The total solar eclipse of July 22^nd 2009 may be the most viewed solar eclipse. Most of the best viewing opportunities of this total solar eclipse will be in parts of China. However, the path of totality of this solar eclipse will pass through densely populated parts of western, central and eastern parts of India.

Credit: Jefferson Teng

In IST the eclipse will begin at 5:28am when the shadow of the moon will touch the earth and the total eclipse will end at 10:42am IST when the shadow of the moon will leave the earth at a point in South Pacific Ocean. The umbra of the eclipse will touch the earth at sunrise near Gulf of Khambhat. The path will be 200km wide and duration not more than 3min30 sec. The shadow crossing over Arunachal Pradesh and Myanmar enters China before passing out through Japan’s Ryuku Island.

This eclipse will be the longest total solar eclipse lasting 6 minutes 39 seconds.

If you are living in that part of the world where you cannot watch this total solar eclipse, then you can enjoy the magnificence and beauty of this celestial extravaganza at the following links in your desktop.

• http://www.sems.und.edu/
• http://www.live-eclipse.org/
• http://www.atlaspost.com/2009tse
• http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/index.html

In India, according to the NASA report, this solar bonanza will be best viewed from Taregana village, 30 kms south of Bihar capital city Patna. More than 1000 years ago, it was in this same village that astronomer Aryabhatta did set up a camp to study the impact of celestial movements. In this small village people from all walks of life have started flocking in.

Scientists are expected to study the impact of this total solar eclipse on

• Atmospheric ionization.
• Possibility of asteroids
• Geomagnetism
• Animals and avian behavioral changes
• Microorganisms’ behavior.

These are the following two links of NASA that provides with detailed path of the Total solar Eclipse

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2009/TSE2009.html

And the following is the official 2009 eclipse bulletin page of NASA

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2009/TSE2009.html

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