Archive for July 1st, 2009
Total solar eclipse 2009 july 22
On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon’s umbral shadow begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean where the maximum duration of totality reaches 6 min 39 s. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon’s penumbral shadow, which includes most of eastern Asia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Ocean.
The shadow of the moon is so large at this eclipse that even at sunrise the duration of totality is more than 3 minutes. Indeed this is a great eclipse. The shadow then very quickly moves across the breadth of India towards Arunachal Pradesh. The shadow spans a third of the entire path in India, 900 kilometres out of 2500 kms across entire India. The Eclipse intercept point has been planned over Taregna, a village 35 kms south of Patna. Taregna Math is the place where Aryabhatta – India’s astronomer & mathematician observed the skies and practised. Coincidently the eclipse centreline is passing right over this historical Patliputra town.
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