India to miss 'Ring of Fire' during Monday's solar eclipse

As sky gazers in various parts of the world gear up to watch Monday's annular solar eclipse - a rare event in which the sun will appear as a thin ring behind the moon - people in India will miss the 'Ring of Fire' as it will be over before sunrise.

As sky gazers in various parts of the world gear up to watch Monday's annular solar eclipse - a rare event in which the sun will appear as a thin ring behind the moon - people in India will miss the 'Ring of Fire' as it will be over before sunrise.

HT Image

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Sun, the Moon and the Earth are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun, therefore only a part of the sun gets blocked. Hence the Sun appears like an annulus (ring), surrounding the outline of the Moon.

The next annular solar eclipse will occur after 18 years in June 2030.

"An annular eclipse of the Sun will occur May 21. The ending of the partial phase of the eclipse will be visible for a very short duration from northeast India after sunrise," said an official of the ministry of earth sciences.

Other parts of India won't be able to watch the eclipse as it will be over before sunrise.

SPACE (Science Popularisation Association of Communicators & Educators) has taken 70 school students to Hong Kong to witness the annular solar eclipse, where it will be visible clearly.

SPACE president CB Devgun, who is heading the tour, said the students will also participate in scientific activities and experiments, including contact timing measurement, a study of change in ambient temperature and lunar limb profile measurements.

People in India can catch the live webcast from Hong Kong by the SPACE expedition team by following the link: http://eclipsechasers.in/web_cast_video.html.