‘Ring of fire’ eclipse wows across Asia
Skywatchers from Saudi Arabia and
Oman to India and Singapore were treated to a rare “ring of fire” solar eclipse
Thursday.
The moon moves in front of the sun
in a rare “ring of fire” solar eclipse as seen from Balut Island, Saraggani
province in the southern island of Mindanao on December 26, 2019. (Photo by
Ferdinandh CABRERA / AFP)
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Annular eclipses occur when the Moon
is not close enough to the Earth to completely obscure the Sun, leaving a thin
ring of the solar disc visible.
While these types of eclipses occur
every year or two, they are only visible from a narrow band of Earth each time
and it can be decades before the same pattern is repeated.
Depending on weather conditions,
this year’s astronomical phenomenon was set to be visible from the Middle East
across southern India and Southeast Asia before ending over the northern
Pacific.
Hundreds of amateur astronomers,
photographers and set up by Singapore’s harbour for what some described as a
“once in a lifetime” event.
“The next one will happen in about
40 years I think,” said Jason Teng, 37, who took the day off work to photograph
the eclipse.
The amateur astronomer used a
special solar filter on his telescope as there is no safe period to observe an
annular solar eclipse.
Alexander Alin 45, a geophysicist
from Germany, travels around the world following eclipses.
“It’s only two minutes, but it’s so
intense that you talk about it with your friends, family for the next month,”
Alin said.
Eclipse stops play
In southern India, people gathered on the beaches in Tamil Nadu to watch the event.
In southern India, people gathered on the beaches in Tamil Nadu to watch the event.
The eclipse even affected cricket,
with play delayed by two hours in a first-class match between Mumbai and
Rajkot.
The eastern state of Odisha declared
a public holiday, with all government offices, courts, schools and colleges
closed.
But in New Delhi, cloud and
pollution blocked the view and Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his
disappointment, although only a partial eclipse would have been visible that
far north.
“Like many Indians I was
enthusiastic about solareclipse2019,” Modi said.
“Unfortunately, I could not see the
Sun due to cloud cover but I did catch glimpses of the eclipse in Kozhikode and
other parts on live stream.”
In Indonesia, hundreds of people
gathered outside Jakarta Planetarium to watch the event using protective
glasses supplied by the planetarium, hoping for clear skies at the time of
maximum eclipse.
“I could see the eclipse this
morning and now am very excited to see the peak though now it is cloudy,” said
Chandra Ayu Dewi, 39, who arrived at 7:00 am with her children.
Outside the narrow band where the
“Ring of fire” effect can be observed, skywatchers would see a partial solar
eclipse.
The next annual eclipse in June 2020
will be visible to a narrow band from Africa to northern Asia.
The following one in June 2021 will
only be seen in the Arctic and parts of Canada, Greenland and the remote
Russian far east.
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