Video Credit: Revanth Rajeev
It was the thought of ‘Ring of Fire’ that kept me awake throughout the night and I was hopeful of seeing it properly even if it was a cloudy day and the sky was not clear. Thousands of people across many cities were glued to the skies through various formats – if some were at planetariums, astrophysics centers, others congregated in small selective gatherings at river banks, educational institutions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The deadly virus did not dampen the spirits of many who managed to get a plethora of celestial images of the annular solar eclipse on June 21 from various places across India.
This annual solar eclipse was special as it fell on June 21 when it is the longest day and shortest night of the year. Now what is a solar eclipse? To describe it in layman’s terms - a solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. This way, it partially or completely obstructs the image of the Sun when a person views it from the Planet Earth. Therefore, it was observed partially in some places while it was seen as a complete ‘ring of fire’ in other places in Asia and Africa.
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| Photo Credit : Milind Tiwari and Akshay Malhotra |
The rare Solstice Solar Eclipse was observed with great enthusiasm by young and old as in many places. In Rajasthan and Gujarat it was visible as a beautiful ring of fire. Also, the path of the Ring of Fire in some places was long and this added to the excitement. In fact, this did not last for more than one minute and 20 seconds.
During such a type of eclipse, a bright ring of fire of the Sun remains visible around the edges of the Moon. This was a rare eclipse as the only other time you can watch an eclipse on June 21 in this century is in Year 2030, informs amateur astronomer Dr S A Mohan Krishna. “One of the most fascinating celestial occurrences to watch is the eclipse. Indians were fortunate that they could watch the June 21 solar eclipse from most parts of India. This rare phenomenon of annular, partial was noticeable and enthusiasts geared up to watch from many prominent places.”
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| Photo Credit: Ram Mohan |
Explaining the event, Dr Mohan Krishna said, “Although solar eclipse happens regularly, however, the partial solar eclipse is a sporadic phenomenon and it occurs when the moon’s diameter is smaller than the sun, therefore, obscuring most of the bright light of the sun and makes it appear like an annulus that is ring.”
Further, an annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and the Moon are exactly in line with the Earth but the apparent size of the moon is smaller than that of the sun. So that’s the reason the Sun appears like a bright ‘ring of fire’ surrounding the dark disk of the Moon. One should know that the annular solar eclipse is totally different from the total solar eclipse that occur.
In fact, in many time zones, it was observed at different timings and that is what created enthusiasm among youngsters in Covid times. In Mysuru, the royal city of Karnataka in India, many amateurs and professionals came together to form the Mysore Astronomical Society. This was started very recently to spread awareness about Astronomy, Astrophysics, Cosmology and Observational Astronomy. They aim to make people understand about occurrences, phenomena and celestial events which one sees but is not in a position to follow the distant stars and galaxies.
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| Photo Credit: Ram Mohan |
The group which has 225 members and is growing has observational astronomers, astrophysicists, amateur astronomers, astronomy connoisseurs, educationists and others provided a forum for discussion and knowledge sharing. The members hail from institutions like Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Kavalur Observatory, Indian Institute of Science, Radio Astronomy Centre and a host of educational institutions.
This event which created a brilliant celestial phenomenon and garnered interest for many was seen in some parts of Africa like Congo, Sudan, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, the Gulf nations and of course, China, India, Taiwan, Philippines sea, some parts of Australia. People around the world shared the spectacular images of the event on the Internet that brought joy to many.
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