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few lucky people in the Indian Ocean will be treated to a rare event on Monday
when an annular solar eclipse will transform the Sun into a dark disc with a
blazing ring-shaped corona around its rim.
In solar eclipses, the Moon moves between the Sun and Earth, casting its shadow
on the terrestrial surface.
In an annular eclipse, a tiny shift in distance that results from celestial
mechanics means the Moon does not completely cover the Sun's face, as it does in
a total eclipse.
Instead, for those directly under the alignment, the Moon covers most of the
Sun's surface, and a ring-like crown of solar light blazes from the edge of the
disk.
For those watching from the fringe of the track, the Sun is partially obscured,
as if a bite has been taken out of it.
According to veteran NASA eclipse-watcher Fred Espenak, the total eclipse track
will run from west to east on Monday from 0606 GMT to 0952 GMT.
It will traverse the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia before petering out just
short of Mindanao, the Philippines.
The partial eclipse will be seen in a much wider swathe, including the southern
third of Africa, Madagascar, Australia, Southeast India, Southeast Asia and
Indonesia.
It will be the only annular solar eclipse this year. The last was on 7 February,
2007, and after Monday, the next one will be on 15 January, 2010.
The big event for eclipse junkies this year is on July 22, when a total solar
eclipse will be visible from India and China, the world's two most populous
countries. |
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