India Witnessed Decade’s First Solar Eclipse

Bengaluru: The moon partially covers the sun in the cloudy skies during the annual solar eclipse, the last of the decade, in Bengaluru on Dec 26, 2019. Solar eclipse began at 8.06 a.m. over Karnataka and lasted for around 3 hours till 11.11 a.m. Hundreds of sky gazers, astronomers, astro-physicists, astrologers and students assembled at the Planetarium and Lalbagh garden in this tech hub to witness the celestial event and had to wait for the cloudy weather to clear for viewing the partial eclipse. (Photo: IANS)

Some parts of India on Sunday witnessed the  Solar Eclipse or ‘surya grahan’ 2020, the third eclipse even for this year after first two lunar eclipses took place in January and June and the last annual solar eclipse of this decade.

The solar eclipse started from around 9 a.m. across the Indian map as the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth came in a straight line, and the country witnessed the ‘deepest’ annular solar eclipse in over a century.

Astrologers said it a fourth super rare hybrid eclipse which is a mix between an annular and total solar eclipse.

Areas like Hyderabad, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Shillong and more witnessed a partial phase of the annular solar eclipse from 9 a.m.

(Photo: IANS)

In the eclipse, the distance of the Moon and Earth will be larger than usual which means the moon will not be able to cover up the sun fully and will leave out the borders of the sun – giving an appearance of a “Ring of Fire”.

Press Information Bureau in a tweet informed that it is the last annular solar eclipse in India of this decade.

People can catch glimpse of the partially covered sun between 10 a.m. and 2.28 p.m. as per the time differing as locations in India. The eclipse will continue for over three hours covering 84 per cent Sun.

There are three types of solar eclipses – total, partial, and annular.

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