Solar eclipse on 11th July

There is going to be a solar eclipse on 11th July where you can expect a light show in skies of the South Pacific, southern Argentina and Chile.

It will be a rare solar eclipse as Moon will be passing between the Sun and Earth.



The eclipse will began at at sunrise about 435 miles southeast of the South Pacific island of Tonga, with the Moon's shadow moving toward the northeast before ending at sunset in South America.It will be a great view to see this eclipse on water as most of eclipse will be found in open water.

Don't ever try to watch this eclipse with your naked eye as it is quite harmful.However for a direct view of the Sun, you can use approved solar filter.

If you are the lucky one to view the eclispe :) then please do share your experience or pics if any!

Annular Solar Eclipse on 15th January

For everyone who loves to watch a solar eclipse.Here is a good news.On 15th January 2009 there will be annular solar eclipse , Moon will directly pass between Sun and Earth . Since, Moon is small it is unable to cover the Sun which leaves a ring of sunlight visible at maximum.
Viewers will see this annular eclipse along a narrow path that begins in central Africa and then goes across the Indian Ocean, through southern India, Sri Lanka, Burma, and, ultimately, China. Viewers in much of Africa, eastern Europe, and Asia will witness a partial eclipse.
The last annular solar eclipse occurred a year ago on January, 2009 and the next will most probably occur on May 20, 2012.
If you wanna watch the solar eclipse then use approved solar filters.

Earth's gravity and solar eclipse

A team of Chinese scientists is planning to conduct a once-in-a-century experiment on July 22, the day of the total solar eclipse, which would test the controversial theory that gravity drops slightly during a total eclipse.

According to a report in New Scientist, geophysicists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences are preparing an unprecedented array of highly sensitive instruments at six sites across the country to take gravity readings during the total eclipse due to pass over southern China on July 22.

The results, which will be analyzed in the coming months, could confirm once and for all that anomalous fluctuations observed during past eclipses are real.

The first sign that gravity fluctuates during an eclipse was in 1954, when French economist and physicist Maurice Allais noticed erratic behaviour in a swinging pendulum when an eclipse passed over Paris.

Pendulums typically swing back and forth as a result of gravity and the rotation of the Earth. At the start of the eclipse, however, the pendulum's swing direction shifted violently, suggesting a sudden change in gravitational pull.

In the run up to July's eclipse, Chinese researchers have prepared eight gravimeters and two pendulums spread across six monitoring sites.

At over five minutes, the event will be the longest total solar eclipse predicted for this century.

Solar eclipse on 26th January, 2009

A rare annular solar eclipse will be seen in southern parts of Africa , Antarctica, South-East Asia and Australia.

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon is farther from the Earth than normal in its elliptical orbit and hence, its size is not that sufficient to cover the sun completely.

To view the sun during an eclipse you should use special eye protection so as to block the harmful radiation fro the sun.