Solar eclipse of July 22, 2009

There would be a total Solar Eclipse on Wednesday, July 22, 2009  with a magnitude of 1.080 that will be visible from a narrow area  through northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip of Mayanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean.

 Totality will be visible in many cities such as Surat, Varanasi, Patna in India,  Thimphu, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Shanghai, as well as over the Three Gorges Dam.

This solar eclipse is the longest total solar eclipse that will occur in the twenty-first century.. 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.

At Surat on the coast of India the duration is 3 minutes and 14 seconds. The duration steadily increases to the east across India and China. As it leaves the east coast of China to the south of Shanghai its length will be a shade under 6 minutes. To the south of Japan it will last for a little under six and a half minutes. The greatest duration occurs some way further to the southeast, 6 minutes 39 seconds. The length of the eclipse then diminishes again as it travels southeast across the Pacific.

A partial eclipse is visible from most of Asia south of about latitude 60° north, from northern parts of Indonesia and from New Guinea. Many of the island groups in the western Pacific will also sea partial eclipse, as far east as Hawaii in the north. The southern edge of the partial eclipse just touches the northern most part of York peninsula in Australia. Otherwise no part of the eclipse is visible from Australia nor New Zealand.