India to witness partial solar eclipse in wee hours on 9 March

A total solar eclipse will occur on 9 March, and will be visible in most parts of the country as a partial eclipse except the north-west and western parts of the country. According to a report on The Times of India, the total eclipse phase will begin at 5.47 am local time and will go on till 9.08 am, with the partial phase ending at 10.05 am. “Start of partial phase of the eclipse will take place just after sunrise from extreme north east India. As one moves towards the east of the country, the duration of the partial eclipse increases reaching upto a duration of about one hour and more in extreme north east India and in Andaman and Nicobar Islands,” read statement from the Ministry of Earth Science according to a report on News Nation. [caption id=“attachment_2653066” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational photo. Getty Images[/caption] The report further states that the obscuration of the Sun by the Moon at the time of its peak phase will vary across various parts of the country — 15 percent in Agartala, 24.5 percent in Bhubaneswar, 11 percent in Guwahati, 18.5 percent in Kolkata, 12 percent in Patna, 49 percent in Port Blair and 12 percent in Silchar. “However, the greatest phase of the partial eclipse will not be seen from many places in India as the sunrise will take place after the time of occurrence of greatest phase at these places,” added the statement from the Ministry according to The Times of India. The ministry however, cautioned the public against viewing the celestial event with the naked eye, which could potentially cause permanent damage of the eyes leading to blindness even when the Moon covers most part of the Sun. “Safe technique to observe the solar eclipse is either by using proper filter like aluminized mylar, black polymer, welding glass of shade number 14 or by making projection of Sun’s image on a white board by telescope,” the Ministry cautioned in their statement according to  The Times of India.