Friday, January 23, 2009

Solar eclipse can be seen over Southeast Asia on Jan 26

First Solar Eclipse Of 2009 On Jan 26

Fri, 01/23/2009
Submitted by Darpana Kutty
TopNews.in (India)


A partial solar eclipse would be visible in south-eastern parts of India on January 26.

The eclipse would be total in island groups Sumatra and Borneo of Indonesia. It would also be visible from southern Africa, northwestern Antarctica, Australia and Southeast Asia.

The eclipse would begin at 10.27 am IST. The eclipse would end at 4:31 pm IST when the moon’s shadow finally leaves the earth at local sunset point very close to south of Cambodia in the south China sea. The best time to watch the eclipse in India will be between 3 pm and 3.30 pm.

While talking about this, Varah Mihir Scientist Heritage and Research Centre's Astronomist Sanjay Kethwas said, “A total of four solar and lunar eclipses will occur this year.” Kethwas added that a lunar eclipse would be occurred on December 31 this year but as it will start appearing after mid night so technically it will recorded in January 2010.

The sun, moon and earth are placed in a line during an eclipse, which is categorised as total, partial or annular depending on the distance between the moon and earth.

Experts had already warned people not to look at the eclipse without protecting their eyes. According to them, a good way to observe the eclipse is to create a pinhole camera that is pointed at the sun and its image projected onto a darkened screen.

Solar filters can also be used to observe the eclipse. They also feel that it is not safe to use photo-negatives, X-ray photos, sunglasses or stained glass to observe the eclipse.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to the Indian/Khmer Sanskrit epic poem, the Mahabharata, the gods decided to mix up a batch of soma, the elixir of immortality. The gods were to drink the elixir to become immortal. The asura Reahu, disguised himself as a god and drank some of the elixir. Soriya (the sun) and Chantra (the moon) spotted the imposter, Reahu, and told Vishnu. Just as Reahu was swallowing the soma, Vishnu sliced off his head with a sword. Since the soma had passed into the throat the head had already become immortal and remained alive. Because Soriya and Chantra were responsible for reporting the misdeeds of Reahu, the head, chases them across the sky and tries to eat them. Occasionally he catches and swallows one of them, causing an eclipse. But the victim quickly falls out of Reahu's throat and the eclipse ends. Many still believe that banging on drums or utensils during the eclipse helps to scare Reahu into releasing the Sun or Moon.

Anonymous said...

Wow! very precisely. I think banging stuffs like that is just to get people attention to watch the citing moment.

Anonymous said...

The sign of tragic end of Cambodia robber baron tyranical rule.

CPP will be in a divided house and discord.

Hun Sen will be in Chan Sy fate.

Anonymous said...

1:39? What the fuck?