Annular Solar Eclipse visible in Northern Sri Lanka

A solar eclipse takes place when the sun is covered by the Moon. The annular eclipse, the ring of light around the darkened moon is visible will takes place on 26th December 2019. This eclipse will be visible in Jaffna on the day following Christmas and move in a northerly direction. This will be visible as an annular eclipse to those in the far north and as a partial eclipse to those living south of Killinochchi. 

This annular eclipse visible on zs” December starts from Dammam in Saudi Arabia at about 8.a.m. It travels across the Indian Ocean and southern India and goes over northern Sri Lanka. When this eclipse takes place, the moon will be about 400,000 km. away from earth and will be moving at a speed of 1 km per second or 3,600 km per hour. 

The centre line of this annular eclipse in our country visible from Delft to Kokilai. The upper or northern limit of this eclipse runs South India to the Indian Ocean and lower or south limit runs from Manner to Vakare. The eclipse which enters the Island from Manner will be visible in Jaffna at 9.34 a.m. and will last only 4 minutes. Thus it will end at 9.38 a.m. The previous annular eclipse which took place on 15th January 2010 was visible in Jaffna for about 10 minutes. But this time it will be limited to less than 4 minutes. 

This annular eclipse which starts in Saudi Arabia goes over northern Sri Lanka and again over the Indian Ocean to Indonesia and ends at about 12.30 p.m. above the Pacific Ocean. In Indonesia, the path of the eclipse falls over the island of Sumatra and the greatest eclipse will be visible at a place called Paden at about 10.47 a.m. This annular eclipse will last for a total period of five hours. 

In our country below the town of Killinochchi, this will be visible as a partial eclipse. Those living in the Anuradhapura area will see about 92 % of the Sun covered by the Moon whereas people in Colombo will see about 87% of the Sun covered. 

According to astronomy both the Sun and the Moon will be in the constellation of Sagittarius on 26th December. In the annual movement of the Sun across the Zodiac, the Sun is always in ‘Sagittarius’ from December 22nd to January is”. The peculiarity of this date is that another five planets namely Mercury, Venus, Jupiter. Saturn and Pluto will also be in ‘Sagittarius.’ Further, since Mars will be in the ‘Scorpio’ during this period, it will affect the weather not only in our country but throughout the world. 

Peoples of the Northern part of Sri Lanka will be privileged to observe an ‘Annular Solar Eclipse’ which will be visible on the day after Christmas.

Annular Solar Eclipse will be in the constellation of ‘Sagittarius’ and four planets namely Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto will also be seen as a rear incident in this constellation.