Millennium’s Solar Eclipse

Millennium’s Solar Eclipse

The longest, ring-like solar eclipse of the millennium started on Friday, with astronomers saying the Maldives was the best place to view the phenomenon that will not happen again for over 1,000 years.

US space agency NASA said on its website the eclipse was annular, meaning the moon will block most of the sun’s middle, but not its edges, causing it to look like a ring. This blockage will last for 11 minutes, 8 seconds, an annual duration NASA said would not be exceeded until December 23, 3043.

The “ring” will be seen in a narrow stretch spanning Central Africa, the Maldives, southern India, northern Sri Lanka, parts of Myanmar and China. In Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, it will be a partial eclipse, NASA said.

Astronomers said Male, the main island of the Indian Ocean island nation the Maldives, will be the best place on land to witness the eclipse as it will last there for over 10 minutes. In India, the eclipse gave an added auspicious edge to the Kumbh Mela festival where thousands of people immerse themselves in the Ganges river, an act believed to purge all sins.

“Today is a combination of a moonless night and a solar eclipse that (is also happening) during the time of Kumbh Mela. It is a very rare phenomena,” Baba Ram Vilas, a Hindu monk in saffron robes, told Reuters Television on the banks of the Ganges river, where the Kumbh Mela is held every 12 years in a different city.

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