The Earth To Encounter With Infrequent Eclipse This Summer: The Annular Eclipse

From eclipse to asteroids, June 2020 has a plethora of events for human beings to experience. On June 5, the planet earth observed a penumbral lunar eclipse, further, the earth is about to witness a solar eclipse which is annular on June 21. Before this five asteroids were flying by the earth in June.

A solar eclipse takes place when the moon gets between the Earth and the sun, thereby obscuring the sunlight briefly from outreach to the planet. A solar eclipse can only occur when the moon is at its new phase when the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth and its shadows fall upon Earth’s surface. The solar eclipse is divided into four major categories namely, a total eclipse, an annular eclipse, a hybrid eclipse, and a partial eclipse.

The upcoming solar eclipse is an annular, or “ring of fire” eclipse and is going to take place on June 21, 2020. The eclipse will be visible in northern India and will also be visible in most parts of Asia, Africa, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. Additionally, it will also be visible in some parts of Europe and Australia.

What is an annular eclipse?

An annular eclipse is a scarce and amazing sight, one can witness. The world ‘annular’ comes from the Latin word annulus which means a ring. It is known as “ring of fire” because the new moon covers the sun from the centre, leaving the outer rim of the sun visible, thus creating an appearance of a ring. An apogee is when the moon is near its farthest point from the Earth and completely blocks the sun because of its relatively smaller size, is when the annular eclipse takes place. The moon is at or very near to a lunar node, so the earth, the moon and the sun are aligned in a straight or a nearly straight line. The reason why there isn’t an eclipse every time there is a new moon is that the new moon also has to be close to a lunar node.

Time and duration for which India will experience the annular solar eclipse

In India, the annular solar eclipse will start at 9:15 am and end by 3:04 pm. The partial eclipse will begin at 09:15:58 am ISD, followed by full eclipse at 10:17:45 am. The maximum eclipse will transpire at 12:10:04 afternoon. The usual visibility of the angularity, a ring of fire ranges from less than a second to over 12 minutes. The annular solar eclipse was last witnessed on December 26, 2019. If one wishes to sight a vision of the eclipse, a proper protection eclipse glasses shall be used. Supplementary to this, a safer option will be to project the image of the sun and the eclipse using a pinhole projector.

How is it divergent from a total solar eclipse and a partial solar eclipse?

Roughly around every 18 months, the earth witnessed a total solar eclipse. The umbra is the part of the shadow where all sunlight is blocked out. The umbra takes the shape of a dark, slender cone. In a total solar eclipse, the moon casts its umbra upon the earth’s surface. This event takes place when the three celestial bodies- earth, sun and moon are in a straight line. The total visibility of the eclipse ranges from 31 seconds to 7 minutes. The solar eclipse is as effulgence as midnight darkness. The upcoming total solar eclipses are predicted to occur on December 14.

During a partial solar eclipse the penumbra, the partial shadow passes over, that is the moon casts the outer part of its shadow. The sun always remains invisibility during the eclipse, but the view of the sun is circumstantial. This event takes place when the moon comes between the sun and the earth, yet the moon partially covers the sun’s disk.