The annular solar eclipse, the last one of 2019, has begun. The last solar eclipse of 2019 took over the skies around 8 am Thursday morning. The December 26 solar eclipse will be visible most prominently from South India. Cities such as Kannur, Kochi, Kozhikode, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum) in Kerala; Coimbatore, Madurai, Ooty, Trichy and Chennai in Tamil Nadu; Mangaluru and Bengaluru in Karnataka; and Puducherry are among places where the solar eclipse will be visible fully.
Other parts of India, on the other hand, will witness a partial solar eclipse. The solar eclipse began setting in at 8 am and will last till 1:30 pm. The solar eclipse’s peak, i.e. the moment when the Moon is fully over the Sun, will take place at 10:47 am and will last for less than four minutes.
The December 26 solar eclipse — the third solar eclipse to take place this year — will be livestreamed on YouTube by several channels. Among them is one run by Slooh.com, an online network that provides a livestream of visuals captured by telescopes around the world.
The December 26 solar eclipse is what is known as an ‘annular solar eclipse’. Basically, during the solar eclipse the Moon won’t be able to completely cover the Sun and so, the Sun will appear as a ‘Ring of Fire’ — a disc with its edges illuminated.
The next solar eclipse will take place in June next year. That one — also an annular solar eclipse — will be followed by a total solar eclipse (where the Moon completely covers the Sun) in December.
