Southeast Asia to see total solar eclipse on March 8

Washington, Feb 15: Ever witnessed a total solar eclipse? Here’s a chance for all those space lovers. Come March 8, 2016, the moon will cast its shadow as it is all set to pass in front of the sun. Parts of Southeast Asia will witness a total solar eclipse lasting for over a minute in every location on its path, revealed astronomers from SA. Eclipses can be viewed using a solar-filtered telescope, eclipse glasses or a pinhole projector. As the moon passes precisely between the sun and Earth - a relatively rare occurrence that happens only about once a year because of the fact that the moon and the sun do not orbit in the exact same plane - it will block the sun’s bright face, revealing the tenuous and comparatively faint solar atmosphere, the coro, they explained. “The moon blocks the light of the sun’s surface very, very precisely you can see all the way down to the roots of the coro, where the atmosphere meets the sun’s surface,” said Sarah Jaeggli, a space scientist at SA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, US. People along the path of totality - which is over 8,800 miles long, but only 97 miles wide at the widest point - will have the opportunity to see the solar coro only while the sun’s face is totally covered by the moon, while people outside this path will see varying degrees of a partial eclipse. (IANS)