New Delhi: A long wait by skygazers to look at a rare celestial event will end on Wednesday when the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century will be seen.
A total eclipse occurs when the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon. The intensely bright disk of the Sun is replaced by the dark silhouette of the Moon.
During the total eclipse, totality is visible only from a narrow track on the surface of the Earth.
The Taregna village in Bihar, about 30 km south of Patna, where astronomer Aryabhatta (476-550 AD) had set up a camp to study movement of stars, has been adjudged as the best place to view the celestial phenomenon, the longest in the 21st century.
The duration of the eclipse in Taregna will be 3 minutes 48 seconds. However, the maximum duration of the eclipse would be six minutes 38 seconds, as visible from the Pacific Ocean.
Other Indian cities through which the shadow of total eclipse passes are Bhavnagar, Surat, Ujjain, Indore, Bhopal, Sagar, Jabalpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Gaya, Patna, Bhagalpur, Jalpaigudi, Guwahati and Dibrugarh.
The countries to witness the path of the Moon's umbral shadow are India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China.
ABOUT THE ECLIPSE
- Will be the 21st century's longest, lasting 6 minutes, 39 seconds
- Total duration: From 5.28am to 10.45am
- In India: From 5.30am to 7.24am
- View from India: Can be best viewed from Surat, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna
- Total eclipse will be visible from at least 15 cities
- Partial eclipse will be visible from all over the country
- Delhi: 80 per cent
- Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow: 90 per cent
- Allahabad, Varanasi: 90 to 100 per cent
- Part of J&K and Andaman & Nicobar islands will be able to see 60 per cent of the eclipse
- For Himachal, Punjab and parts of J&K, it will be a 70 per cent view
- Parts of Rajasthan and UP, Uttaranchal, Haryana and parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka will witness 80 per cent of the solar eclipse
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh (including Bhopal), parts of UP (including Allahabad and Varanasi), Bihar (including Patna), parts of Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh will witness 90-100 per cent of the solar eclipse - Next longest eclipse will take place in 2132