Before moving towards the details of Solar Eclipse 2019 that happened on 26 December, you must know about how and why Solar Eclipse happens?

We are in a constant revolving universe!

Our entire universe is in constant revolving i.e. Earth revolves around the Sun, and the moon revolves around the Earth. Sun is in the center of the galaxy providing the light and heat to the planets surrounding it. The changing of day and night occurs because of the rotation of the Earth.

An eclipse occurs due to movement of the Moon. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth and casts its shadow on the Sun. Sometimes its reflection is too obvious that it restricts the light of Sun from reaching out to Earth. 

Solar eclipse remains for some specific duration because of the constant rotation of Moon. Once the moon moves away from the center of the Sun, the eclipse fades away.

The above picture has shown the illustration of the Solar Eclipse. Now we completely understand the meaning of the Solar Eclipse and how it occurs. 

Now, the question arises in our mind that the sun is comparatively bigger than the moon than how it completely hides the Sun under its reflection?

The answer to this question is in the Solar Eclipse of 26, December 2019. It is the alignment of the moon that decides the fate and type of the Solar Eclipse. 

It could be total, annular or partial Solar Eclipse.

The people around the world were so anticipated to see the Solar Eclipse of 2019 as it was said to be the Annular Eclipse where the Sun would be hidden behind the reflection of the Moon and it was occurring after 20 years. 

In 1999, the total solar eclipse occurred while in 2019 it is an annular solar eclipse. The difference between the total and annular solar eclipse is defined by the distance of the moon from the Earth. 

Total Solar eclipse:

If the moon is near to the Earth then it will cast a shadow that will completely cover the sun inhibiting its light to reach the earth, causing a dark period during the eclipse is a total eclipse. 

Annular eclipse:

If the moon is farthest from the Earth then annular solar eclipse will occur. In which prominent ring of Sun will appear.

Regions that seen the Annular solar eclipse of 2019:

Prominent regions include Qatar, Saudi Arabia, India, Sumatra, Borneo, Philippines, Guam, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan observed this annular Solar Eclipse of 2019. It was also known as “ring of fire”. 

Meanwhile the sky watchers of other parts of Africa, Australia and Asia will be able to see the partial lunar eclipse because of the alignment of the moon towards those regions of the world. 

The duration of this annular Solar Eclipse was longer than the total eclipse that happened in 1999.

According to the meteorological department, during Solar Eclipse the sun will be directly crossed by the moon from the front for the viewers of the countries that lie on the path’s center line. 

The occurrence of the solar eclipse occurs after the reaching of the moon to the apogee (a point where the moon is farthest from the Earth). So, the moon will be smaller from the sun in the sky. It means that the sun will not be blocked completely by the moon it will turn the sun into the blazing “ring of fire” for the viewers of the earth.

The first region that observed the annular solar eclipse was the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. The solar eclipse was begun at 6:34 a.m. and the duration of the “ring of fire” was 2 minutes and 59 seconds in the sky. 

The last place on earth to observe the solar eclipse was Guam, where the annular “ring of fire” lasted for more than 3 minutes and the sun was set there before the ending of the partial phase of the eclipse. 

The total length of the solar eclipse was 5 hours 18 minutes 53 seconds. The ring of fire that was observed during the eclipse of 2019 is shown below.

People of the regions that observed the solar eclipse was too anticipated that the people were up for hours just to see the blazing “ring of fire”. People go to the open places where they could easily witness the solar eclipse and it was celebrated according to the culture of every region. 

Solar eclipse and concerned cultures:

The solar eclipse has different meanings in different cultures as some people consider it a bad omen that if the solar eclipse occurs then something bad is going to happen around the world and starts to relate incidents with the solar eclipse.  

Necessary precautions while watching the eclipse:

Different institutes and departments have set the venues for the people to watch the solar eclipse with safety. The direct contact with the solar eclipse may harm the visions because during the solar eclipse the harmful radiations are emitted. 

One must need to wear safety glasses, x-ray glasses or UV protective glasses. The easiest way through which you can observe the eclipse from home is the pinhole camera because of the pinhole camera you will not be seeing the sun directly.

Next solar eclipse will occur on June 21, 2020, but because of the shortest distance of the moon from earth, the ring of light will be thinner. While the citizens of the United States missed out both of the chances they have to wait for 14 October 2023 to watch the annular solar eclipse and the total eclipse will be followed after six months of the annular solar eclipse.

So, we can say that this annular solar eclipse of 26th December 2019 was one of its kind and the views like this are hard to catch because not every country around the world witnessed the beautiful blazing “ring of fire”. That’s the reason people were so excited to see the solar eclipse of December 2019 that such scenes come after so long.

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