On Friday, January 15th, 2010, India gets the “Ring of Fire” or an Annular Solar Eclipse, one of the best shows of nature. The first one after 1980 and again not before 2019, India is going to witness this exceptionally long duration ASE from a narrow patch.
But which is more important- Indian continent gets Two Solar eclipses in less than one year gap. The first one was a Total Solar Eclipse in July 22nd 2009 and the next is this Annular Solar Eclipse on January 15th 2010.
Last time India had this combination in:
Total Solar Eclipse on December 12th 1871, followed by Annular Solar Eclipse on June 6th, 1872.
The next such combination in India will be in:
Total Solar Eclipse on January 10th, 2168, followed by Annular Solar Eclipse July 5th, 2168. People in North Bengal, Eastern and Northern India will witness the partial phases of January 15th Annular Eclipse but they will miss the most important “Annular Phase”. From a narrow patch of south India, the heavenly sight of “Ring of Fire” or annular phase of the eclipse will be visible.
Last time Siliguri could see this “Ring of Fire” was on November 22nd 1965 and will see it again On February 17th 2064.
An 11-member team of SWAN has prepared itself for past six months to carry out various scientific activities on the Annular Solar Eclipse on January 15th, 2010 at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, with a huge cache of instruments.
On that day, we would be stationed in Rameswaram with several gadgets and plans to do a host of work. These include detail photo coverage of eclipse in digital as well as analogue format, observation and study of Bailey’s beads, prominence study, study of Lunar limb profile and study of Lunar librations.
We are honoured to have eminent scientists from international agencies as our guides those who have offered us their expertise and knowledgebase to analyze the data that would be produced from our elaborate Annular Solar eclipse observation camp.
We would earnestly request you to pass this message to your readers/viewers by January 14th, 2010 so that they can get ready on the morning of January 15th to watch the ASE.
wish YOU a great, clear, cloud free, blue sky.
Yours Sincerely
Debasis Sarkar,
Secretary
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