Total solar eclipse on March 9
Source: The Sangai Express

New Delhi, March 01 2016: A total solar eclipse will occur on March 9 and it will be seen as partial solar eclipse at sunrise from most places in India except from north-west and western parts of the country.

The total eclipse phase will begin at 5.47 am (IST) and it will last till 9.08 am.

The partial phase will, however, end at 10.05 am (IST) .

In most places of India, the partial phase of the eclipse will begin before sunrise � it means partially eclipsed sunrise will take place.

"However, 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 & Nicobar Islands," said an official statement of the Ministry of Earth Science.

In India, obscuration of the Sun by the Moon at the time of greatest phase of partial eclipse will be around 15% in Agartala, 24.5% in Bhubaneswar, 11% in Guwahati, 18.5% in Kolkata, 12% in Patna, 49% in Port Blair and 12% 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," said the statement.

The total eclipse of the Sun would be visible within a narrow corridor in the northern hemisphere.

The totality path would pass through Sumatra, Borneo, Indonesia and the North Pacific Ocean.

Sounding a cautionary note, the Ministry advised that the eclipsed Sun should not be viewed with the naked eye, even for a very short time as it will cause permanent damage of the eyes leading to blindness even when the moon covers most portion 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," said the Ministry.

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