TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE JULY 22, 2009

A total solar eclipse occured today. It is supposed to have a longer duration than any other solar eclipse of the 21st Century because the moon will be near perigee (the point in the orbit of the moon at which it is nearest to the earth).

The eclipse was said to be visible through southern Asia (India, Nepal, China, Japan) and over the Pacific Ocean. The event attracted many tourists to areas where the total eclipse was expected to be visible.

The eclipse is part of the Saros cycle, which also includes the record-setting July 1991 solar eclipse, and is the second of three eclipses to occur within a month. The other two eclipses were lunar eclipses, one of which took place on July 7, 2009, and the other of which will occur August 6, 2009.

The next partial solar eclipse will occur in January 2010, and the next total solar eclipse is estimated for July 2010. The latter may be visible from points along the Pacific coast of South America. The next sun eclipse that will be visible from parts of North America will likely take place in 2011.

(source of above information - various websites from the internet)

The last couple of days were so cloudy and the sun was not visible in the mornings at all, so I was a bit worried, wondering whether I would ever get a chance to see this spectacular lifetime event. This morning after putting my usual kolam I looked up at the sky only to find it a bit cloudy and there was still time for the sun to come up as it was only around 5.45 am. At around 6.15 am the sun started peeping out from between the clouds, the moment for which I had been waiting for had come and I immediately took out an old x-ray (though there were strong suggestions not to use this method, I could not contain myself) to see this glorious happening. Suddenly a spark hit me - why not try and click pictures?? So I took out my digicam and clicked four pictures (between the time mentioned in the picture) of the different stages, holding the camera behind the x-ray film and I am quite happy with the results.

The only thing I had in my mind when I clicked these pictures was to share them with my
ikolam friends - so here I am with my version of the rare SOLAR ECLIPSE JULY 2009

Any others to share their experience of today with us??