In a spectacular view, the Sun will rise, by the will of Allah, in an annular eclipse, this Friday, January 15th, 2010 in Khartoum, Tripoli and Tunis.
Somali will be the only Arab country lucky enough to see this beautiful site. The rest of the Arab countries will only see a partial eclipse.
The region that will witness the annular eclipse is confined in a small region 300 Km long, stretching from Central Africa, crossing the Indian Ocean, and ends in Asia. This includes Chad, the Republic of Central Africa, the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, the Maldives Islands, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, and China. The annular eclipse will take 3 hours and 45 minutes to travel through all these countries, covering a distance of approximately 12,900 Km which is about 0.87% of Earth’s surface.
The height of the annular eclipse will be approximately in the middle of the Indian Ocean and will happen at 7:06:33 GMT (Greenwich Meridian Time), and will last for 11 minutes and 8 seconds. This means the moon will appear centered in the Sun for all that time, which makes it the longest annular eclipse ever; even longer than the one that will happen in December 23rd, 3043, more than a thousand years from now.
As for the partial eclipse, it will be seen in a wider region which covers, East Europe, the majority of Africa and Asia. As for the Arab countries, the eclipse will start shortly after sun rise in some. In others, the Sun will rise while eclipsed, yet others will miss this beautiful site. Such countries are: the Kingdom of Morocco, Mauritania and part of Algeria.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth. If we consider the Sun and the Moon as two disks in the distance, when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, the disk of the moon veils part of Sun from us and a “black spot” in front of the Sun appears to us. The annular eclipse happens when the entire disk of the Moon is centered in the disk of the Sun. A bright ring will appear surrounding the Moon. The annular eclipse will end as soon as the disk of the Moon moves away from the center of the disk of the Sun. The time the Moon is centered in the Sun is the time of the annular eclipse. This time differs from location to location.
The Sun appears to us as big as the Moon despite that the Sun’s diameter is 400 times the Moon diameter, because of the closeness of the Moon to Earth (the distance from Earth to the Sun is approximately 400 times the distance between the Moon and Earth). If the Moon is 225 Km closer to Earth, we will never see a total eclipse. If its distance is half what it is now, we would see eclipses monthly.
To be able to see eclipses, two conditions have to be fulfilled: first the Sun must be above the horizon, and second our location must be appropriate to be able to see it. It is possible for the moon to be eclipsed in one location, while at the same time in another location the Sun will not be eclipsed. Hence, the start and end of the eclipse and the percentage of the Sun that is eclipsed differs from location to location.
There are four types of eclipses:
1: Total eclipse: The Moon veils the Sun totally. This is about 28% of all the eclipses. Some locations will see total eclipse, some will see partial eclipse, yet others will not see an eclipse at all.
2: Partial eclipse: The moon veils part of the Sun only. This is about 35% of all the eclipses. Here, some location will see partial eclipse, and others will not see any eclipse.
3: Annular eclipse: occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon. This is about 32% of all eclipses. Again, some locations will see annular eclipse, some will see a partial eclipse and a third will not see any eclipse.
4: Total-Annular eclipse: Transitions between a total and annular eclipse. At some points on the surface of the Earth it is visible as a total eclipse, whereas at others it is annular. And at others no eclipse will be seen. Hybrid eclipses are comparatively rare, only about 5% of the eclipses fall into this type of eclipses.
To observe the eclipse, it is highly advisable not to look at it directly with naked eye. This may cause temporary and even permanent blindness. This warning stands even at other times as there are no special rays emitted by the Sun during the eclipse, except that during the eclipse people are drawn to look at the Sun, and during normal times, the Sun is so bright that people intuitively will avoid. The only time that it may be safe to look for few seconds is during the total eclipse. In 99% of the times, it is not safe to look at the annular or partial eclipse. During the eclipse of 7/3/1970, doctors in America reported 145 cases of people loosing their sight as a result of looking at a partial eclipse with naked eye or with some type of protection like sunglasses, or other supposedly protective glass or through Film.
It should be noted that one may feel that the sun is not harmful and one can look at the sun rays. This is a very deceiving feeling. The retina of the eye can be permanently damaged if one looks directly at the Sun, even for just a few seconds. This damage can result in permanent impairment of vision, up to and including blindness.
The membrane of the eye works as a glass magnifier. When you look at the sun, the rays will focus on the retina, and thus may burn it. This is very similar to what is happening when one uses a magnifier to focus the Sun’s ray on a paper to burn it. However, the only difference is that the eye is being burned now! The greatest danger is that there are no precursors to pain, so the observer will realize the burning of the eye hours later. This is so because the retina has no sensitivity to pain, so there is no warning that injury is occurring.
Again we remind everyone that it is not safe to use the materials people use and that are commonly believed to be safe. The belief that the Sun rays are not harmful when using these used filters is very wrong. You still have infrared and ultraviolet rays that still go through to your eyes which are very harmful. The best protection is using materials that contain Aluminum, Chrome or silver that would block the infrared and ultraviolet rays.
The unsafe commonly used materials are: X-ray material; White, black or colored film that don’t contain silver; smoked and sunglasses; computer and laser disks.
Some of the safe ways to observe the eclipse are: Special sunglasses for viewing eclipses, glasses number 12 or 14 used by welders. Other ways are indirect projection. This is possible by projecting the image using a long tube (for example 8 cm diameter and 1.5 m long. The longer it is the safer it would be). Cover one end with aluminum paper and out a small whole in it. Direct this end towards the Sun, and the other end towards a piece of white paper or white board. This will give you the projection of the Sun on the board. (This method is sometimes called the pinhole camera). But do not look directly at the Sun. Other safe ways is to use video or digital camera, although this may actually damage the camera itself.
Mohammad Odeh
Chairman of ICOP.
Translated by Omar Bouderdaben
