Surya Grahan 2020: the first solar eclipse of the year on June 21
New Delhi:
Star observers in India will enjoy themselves on June 21 when India attends the first solar hatching of Surya Grahan or 2020. It will be an annular eclipse in certain regions while for most of the country, it will be partial. In India, the Surya Grahan will start near Gharsana in Rajasthan around 10:12.
The annular phase will start around 11:49 a.m. and end at 11:50 a.m., MP Birla Planetarium director Debi Prasad Duari told PTI news agency.
The “ ring of fire ” can be seen better, just for a minute, from Suratgarh and Anupgarh in Rajasthan, Sirsa, Ratia and Kurukshetra in Haryana, and Dehradun, Chamba, Chamoli and Joshimath in Uttarakhand.
The people of Congo in Africa will first see the eclipse, then it will progress through South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the Indian Ocean and Pakistan, before enter India through Rajasthan. Later, it will travel to Tibet, China, Taiwan, before ending somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.
The annular solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are aligned in a straight line and almost on the same plane. “At this point, the Moon must be farther from the earth in its elliptical orbit and, therefore, cannot completely cover the disk of the sun, resulting in a narrow band of light around the dark silhouette of the Moon, which makes the ring of fire visible, “said Duari in a statement.
The eclipse, however, will not be as large this time as it was on December 26 of last year.
