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Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The most powerful eclipse for this year happens today. This eclipse is called as total solar eclipse and it is sixth total solar eclipse for this decade. A total eclipse occurs when the Sun is completely hidden by the Moon. The intensely bright disk of the Sun is replaced by the dark silhouette of the Moon, and the much fainter ring called corona is visible. This eclipse is a 6-minute plus eclipse—the longest of the 21st century.
The eclipse is seen initially in India and it traverses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China and across the Pacific Ocean. Hence the major part of the eclipse occurs at eastern Asia, Indonesia and Pacific Ocean.
It is safe to observe the total phase of a solar eclipse directly with the unaided eye, binoculars or a telescope, when the sun is completely covered by the Moo. In fact this cannot be viewed thorough the filters as the light will be very dim. At this point of total solar eclipse the sun will be completely hidden and just a ring will visible which is nothing but the corona of the sun.
When the shrinking visible part of the photosphere becomes very small, Baily’s beads will occur. It has been named so as the image formed because of the sun rays looks like beads. This is caused by the sunlight still being able to reach Earth through lunar valleys, but no longer where mountains are present. After this begins the Totality with the Diamond Ring Effect, which emits the last bright flash of sunlight.