The Grand Celestial Show: Annular Solar Eclipse-2010, Kanyakumari

15 ^th January 2010 was one of the most awaited days of my life. Though it was not any birthday or anniversary but still one of the most phenomenal events  - it was the millennium’s longest eclipse; an annular solar eclipse. Annular solar eclipses can be distinguished from the total solar eclipse by the fact that moon is at its farthest point from earth (apogee) and hence the shadow of the moon is not able to completely eclipse the sun leaving a bright annular ring surrounding it unlike the total solar eclipse. This eclipse was visible from a narrow patch of south India; Rameshwaram and Kanyakumari being the prominent (maximum duration) places and we zeroed in our plans to go for Kanyakumari.

Not only the annular eclipses are rare but this being the longest of the millennium had filled my heart with great excitement. After months of planning and preparations I headed for the trip to Kanyakumari on 12th January along with my four friends Shishir, Yogesh, Priyanka and Vaibhav. The otherwise long and tiring journey of 40 hours by the Mumbai-Kanyakumari Express was enjoyably completed on 14^th January due to the wonderful company. My hearty thanks to Priyanka’s father who made arrangements for our stay.

After accessing the local conditions and sites, it was decided that we would watch and photograph the eclipse from the terrace of the dormitory which was spacious and had a clear view of the sky. The sky was very much clear on the day of our arrival but clouds appeared from nowhere on the observation day slightly dampening our hopes.  We all prayed to the Sun God and the Cloud God (Don’t know if one exists!!) to stop playing hide n seek and concentrate on the eclipse. Our prayers were finally answered by the wind God. (May be they have a good communication network above!) The local breeze blew the clouds and paved the view of the Sun. Now we could observe the grand event unfolding.

The photos were taken by Canon 1000D DSLR camera attached with a Sigma 70-300mm lens and black polymer filter by 1000 Oaks. The solar filter was arranged through Shishir from Uttar Pradesh Amateur Astronomers Club (UPAAC), Indira Gandhi Planetarium (C.S.T), Lucknow. Shishir also did a special arrangement to avoid camera shake due to the wind. The photo below shows the arrangement !!

The entire event lasted for about 4hours and the annularity was for 9min and 58sec making it the longest in the millennium. The sun occasionally covered itself behind the thin sheet of clouds enabling us to have a few glimpses of this celestial beauty even without the solar goggles. I even managed to click a few pictures without the solar filter.

After the eclipse we did some local sightseeing. The Suchindram Temple, Vivekanand Rock Memorial, Kanyakumari Lighthouse, Sothivilaai Beach were some of the places we visited. We also saw the famous Sunrise and Sunset of Kanyakumari and the confluence of the three seas (Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea.

 

 

I consider myself lucky that I was able to witness such an event and also photograph it. We were all completely awestruck by this nature’s drama and I am sure I will retain the memories of the event crystal clear in my mind forever.

Hope you guys like the photographs.

Once in a Blue Moon

The last night of the year 2009 was a special one in Astronomical terms too. It was to be a Blue Moon Day night and top of that a partial lunar eclipse was to be seen.

"Most calendar months see just one full moon. The 29.5 day cadence of the lunar cycle matches up almost perfectly with the 28 to 31 day length of calendar months. Sometimes, however, the one-to-one correspondence breaks resulting in two full moon days in a month. The second one is called a Blue Moon in popular folklore . December month of the current year is such a month. The first full moon in December appeared on 2nd while the second appeared in the sky on 31st, New Year Eve. Data reveals that such a phenomenon did not occur in the 20th and not witnessed so far in the 21st century as well. This celestial rarity will be witnessed on the New Year' eve again only in 2028 and 2066. "

I am thankfull to my friend Pritesh for reminding me about the same at the last hour. I owe this photographs to him. It was really a amazing sight and the time was also very special.

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