Total Solar Eclipse

A total Solar Eclipse of longest duration in the 21st century will occur on Wednesday morning, July

22nd, 2009. This Eclipse is of special interest for the scientists and general public of India as its path of totality passes through thickly populated regions of west, central, east and north-east India. Total Solar Eclipse | Four decades since the 'giant leap' The Eclipse begins at 5:28 am IST when the shadow of the moon touches the Earth at local sunrise at a point in the Arabian Sea close to the western coast of India. The eclipse ends at l0:42 am IST when Moon's shadow finally leaves the Earth at local sunset at a point in the South Pacific Ocean. At approximately 6:23 am IST, the umbra of the eclipse will touch the earth at sunrise at a point in the Gulf of Khambhat in the Arabian Sea near the southern coast of Gujarat. At this time, the path of totality will be about 200 Km wide and the duration of totality at the central line will be about 3 minute 30 seconds. The shadow crosses over central India, passes through south-east of Nepal, crosses North Bengal, southern part of Sikkim, most of Bhutan and north-western tip of Bangladesh. Then shadow enters Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, touches Myanmar and enters China. The umbra sweeps over China, enters East China Sea and then passes through Japan's Ryukyu Island. Image: Path of the eclipse across the globe. Text: Sify correspondent Images: Piyush Pandey, Director, Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai

The maximum duration of totality of 6 minutes 44 seconds occur at 8:05 am IST in the north Pacific

Ocean where the width of the path is about 258 Km. The rest of the path does not pass through major land areas. It curves south-east through Pacific Ocean hitting some small atolls in the Polynesia. The totality ends at 9:48 am IST when the umbral cone leaves the earth at a point in the Pacific Ocean. Refurbished video copies of moon landing IMD Observational Programme IMD will be taking following observations at three locations, viz, Varanasi, Patna and Sindh Kheda (Maharashtra) from July 20-23, 2009: · Observations of f1ash spectrum for times of beginning and end of totality phase. · Photographic/Videographic observations of entire phenomena. · Current weather observations using digital thermograph, hygrograph and barograph. High Wind Speed Recorder, wind speed and wind direction. · Surface ozone measurements. Image: Computer generated image of how a total solar eclipse is.

Radiation measurements: a) Global, direct, diffuse and terrestrial radiation b) Heliostat mounted with global, direct and diffuse c) UV-A Endeavour thunders into orbit In addition to the above special observational programme, other IMD observatories located in the path of totality will take special observations mentioned below:  Radiation Observations  Surface Weather Observations  Ozone measurements  Upper Air Vertical Profiles  Doppler Weather Radar Observations  Satellite Meteorology Division at New Delhi will take half hourly pictures during the Eclipse period to capture the umbral shadow falling on the earth. Image: Places and the band where the total solar experience could be experienced.