Longest Solar Eclipse Will Sweep Thailand

[sbk]

Longest solar eclipse will sweep Thailand

By The Nation

Published on June 21, 2009

A Prachinburi astronomer said yesterday that Thais would be able to observe a solar eclipse for about six minutes tomorrow from approximately 7-9.30am.

Worawit Tanwutthibundit said the 240-kilometre-long shadow would give one of the longest-lasting solar eclipses in history and be visible in India, Pakistan, China, Burma, Thailand and Japan. The Upper North will see a 60-per-cent eclipse, the Lower North 50 per cent and the Upper South 30 per cent.

-- The Nation 2009/06/21

[ScubaBuddha]

I hope everyone in Thailand knows they can't look directly at it without welders goggles or equivalent. Or stick a pin through cardboard then look at the image created by the light passing through the hole.

Edited June 20, 2009 by Scubabuddha

[Jimjim]

C'mon, not near as exciting as one of those 100% eclipses. Yet to see one of those in my life.

I am also waiting to see a total eclipse of the heart for the first time in my life. Nothing I can do...

[lordsux]

I hope everyone in Thailand knows they can't look directly at it without welders goggles or equivalent. Or stick a pin through cardboard then look at the image created by the light passing through the hole.

Nice of The Nation to remind everyone of these safety measures.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

People reading that paper deserve to go blind.

[meelousee]

Longest solar eclipse will sweep Thailand

By The Nation

Published on June 21, 2009

A Prachinburi astronomer said yesterday that Thais would be able to observe a solar eclipse for about six minutes tomorrow from approximately 7-9.30am.

Worawit Tanwutthibundit said the 240-kilometre-long shadow would give one of the longest-lasting solar eclipses in history and be visible in India, Pakistan, China, Burma, Thailand and Japan. The Upper North will see a 60-per-cent eclipse, the Lower North 50 per cent and the Upper South 30 per cent.

-- The Nation 2009/06/21

Longest in history NOT Quite,

The title should be ONE of the longest

There have been in the last century several that were longer, the one coming up is long and will be the last for many years that exceed 4 minuets. The next is shown in the data below.

Astronomy is one of my serious hobbies I follow this stuff with the tenacity of an Israeli diamond trader . The following is from NASA and the United States Naval Observatory web sites.

The historical data;

Columns

Date Type Series Magnatude Duration Drunk Astronomers notes

0029 Nov 24 Total 62 1.022 01m59s Crucifixion of Christ? See References Wikipedia

0033 Mar 19 Total 59 1.058 04m06s Crucifixion of Christ? See References Wikipedia

0059 Apr 30 Total 68 1.019 01m50s Plinius' Eclipse

"Then the sun was suddenly darkened and the fourteen districts of the city were struck by lightning"

- The Annals

0071 Mar 20 Hybrid 79 1.007 00m35s Plutarch's Eclipse Note Wikipedia

0334 Jul 17 Annular 80 0.976 02m23s Firmicus's Eclipse Note

0346 Jun 06 Total 91 1.059 03m58s -

0418 Jul 19 Total 91 1.046 03m52s Comet During an Eclipse Note

0569 Nov 24 Total 90 1.036 03m17s Eclipse Preceding Birth of Mohammad Wikipedia

0632 Jan 27 Annular 99 0.984 01m40s Death of Mohammad's Son Ibrahim

"When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumours of God's personal condolence quickly arose."

- Prayers of Muhammad Wikipedia

1919 May 29 Total 136 1.072 06m51s Einstein's Eclipse (Test of General Relativity)

Note Eclipse that Changed the Universe Wikipedia

1922 Sep 21 Total 133 1.068 05m59s General Relativity Reconfirmation Note

The longest and shortest eclipses of the 5,000 year period as well the largest and smallest partial eclipses are listed below.

Longest Annular Solar Eclipse: 0150 Dec 07 Duration = 12m23s

Shortest Annular Solar Eclipse: 2931 Dec 30 Duration = 00m00s

Longest Total Solar Eclipse: 2186 Jul 16 Duration = 07m29s

Shortest Total Solar Eclipse: 0919 Feb 03 Duration = 00m09s

Longest Hybrid Solar Eclipse: -0979 Aug 13 Duration = 01m48s

Shortest Hybrid Solar Eclipse: 1986 Oct 03 Duration = 00m00s

Largest Partial Solar Eclipse: -1577 Mar 30 Magnitude = 0.99984

Smallest Partial Solar Eclipse: -1838 Apr 04 Magnitude = 0.00002

The eclipse on July 22, 2009

On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan's Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean where the maximum duration of totality reaches 6 min 39 s. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes most of eastern Asia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Ocean. The last eclipse to be longer was on 1973 Jun 30 7m04s . The next longest is above 2186!

So to say longest-lasting solar eclipses in history of Thailand Not true another lasted 7min32sec

My Data:

The total solar eclipse of 2009 gives us the longest duration of totality of the 21st century (6m39s). Since the duration varies along the path of totality, maximum duration will happen only for those near the central line at the point of greatest eclipse out in the Pacific Ocean.

In General Solar Eclipses are approximately three minutes or less. The longest duration of the 20th Century occurred over a half century ago, 1955 June 20 (7m08s). A seven minute duration will not happen until 2150 June (7m14s) while a total eclipse with a duration near maximum is nearly two centuries in the future. This will not happen until the remarkable 2186 July total eclipse (7m29s), the longest duration of totality during the years -2000 to +4000. Unfortunately, this long duration will take place about 400 mi (640 km) east of South America in the Atlantic Ocean, 500 mi (800 km) north of the equator.

Now the longest eclipse calculated so far

-0479 Oct 02

(480 BCE) 07m57s

Xerxes' Eclipse "...while he was offering sacrifice to know if he should march out against the Persian, the sun was suddenly darkened in mid sky"

- Herodotus, History, IX, 10 Wikipedia

Click Photo to see the Animation of Eclipse July 22 2009

[Jungian]

I hope everyone in Thailand knows they can't look directly at it without welders goggles or equivalent. Or stick a pin through cardboard then look at the image created by the light passing through the hole.

Form what I have seen of people in the world in general they will just ignore it and go about what ever they are doing...

[Mosha]

If this mornings qwather is anything to go by. The Upper south will see Zilch.

[Dave the Dude]

I hope everyone in Thailand knows they can't look directly at it without welders goggles or equivalent. Or stick a pin through cardboard then look at the image created by the light passing through the hole.

Sorry must dash, got to find my welders goggles

[BOOKEMDANO]

The eclipse on July 22, 2009

On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth.

Sorry i'm now slightly confused. When is this eclipse July 22nd or June 22nd ??

Only ask as 7am is usually about the time i'll decide to wake up, or not !! Either way i'd like to see this event unfold, 7 minutes is a long time and if i can remember the last one i saw was in England and that was a total eclipse which lasted about 4 minutes or so.

[meelousee]

The eclipse on July 22, 2009

On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth.

Sorry i'm now slightly confused. When is this eclipse July 22nd or June 22nd ??

Only ask as 7am is usually about the time i'll decide to wake up, or not !! Either way i'd like to see this event unfold, 7 minutes is a long time and if i can remember the last one i saw was in England and that was a total eclipse which lasted about 4 minutes or so.

On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun.

[BigSnake]

Will never see this again in our life time, Enjoy ALL

[bdenner]

People reading that paper deserve to go blind.

Agree totally

It's the 22 July NOT June

Another piece of fine journalism from this rag.

BTW George is on the dump button for this post as I do it.

[sbk]

According to NASA, the eclipse is the 22 of July

Total Solar Eclipse of July 22

To make up for the anemic lunar eclipse earlier in the month, a major total eclipse of the Sun occurs two weeks later. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow extends across India, China, a handful of Japanese islands and the South Pacific Ocean (Espenak and Anderson, 2008). A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes most of eastern Asia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Ocean (Figure 5).

The central path begins in India's Gulf of Khambhat at 00:53 UT. The Moon passes through perigee several hours earlier, so the path of totality is unusually wide.

Racing inland, the shadow sweeps over the Indian cities of Surat, Indore, Bhopal, Varanasi, and Pata as its central duration heads towards the 4-minute mark. Traveling across Bhutan, the umbra clips Nepal, Bangladesh, and Burma (Myanmar), before reaching China at 01:05 UT (Figure 6). The duration of totality surpasses 5 minutes in Sichuan province where its capital city Chengdu lies within the track 85 km north of the central line. The umbra works its way across the rest of southern China where the major cities of Chongqing, Wuhan and Hangzhou stand in the eclipse path.

As the Moon's shadow reaches the coast, China's largest city Shanghai (pop. ~19 million) experiences totality lasting 5 minutes at 01:39 UT. Around 70 km to the south, the central line duration falls just 5 seconds short of the 6-minute mark. Across the East China Sea, the umbra sweeps over Japan's Ryukyu Islands and Iwo Jima.

Greatest eclipse occurs in the South Pacific at 02:35:19 UT. At this instant, the axis of the Moon's shadow passes closest to Earth's center. The maximum duration of totality is 6_minutes 39_seconds, the Sun's altitude is 86°, and the path width is 258_km. The remainder of the path makes no major landfall; it arcs southeast through the Pacific hitting just a handful of small atolls in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati (Gilbert Islands).

The path of totality ends at 04:18 UT as the lunar shadow leaves Earth and returns to space 3.4 hours after it started its trek across our planet's surface. The 15,200 km long track covers 0.71% of Earth's surface. Path coordinates and central line circumstances are presented in Table 3.

A partial eclipse is seen from a much larger area covering East Asia, Indonesia, and the South Pacific. Local circumstances for a number of cities are listed in Table 4. All times are given in Universal Time. The Sun's altitude and azimuth, the eclipse magnitude and obscuration are all given at the instant of maximum eclipse.

This is the 37th eclipse of Saros 136. The series began on 1360 Jun 14 with the first of eight partial eclipses. The first central eclipse was annular on 1504 Sep 08. It was followed by 5 more annular eclipses before the series produced 6 hybrid eclipses from 1612 through 1703. The first total eclipse occurred on 1721 Jan 27. The central line duration of this series rapidly increased and peaked at 7 minutes 8 seconds on 1955 Jun 20. Since then, the duration is slowly decreasing. Of particular note is the 6-minute total eclipse passing through the central U. S. on 2045 Aug 12. The series will continue to produce total eclipses until 2496 May 13. After that, the family winds down with a string of 7 partial eclipses which ends on 2622 Jul 30. In all, Saros 136 produces 15 partial, 6 annular, 6 hybrid and 44 total eclipses. Complete details for the series can be found at:

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEsaros/SEsaros136.html

[patklang]

SBK

you nearly got me up at 7am lol.

[jackr]

C'mon, not near as exciting as one of those 100% eclipses. Yet to see one of those in my life.

I was in Marazion, Cornwall, UK in '99. Weather was fantastic the day before totality. Turned partially cloudy on the day with a huge cloud covering everything on the vinegar strokes. Never been so disappointed. It was, however, pretty surreal as a giant shadow rolled in and tens of thousands of people oohed and ahhed, birds buzzing around not knowing what to do. It's a must if you ever have the chance to see a total eclipse

[hkt83100]

It's a must if you ever have the chance to see a total eclipse

I remember the one in the early nineties, I was in living in Pak Chong in those days. Pretty impressive, I must say.

[Gary A]

It's a must if you ever have the chance to see a total eclipse

I remember the one in the early nineties, I was in living in Pak Chong in those days. Pretty impressive, I must say.

Yes indeed, there was one in the nineties. I witnessed that one from Bangkok and remember it well. I'm pretty sure it was nearly a total eclipse. Welder's goggles are the best way to have a look.

[lordsux]

Nice one The Nation, I've just sweated my nads off on the balcony taking shots of the sun....dam_n it's hot out there.

Still, managed to get some good cloud shots. And seeing that this months photo challenge over at Photography and Arts sub-forum is 'Clouds' it might not have been a total waste of time.

Check out the challenge, read the rules and post your 'Cloud' images.

[eek]

Feeling a bit ignorant here..is UT same as GMT? What time is it predicted to hit Thailand at?

[HagenvonTronje]

is that the full article or are short version and just copypasta of the first lines? why not give the link/URL?

anyway, because the solar eclipse is on 22. of next month and not today or tomorrow seems to be another piece typical crap you can read in The Nation. why this still got past as 'News' on this forum? to be serious, nearly every The Nation article should be come with somekind of disclaimer that reminds the reader on the 'reliability' of this publication.

a good example that even when The Nation writes "Person XYZ had said that ..." it still a fabrication of The Nation itself. and The Nation gets it totally wrong what these persons actually had said in reality.

anyway i love the first sentence:

A Prachinburi astronomer said yesterday that Thais would be able to observe a solar eclipse for about six minutes tomorrow from approximately 7-9.30am.

so you have to be Thai to be able to observe it and this will be only for about six minutes between 7:00 and 9:30 am.

[Tywais]

I remember the one in 1995. I watched it on the roof top of the condo in Chiangmai and it was impressive, bit of a party atmosphere.

Total Eclipse Thailand 1995

You can scroll down and select the city you are in, including Thailand, and see an animation of the coverage you can expect in your location. Chiangmai, where I'm at, will be about 63% covered.

2009 Eclipse path

You can click on the below map to find the time (UT) in your region you can see it.

Google Map

[eek]

Tnx Tywais.

--

Ahh..it wont be a full eclipse. I read it wrong somewhere. Thought was going to be full eclipse here.

[animatic]

Ah life gives second chances.

I chased the '98 euro eclipse for 2 days trying to find a perfect shot location with good weather

for a 'String Of Pearls" photograph. I had a special extra large frame camera and planned a

chateau lower foreground with 7 double exposures through a filter every 2.5 minutes,

and then one open lens shot of totality and 7 more filtered finishing exposures.

I had picked the ruined Chateau De Coucy and a great wall, but it wasn't to be...

But just before totality it clouded over... it opened up JUST for the totallaity

and I got a nice' Grains of Baily' shot but the String of Pearls was a wash out.

Guess I get a second chance with out too much travel.

Where is my next visa run?

Well the hands down coolest shot would be in Bhutan.

Location, location, location.

Edited June 21, 2009 by animatic

[HagenvonTronje]

Ah life gives second chances.

I chased the '98 euro eclipse for 2 days trying to find a perfect shot location with good weather

for a 'String Of Pearls" photograph. I had a special extra large frame camera and planned a

chateau lower foreground with 7 double exposures through a filter every 2.5 minutes,

and then one open lens shot of totality and 7 more filtered finishing exposures.

I had picked the ruined Chateau De Coucy and a great wall, but it wasn't to be...

But just before totality it clouded over... it opened up JUST for the totallaity

and I got a nice' Grains of Baily' shot but the String of Pearls was a wash out.

Guess I get a second chance with out too much travel.

Where is my next visa run?

Well the hands down coolest shot would be in Bhutan.

Location, location, location.

what is the difference between 'grains of baily' and 'string of pearls'?

[richard10365]

I wonder what determines how fast an eclipse will last. Does the Speed of the earth slow down or the sun speed up? I would think it is generally the same speed on every eclipse. I don't know much about this subject so I don't know.

[neverdie]

SBK,

Do you think you could add to your daily list of jobs to do, perhaps a 48hr, 24hr & 20 minute warning before this event.

Perhaps you could also provide a telephone reminder service to those members not logged in 20 minutes before the event.

[Tywais]

I wonder what determines how fast an eclipse will last. Does the Speed of the earth slow down or the sun speed up? I would think it is generally the same speed on every eclipse. I don't know much about this subject so I don't know.

The distance from the earth to the moon and the earth to the sun changes. This changes the arc angle between the earth-moon-sun. The closer the moon to earth, the wider this angle thus more time for passing across. Just an educated guess.

[neverdie]

I wonder what determines how fast an eclipse will last. Does the Speed of the earth slow down or the sun speed up? I would think it is generally the same speed on every eclipse. I don't know much about this subject so I don't know.

The distance from the earth to the moon and the earth to the sun changes. This changes the arc angle between the earth-moon-sun. The closer the moon to earth, the wider this angle thus more time for passing across. Just an educated guess.

Educated Guess ...when did you find the time to slip out and get an education?

Amazing, it feels like it was just yesterday when you were learning the abc & pushing a few buttons on the thai visa keyboard

[harrry]

Does that mean we are going to get woken up in the morning by people scaring away the dragon eating the sun?

Edited June 21, 2009 by harrry