Media Release
Udupi, Jun 19: Another solar eclipse will be witnessed on June 21. This is the second one in a row after the annular solar eclipse on December 26 2019.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon comes exactly in between the sun and the earth on a new moon day. This happens only twice a year as the moon will not be exactly in between the sun and the earth on other new moon days throughout the year. This is because the moon’s path is slanted from the Sun’s path by 5 degrees.
The astronomical beauty of an eclipse lies in the fact that due to the large size of the sun, the large distance of the sun, the small size of the moon and the small distance of the moon from earth, the numbers just end up giving us the size of the moon and the sun to be the same when observed from earth.
Like all planetary objects, the moon undergoes what we call an elliptical path around the earth which makes the moon orbit the earth with the distance between the two increasing and decreasing from time to time. Therefore, when the sun is obstructed by the moon, if the moon is close to earth, just like a finger held too close to the eye can obstruct views of large buildings, the moon will cover the sun entirely and people on earth witness a total solar eclipse. But when the moon is farther, it cannot completely obstruct the view of the sun and hence when aligned, covers the center of the sun, leaving the edges of the sun visible to earth giving us a view of a ring of fire. An annular eclipse.
The eclipse of June 21 will appear annular in countries in the African continent, like Congo, South Sudan, moving over to the Asian countries of Oman, Yemen, Pakistan, India, China and culminating in the Guam islands. In India the annular belt will pass through Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttarakhand before moving onto China. Places like Sirsa, Kurukshetra, Dehradun, Tehri and into the Himalayan mountains. The part with the most annularity in India would be Joishmath in Uttarakhand with 98.97% of the sun covered, leaving behind a very thin ring.
At Udupi, the eclipse will appear partial with the moon covering 40.38% of the sun’s disk. The eclipse will begin at 10.04 am and end at 1.22 pm with 11.37 am being the time of the maximum eclipse.
At Mangaluru, the eclipse will appear partial as well, with the moon covering 38.71% of the sun’s disk. Here, the eclipse will begin at 10.04 am, peak at 11.37 am and end at 1.21 pm.
The eclipse will last for 3 hours and 18 minutes from start to end after which the moon will continue on its way around the earth, leaving the sun on its own.
When it comes to viewing the eclipse, people are advised not to view the eclipse directly with their naked eye as the pupils will dilate due to the lack of light from the covered sun and the eye’s attempt to focus the view, causing ultraviolet rays and infrared rays from the sun to harm vision. Not only during an eclipse, it is not advised to watch the sun directly on any given day to avoid damage to the eye.
To view an eclipse, one must posses solar filters that are not scratched or contain holes. Only with such a filter or goggles containing these filters, an eclipse can be viewed directly. Avoid removing the goggles immediately after use, instead, turn around look at the ground and remove the goggles/filters.
People are found to use X-Ray sheets to view the eclipse which is not advisable due to the non-uniform darkening of the sheets and presence of holes. Photographic films are also to be avoided along with tinted glasses. The eclipse should never be viewed using a camera, binoculars or telescopes without a filter as it would burn the eye.
The safest methods to view the eclipse is to make a pinhole projector by making a small hole on a thin carboard sheet and holding it near a wall or onto a white paper, facing the sun. This would project the eclipse image onto the wall or paper and the eclipse can be viewed safely.
Poornaprajna Amateur Astronomers Club urges amateur astronomers and science enthusiasts to not miss this opportunity and build pinholes to project the eclipse and view it safely. The next eclipse visible in this region will occur only in 2022 on October 25.
If the weather permits, arrangements will be made to stream eclipse live on the Poornaprajna Amatuer Astronomers’ Club facebook page.