Longest Annular Eclipse Of The Century

Today most of us had waited to witness the annular eclipse of the sun.
An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.


However in Malaysia we are only able to see partial eclipse because the sun is in the northern hemispehere. I watched what happen in Bangalore, India HERE. See path of the eclipse HERE. 


I picked this from HERE. Today is the day you will witness the longest solar eclipse of this century take place. The annular solar eclipse would be visible in most parts of India but only the southern fringes of the country will see it as an Annular eclipse. For the rest of the country, it would be a partial solar eclipse.

The best places to see the eclipse in its annular from would be Dhanuskodi town near Rameshwaram. If you are already there, wait for the show to begin! The eclipse will last for over 10 minutes in mainland India and can go up to a maximum of 11 minutes 8 seconds in parts of the Indian ocean thus making it the longest solar eclipse of this century. The eclipse starts a at 10:44 am IST and will end at 2:29 PM (IST). This is not the total duration of the eclipse but the range of time different places would see the eclipse happen.


I am sure most of us were disappointed because during the time the eclipse occur, heavy rain clouds shroud the area around the sun (in Kuala Lumpur). I and a few friends was quite lucky today because was able to see the shadow of the moon encroaching into the sun for a few minutes before being covered by the clouds. 


I felt lucky to see it even for a short while because I might not be able to witness another annular eclipse because the next annulus solar eclipse will come again in 1028 years. Check dates for next solar eclipse HERE. 


As reported in The Straits Times, Singapore- The duration of 'annularity' - the time the moon is in front of the sun - was 11 minutes, eight seconds at 0706 GMT, making it 'the longest annular eclipse of the 3rd Millennium,' according to Nasa. Only on Dec 23, 3043 will this record be beaten. The lunar umbra, or shadow was set to expire in the Shandong peninsula in China at 0859 GMT. -- AFP