Solar Eclipse – A total solar eclipse will be seen in India on July 22
Total solar eclipse , a rare treat will be seen in India in the early hours of July 22. And if you miss you  will have to wait for 78 long years to catch the rare glimpse again! It will be the third total solar eclipse to be visible in India in the past 15 years. The next total solar eclipse will occur in 2087.
What is Solar Eclipse ? A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially covered. This can only happen during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from the Earth. At least two and up to five solar eclipses can occur each year on Earth, with between zero and two of them being total eclipses. Total solar eclipses are nevertheless rare at any location because during each eclipse totality exists only along a narrow corridor in the relatively tiny area of the Moon’s umbra.
(Source : Wikipedia)
The eclipse will start shortly after sunrise from Surat in south Gujarat and will be visible in a long band that extends up to Japan. In Surat it will be visible in totality for three minutes, but it Bihar it will be nearly four minutes. In Iwo-Jima, near the Guam Islands in the Far East, its visibility will be as long as six minutes. The route the eclipse will take is from Surat, Indore and other cities in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, parts of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Sikkim and Assam. It will be also be visible in neighbouring countries like Bhutan, China and the Tibet region, then in Japan and the Guam Islands.
The sun would be covered up to 95 percent in Mumbai and 80 percent in New Delhi and other north Indian cities, and Bangalore, Chennai and other southern cities. It will be visible in most parts of India in varying degrees of totality, depending on the monsoon situation. The route the eclipse will travel through central India largely encompasses the backward and tribal regions of the country.
The last total solar eclipses visible in India were in 1995 and 1999. After the July 22, 2009, eclipse, the next total solar eclipse will occur in 2087. “This is the last opportunity for the present generation to view a total solar eclipse and they must make all efforts to exploit it, especially since it happens in the Year of Astronomy-2009 declared by the Unesco. Â
All such eclipses contribute to and enrich mankind’s knowledge of science and the universe. For instance, it was during a total solar eclipse in 1868 in India that a French scientist discovered the presence of Helium in the atmosphere.
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