Solar Eclipse

WE are about to observe another solar eclipse tomorrow at 09:06 am according to Pakistan standard time. In this article, I will try to make you understand easily, what actually solar eclipse is?

An ancient and a superstitious concept was that solar eclipse is due to bad omens or it is because of some supernatural power. This is quite baseless according to the scientific point of view.

Well…  Eclipse means to obscure the light from a star because of the motion of another celestial body (a planet or a moon) between the light and the observer. So, solar eclipse is something related to sun.

What is going to happen tomorrow? The answer is that, Earth, Moon and the Sun will become aligned. The moon will block a part of light coming from sun so a shadow of moon will be casted tomorrow which can be observed from different parts of the globe. Have you ever thought why only a part of light from sun will be blocked, why not all of the light?

That’s because of the orbit of the moon, which is not totally circular but orbit of the moon is tilted around 5 degrees or more to the Earth’s orbit around the sun and this sort of solar eclipse is called annular solar eclipse.

According to Wikipedia, Total eclipses are rare because the timing of the new moon within the eclipse season needs to be more exact for an alignment between the observer (on Earth) and the centers of the Sun and Moon. In addition, the elliptical orbit of the Moon often takes it far enough away from Earth that it’s apparent size is not large enough to block the Sun entirely. Total solar eclipses are rare at any particular location because totality exists only along a narrow path on the Earth's surface traced by the Moon's full shadow or umbra.

 I want you all to keep in your mind that looking directly at the Sun during solar eclipse is dangerous for your eyes as it may cause permanent blindness. If you want to observe tomorrow’s annular solar eclipse, try to look at sun by indirect ways.  

Image credits https://www.straitstimes.com/sites/default/files/articles/2019/06/15/st_20190615_rneclipse15_49110982.jpg