Western tip of Egypt, Turkey, North-Western parts of Georgia, South-Western parts of Russia, Kazakhstan, the Southern tip of Russia and will end in the Northern tip of Mongolia.

UNI NR VD RS2002