Total Solar Eclipse 22 July 2009

The eclipse that will take place tomorrow, Wednesday July 22, 2009 will be a total eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 1.080. The eclipse will be visible in a narrow corridor through northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip of Myanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean, including the Ryukyu Islands, Marshall Islands and Kiribati.

Totality will be visible in many large cities, including Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Dinajpur, Chengdu, Nanchong, Chongqing, Yichang, Jingzhou, Wuhan, Huanggang, Hefei, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Huzhou, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo and Shanghai, as well as over the Three Gorges Dam. If you’re not in the area of the eclipse then you can always watch it online here.

A partial eclipse will be seen from the much broader path of the Moon’s penumbra, including most of South East Asia (all of India and China) and north-eastern Oceania. The eclipse is part of series 136 in the Saros cycle, like the record setting Solar eclipse of July 11, 1991.

This is second in the series of three eclipses in a month. There was a lunar eclipse on July 7 and now a solar eclipse on July 22 and then a lunar eclipse on August 6. This solar eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the twenty-first century, and will not be surpassed in duration until June 13, 2132.

Totality will last for up to 6 minutes and 39 seconds, with the maximum eclipse occurring in the ocean at 02:35:21 UTC about 100 km south of the Bonin Islands, southeast of Japan. The North Iwo Jima island is the landmass with totality time closest to maximum.

The total eclipse begins at local dawn, 00:51:17 UT on July 22 in the Arabian Sea, just off the coast of India. The path is already over 200km wide here, and the eclipse will last 3 minutes 30 seconds. It crosses over central India, and passes between Nepal and Bangladesh, clips Bhutan and Myanmar, and then enters China. It crosses right over China to the coast around Hangzhou, at around 01:40 UT. By this time the path width is up to 249km, and the total eclipse lasts 5 minutes 56 seconds on the centreline.

Meditation for the Eclipse

There’s also a meditation online at:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Ellies-World/2009/07/21/New-Moon-Solar-Eclipse-Meditation

Cancer New Moon Solar Eclipse

This Cancer New Moon provides an opportunity to resolve familial wounds. This is not only because Cancer is the sign of the family, the home, and the past, but also because this is the second New Moon in this sign this summer. Reflecting back to the other one that occurred on June 22 can provide you with insights as to the issues that may re-arise—and potentially come to closure—during this time.