India to miss total solar eclipse tomorrow

Kolkata, Mar 8: India will miss the spectacular phenomenon of a total solar eclipse tomorrow as only a partial eclipse will be seen from some places in the country.

"In India, partial eclipse will be seen from the eastern half of the country. In most of the places in India, the eclipse will start either before sunrise or around sunrise – making the viewing of this spectacular cosmic event quite difficult," Dr Debiprosad Duari, director of M P Birla Planetarium, Kolkata, said.

The total solar eclipse will be visible from within a narrow region which extends from the Indian Ocean through the east Asian countries like Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi passing through some islands belonging to Australia and ending at the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far away from any country.

Unfortunately for people in the Indian subcontinent, the spectacular phenomenon of total solar eclipse, which is when the disc of the moon covers the sun entirely and thus creating darkness during daytime will not be visible, instead "we will observe a partial eclipse of the Sun", he said.

For Kolkata, the eclipse will be in progress when the sun rises at 5:51 AM and at around 6:06 AM the maximum partial eclipse will be visible.

The eclipse ends at Kolkata around 6:50 AM when the Sun will be at an height of only 12.8 degrees above the horizon. The maximum obscuration that the Kolkatans will see is around 18.36 per cent, Duari said.

Warning skygazers, he said a solar filter or a projection system is must for viewing all the phases of the eclipse. Along with Kolkata, the major places where the eclipse will be in progress during the sunrise are Siliguri, Coochbehar, Guwahati, Puri, Chennai and Kanyakumari, the expert on celestial bodies said.

The people of the northeastern part of India will be lucky to see the beginning of the eclipse as the sun will be up in the sky when the eclipse starts. Imphal will experience 1 hour 21 minutes of the eclipse though the obscuration will not be appreciable.

PTI