INDIA: A rare celestial event, annular solar eclipse, popularly known as the “ring of fire” eclipse on Sunday ended in India. It was the first solar eclipse of this decade taking place on the summer solstice, which is the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere.
The solar eclipse or ‘surya grahan’ began on Sunday morning across India as the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth came in a straight line. It was the third eclipse, after first two lunar eclipses took place in January and June this year.
The ‘ring of fire’ was witnessed in parts of Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana. It was partially visible in other parts of the country such as Jaipur, Delhi and Chandigarh and the maximum visibility was seen in Dehradun, Joshimath, Kurukshetra and Sirsa. The solar eclipse ended in Delhi at around 1.45 pm. The eclipse was around 93-94 per cent visible in Delhi.
The cloudy skies played spoilsport for the sky gazers to watch the annular solar eclipse in Chennai, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore, Salem, Tirunelveli and other parts of state of Tamilnadu. The sky became cloudy and the eclipse could not be seen, which started by 10:22 am and ended at around 2 pm.
During the solar eclipse, the temples across the nation remained closed including Badrinath-Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, Chardham temples, Ganga temples in Haridwar and Krishna temples in Vrindavan, Srikalhasti Shiva temple in Andhra Pradesh and Venkateswara temple in Chennai.
The next annular eclipse will be seen from South America in December 2020. Another annular eclipse will occur in 2022, but that it will be hardly visible from India.