SOLAR AND LUNAR ECLIPSES.
Vaishnava perspective
of the significance of a Graha grasthah - eclipses.
last updated 29th July 2008
http://spaceweather.com
This information is coming
via Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (nice graphics)
http://www.rasnz.org.nz/Events2008.htm
2008 August 1st - total solar eclipse (see map)
This eclipse of the Sun is a northern hemisphere event. The total eclipse starts at sunrise in the extreme north of Canada. At first it moves to the east into the Arctic, skirting northern Greenland and passing north Scandinavia. As it moves north of Russia the path turns to the south east passing through Siberia to skirt western Mongolia and on into China where it ends at sunset north of Wuhan.
On Friday, 1st August 2008, a total solar eclipse of the Sun is visible from a narrow corridor that traverses half the Earth. The path of the Moon’s umbral shadow begins in Canada and extends across northern Greenland, the Arctic, central Russia, Mongolia, and finally China where it will end at sunset. The path of totality begins in northern Canada and ends in northern China. The instant of greatest eclipse occurs at 10:21:07 UT (latitude 65° 39'N, longitude 72° 18'E) when the axis of the Moon’s shadow passes closest to the centre of Earth. Totality reaches its maximum duration of 2min 27s. The above information was obtained from http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2008.html
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/solar.html
The greatest eclipse is in northwest Siberia at Nadym where totality last for 2 minutes and 27 seconds.
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2008/TSE2008.html
http://www.worldtimezone.com/time-solar-eclipse24.php
A partial eclipse is visible from all the Arctic as well as northeast Canada at sunrise. Across the Atlantic it is visible from most of Europe except Spain, southern Italy and Greece. Further east it is visible from virtually all of mainland Asia, except western part of Saudi Arabia. Near the eastern seaboard of Asia the partial eclipse occurs at sunset.
The time of the eclipse corresponds to the early morning of the 2nd August NZ time (bearing in mind we are 16 hours ahead of Canada, and 4 hours ahead of China where it ends - see the above map). Please remember that although the total solar eclipse cannot be seen in this period in many places it is still observed.
The world meeting planner is a useful tool in this regard http://www.worldtimezone.com/time/wtzplanner.php?m=8&y=2008#
2008 August 16th - partial Lunar eclipse (see map)
This partial eclipse of the Moon is visible from much of Asia, Africa and Europe. The start of the umbral phase is also visible from all of Australia and Indonesia, but the entire umbral phase is only visible from the extreme west of Australia and western Indonesia.
Partly visible from the extreme south of New Zealand and from Australia.
From New Zealand at least some of the first penumbral stage is visible. However there will be little change to the Moon during this stage The start of the umbral stage is also visible from the southern third of the South Island with the Moon low and close to setting.
The Moon will be in partial eclipse for just over 3 hours with nearly 81% of the Moon in total shadow at maximum.
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2008Aug16P.GIF
(See also NASA's
solar eclipse pages and NASA's
Lunar eclipse pages)
Map of Solar Eclipses until 2020:
NASA's Solar Eclipse list 2001 - 2010 - Very useful maps and graphix
Solar Eclipse computer - http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/SolarEclipse.html
(Longitude and Latitude and Time zone found on top of Vcal calender)
computes circumstances for selected solar eclipses at any given location
(http://aa.usno.navy.mil/)
Lunar Eclipse computer - http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/LunarEclipse.html
(Longitude and Latitude and Time zone found on top of Vcal calender)
computes circumstances for selected solar eclipses at any given location
(http://aa.usno.navy.mil/)
Scroll down to the red Form B - Locations Worldwide Just type in your town or city and click on Place Name. Then click on Get Data, very simple.
With all Solar & Lunar Eclipses (do not cook, eat, etc. Only Chant Hare Krishna) see eclipses-page
For more details on Graha-grashtha - Solar and Lunar Eclipses please view our page
Here's a new page of quoting what
to do during Solar and Lunar Eclipses
Just a heads up to alert you that next Gaura purnima there will be a total eclipse of the Moon visible in India and hence Mayapura. The eclipse starts after midnight in Mayapura on Gaura Purnima (see details below) so technically by the yavana calendar it will be on March 4, 2007 but since the day starts at sunrise by Krsna's Vedic system it will still be Gaura Purnima day.
For more information go to:
Click on it to enlarge the image.
You will see two diagrams:
1 of the Moon moving through the shadow with annotations such P1, U1, U2 etc
2 of the map of the earth showing where the eclipse will be visible.
On the right hand side between these two diagrams you will see a table of times called "Eclipse contacts" which give you the time in UT - Universal Time--which for all intents and purposes is the same as GMT for non-astronomers like us. To convert it to IST we need just add 5:30.
The important ones are U1-U4 that is when the Moon enters the actual shadow (Rahu) aka the umbra, hence U1 is when it enters and U4 is when it leaves. U2-U3 are the times of maximum eclipse and it will be a total eclipse in which the Moon will look dark red assuming of course that the sky will be clear so as to be visible, which it should be at that time of year.
Note that the eclipse starts (U1) at 3:00 AM IST and ends (U4) at 6:42 IST the ending time will not be visible because the Sun will have risen (6:01AM) in Mayapur by then.
But note that the times of maximum and thus total eclipse U2-U3 will be from 4:14AM-5:28AM and that the sun will not rise until 6:01 AM. That means that basically from 3:00AM till sunrise Mayapura will be subjected to the eclipse with the maximum phase during mangala arotika.
The time for the beginning of the penumberal phase P1 is not relevant to us because for all practical purposes we can not notice any thing and it is of academic interest to astronomers with sensitive light sensing meters. For more explanation of this see:
http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse/why_lunar.html
and read the section explaining it where it says: "From Earth, when the Moon passes through the penumbra we see it dimming due to the reduced light, although in practice this can be hard to see with the eye."
We had experience of such a penumberal eclipse earlier this year and saw absolutely no effect on the Moon. It was a complete dud. So I would just ignore the time between P1 and U1.
But from 3:00 am till sunrise Mayapura Dham will experience the eclipse so what ever measures that are to be taken during such events should be organized. In many temples in S India they close down completely for example even though the September 7, 2006 eclipse is only a very partial eclipse (less than 20%) the Balaji temple is closing. I do not know what standards the Gaudiya Vaisnavas follow for such events but I suppose that this is the time to find out.
Your humble servant
Shyamasundara Dasa
Space Weather News for March 1, 2007
http://spaceweather.com
TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE: Set aside some time this weekend for sky watching. On Saturday night, March 3rd, there's going to be a total eclipse of the Moon. This means the Moon will glide through the heart of Earth's shadow and turn a beautiful shade of sunset red. Totality can be seen from parts of all seven continents including all of Europe and Africa and the eastern half of North America.
Visit http://spaceweather.com for observing tips, maps and links to live webcasts.
Lunar Eclipse Gallery (photos from a similar eclipse in 2004): http://spaceweather.com/eclipses/gallery_27oct04_page2.html
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