GUWAHATI:
Most parts of the Northeast, including Guwahati, Silchar, and Shillong will not witness the solar eclipse to occur on October 25.
In Guwahati, the partial eclipse will begin at 4:45 pm . The eclipse will also not be visible from any part of Upper Assam.
It will be visible for 7 minutes from Bongaigaon, 8 minutes from Kokrajhar and 9 minutes from Dhubri.
“The last of the two solar eclipses of this year will be witnessed a partial solar eclipse, which will be visible from Europe, the Middle East, Northeastern parts of Africa, and Western Africa. The duration of the entire celestial event will be four hours three minutes, which will begin at 2.29 pm and will end at 6.32 pm,” said Babul Chandra Bora, Curator, Guwahati Planetarium.
The eclipse will be visible throughout the country, except in the Northeast. In Assam, the eclipse will be visible from parts of Lower Assam only for a brief period just before sunset,” Bora said
“In Guwahati, it will be very difficult to witness the eclipse as it will begin at 4.45 pm at the horizon, and will be visible till the sunset at 4.47 pm, for only two minutes,” Bora said.
The eclipse will also not visible from any part of Aizawl, Dibrugarh, Imphal, Itanagar, Kohima, Sibsagar, Silchar, Tamelong, he added.
A solar eclipse occurs on a new moon day when the moon comes in between the earth and the sun and when all three are aligned. A partial solar eclipse will occur when the lunar disk covers the solar disk partially.
The obscuration of the sun by the moon will be approximately between 40 and 50 per cent at the time of the maximum eclipse in north-western parts of the country. In other parts of the country, the percentage coverage will be less than the above values.
“In Delhi and Mumbai, the percentage coverage of the sun by the moon at the time of the greatest eclipse will be around 44 per cent and 24 per cent respectively. The duration of the eclipse from the beginning up to sunset time will be 1 hour 13 minutes and 1 hour 19 minutes for both Delhi and Mumbai respectively. In Chennai and Kolkata, the duration of the eclipse from the beginning up to sunset time will be 31 minutes and 12 minutes respectively,” an official statement of the Ministry of Earth Science said.
The next solar eclipse will be visible from India on August 2, 2027. It will be a total solar eclipse. From all parts of the country, it will be seen as a partial solar eclipse.
“The eclipsed sun should not be viewed with the naked eye, even for a very short time. It will cause permanent damage to the eyes leading to blindness even when the moon covers most portion of the sun. Safe technique to observe the solar eclipse is either by using a proper filter like aluminized Mylar, black polymer, welding glass of shade number 14 or by projecting sun’s image on a whiteboard by telescope,” the statement said.