Top

Total solar eclipse tomorrow: how and where to watch?

The magnificent eclipse will be visible across a portion of the Indian and Pacific Ocean and parts of Indonesia.

Mumbai: Earth is all set to witness another solar eclipse, which will take place between Tuesday and Wednesday. Although reports suggest that India will miss a total solar eclipse tomorrow, you can still watch it via a robotic telescope service that will be live streaming and recording the entire episode.

The magnificent eclipse will be visible across a portion of the Indian and Pacific Ocean and parts of Indonesia. The total solar eclipse will be visible from within a narrow region, which extends from the Indian Ocean through the East Asian countries like Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi passing through some islands belonging to Australia and ending at the middle of the Pacific Ocean, far away from any country.

Just to let readers know, a solar eclipse is a phenomenon that occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, hence entirely or partially blocking the Sun for Earth-dwellers.

As Solar eclipse occur during the day, the shadow cast by the Moon causes the daylight to grow dim and can become extremely dark if it blocks majority of the Sunlight.

According to reports, the solar eclipse is expected to last for a period of three hours. The exact duration of the eclipse will vary for different locations around the globe. Similarly, the moment where the sun will be totally eclipsed is expected to last between 90 seconds to four minutes.

This map shows the path of the solar eclipse across Earth's surface. (Source: NASA)This map shows the path of the solar eclipse across Earth's surface. (Source: NASA)If the eclipse is viewed from the east of the International Date Line (IDT), it will take place on March 8. People will get the first glimpse of the partial eclipse at 23.19 pm GMT. On the other hand, if it is viewed from the Western side of the IDT, it will be visible on March 9. The last people can witness it around 4.34 am GMT.

Reports suggest that Indonesia and the central Pacific, which will start over Sumatra and end at sunset north of Hawai. Unfortunately, most parts of India and Nepal will only witness a partial eclipse.

Source:NASASource:NASA

Dr Debiprosad Duari, director of M P Birla Planetarium, Kolkata told PTI that in India, partial eclipse will be seen from the eastern half of the country.

"In most of the places in India, the eclipse will start either before sunrise or around sunrise—making the viewing of this spectacular cosmic event quite difficult. We will observe a partial eclipse of the Sun", he added.

Solar eclipses are a rare phenomenon and occur once in every 18 months, lasting for hardly a few minutes. According to a media report, the last visible solar eclipse in India was witnessed on January 4, 2011 and the speculated date for the next solar eclipse is December 26, 2019.

How can you watch it?

Even though reports indicate that India will not be able to witness the spectacular show, there are several options for viewers to live stream the whole episode.

NASA and another website called Slooh will stream the live video of the event. Below we have embedded the video players for you to watch it.

People can either watch a live webcast of the eclipse by the robotic telescope service SLOOH.com.

Or, you can also tune into NASA TV’s public feed.

( Source : Deccan Chronicle. )
Next Story