Watching a celestial Ring of Fire!

Annular Solar Eclipse of 26Dec19

 

“…electrifying, sublime, awesome and humbling all at the same time.”

-         Fred Espenak

 

 

Capturing the annular solar eclipse of 26Dec19 at its maximum

 

This is the story of a group of astronomy enthusiasts who called themselves ‘eclipse chasers’ and made a long trip from Mysore to Kasargod, a coastal town in Kerala, to watch, enjoy and celebrate a rare and magnificent celestial event, the annular solar eclipse of 26 Dec 2019, a story hitherto waiting to be told.

 

Prelude

There is something fascinating about watching natural events on a grand scale, more so if the events unfold in the sky, none more so than the sight of the giant Sun being eclipsed by the puny Moon (though they don’t appear giant-like or puny) for disbelieving spectators on Earth to behold. I had viewed two total and one annular eclipse (see here) prior to my tryst with a second annular one on 26Dec19 observable in South India, as before.  It was in my ‘gunsight’ as far back as 2010 when I was fortunate enough to see the longest annular eclipse of the millennium, with the annularity lasting over 11 minutes at its maximum, at Dhanushkodi near Rameshwaram in Tamilnadu, on 15 Jan 2010 (see map below showing the observing location close to the central path of annularity and the eclipse characteristics). 

Solar Eclipses

First, let me review what solar eclipses are. The following text is adapted from one of my earliest blog articles on eclipses (see here).

Eclipses of the Sun and the Moon as viewed from any place on Earth are possible only because of a fortuitous and accidental circumstance associated with the Sun and the Moon. While the Sun is about four hundred times bigger than the Moon, it is also nearly as many times farther away from the Earth as is the Moon. Therefore, they appear to be of nearly the same apparent size (about 0.5 degree in angular diameter) as seen from the Earth. On the occasions when these three bodies are nearly in a line, solar or lunar eclipses, which may be partial or total, are possible. A partial solar eclipse results when the lunar disk hides only a portion of the solar disk on a new moon day. A total solar eclipse happens when the lunar disk is slightly larger than the solar disk and blots it out of sight from the earth for a few minutes at the viewing site, revealing the spectacular sight of the solar corona, which can be viewed with the naked eye. An Annular Eclipse results if the lunar disk is slightly smaller than the solar disk and a thin peripheral ring of the Sun can still be seen at maximum eclipse. 

Total and annular solar eclipses are extremely rare events at any specific place on earth and last only a few minutes at most.  For the duration of a total solar eclipse, day turns nearly into night and produces some breathtakingly beautiful effects. In contrast, a part of the sunlight gets through at all times of an annular eclipse, even at the peak of annularity, and to that extent it is still daylight. However, the brightness of the sunlight getting through depends on the fraction of the sun’s disc obscured, and it will be a minimum during the peak of the annularity phase. In any case, it would be dangerous to look at an annular solar eclipse with the naked eye, as also a total one, except during the very brief period of totality when the Sun is completely obscured.

With reference to the diagram below, total and annular eclipses are possible at locations in the umbral and antumbral shadow regions, and partial ones outside of them, in the penumbral shadow regions.  

[From nineplanets.org]

The following diagram gives an alternative visualisation of the process: 

Eclipse of 26Dec19

The path of annularity of the eclipse of 26Dec19 passed through much of southern India, through the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamilnadu, as can be seen from the following map: 

The entire path of the eclipse is shown in the map below: 

While looking for an observation location as close as possible to the central line of annularity, and with minimum likelihood of cloud coverage in the morning, for a few hours after sunrise, and not too far from Mysore, I shortlisted two places – Kannur and Coimbatore. Preferring Coimbatore, I had made arrangements with the principal of a Higher Secondary School there to view the eclipse at the school campus.

Viewing Devices

• I had plans to view the passage of the eclipse in three different ways:Using commercially available solar viewing googles like the one shown below: 

• Using a Nikon Coolpix P900 ultrazoom camera with a solar filter (see picture below) for both viewing and photography. 

• An improvised devise for mounting a small 70 mm spotting telescope at one end, and a large white board as screen to capture a back-projected image of the Sun through the telescope at the other end, as in the following diagram: 

[My daughter Sheila had a major role in improvising and testing an easy-to-use device based on this simple and elegant principle using available resources at my home. It can be seen in the picture displayed at the beginning of the article, with Mr M Krishnamurthy making a fine adjustment to obtain a perfectly annular image of the Sun at the peak of the eclipse.]

I have used a spotting telescope whose objective is covered with a solar filter foil, as shown in the picture below, for safe direct viewing of the Sun at any time: 

I used the arrangement shown in the following picture for viewing, as well as for  capturing eclipse images on a smartphone (held in my arm), with a Nikon Coolpix P900 ultrazoom camera: 

The Team

As my plans for the eclipse visit unfolded, many of my friends, associates and family members started expressing their desire to join me in the trip, the first such experience for almost all of them.  They included my long-time associates Krishnamurthy, Mrs Meenakshi Krishnamurthy, Ilavenil and Mahesh, along with my wife Saroja, daughters Sheila Ramesh and Asha Suresh, and granddaughter Prerana, the last three from Bangalore. When the venue was shifted to Kasargod, this group swelled by the addition of Madhu, a pre-university college physics teacher, and her engineer husband Prakash, who found it convenient to drive down from their home in nearby Mangalore. Below is a picture showing the entire team in a group photo taken after the eclipse. 

The eclipse chasing team

Standing l to r: Sheila, Krishnamurthy, Meenakshi, Ilavenil, Madhu, Saroja,

Prakash, Mahesh, Prerana and Asha. Sitting: Self, fiddling with a telescope

The Journey

As the eclipse day approached, we were anxiously watching the weather predictions for Coimbatore, our first choice as the venue. As they grew distinctly unfavourable, I started looking for alternative sites, and there were very few within the country. I decided that the best site was (an unlikely first option) the seaside town of Kasargod, and within it, the Bekal beach! My incredulous team mates went along with my hunch, and we put in motion a hastily revised travel plan.

Krishnamurthy offered to drive all four of the Mysore-starters to the venue and back. The rest were to engage a taxi, and the two vehicles to travel together laden with all our equipment and materials for observing the event. Sadly, Chiranjeevi, our organizer-extraordinary was unable to join. His role was well filled by Mahesh, who played a vital part in organizing the trip and handling the post-event media relations.

We travelled from Mysore to Kasargod via Madikeri, eating lunch at a roadside hotel on the way. We reached Kasargod on Christmas evening after a long journey, just in time to watch the setting Sun, literally on its last few seconds for the day, and later settled into a pretty good hotel in the town after an early dinner.

The Venue

Below is a map showing the location of Kasargod in relation to the belt of annularity, and the eclipse parameters as predicted for it. The eclipse as a whole was to last from 8:04 AM to 11:04 AM. The really interesting phase where the ‘ring of fire’ would be visible was to last a little over three minutes, from approximately 9:24 AM to 9:27 AM.  The instant of perfect annularity of the ring was at 9:25:34 AM.  We were far too much interested in the event of the morning, and for many the event of their lives, to pay any attention to these time markers and for the passage of time itself. 

An important parameter associated with eclipses is its magnitude, which is the fraction of the angular diameter of the celestial body being eclipsed, in this case the Sun.  For the annular eclipses of 15Jan10 (India), 26Dec19 (India) and 14Oct23 (USA), the magnitudes are 0.919, 0.970, and 0.952 respectively.  Clearly, last year’s annular eclipse in USA was no more spectacular than the one we saw in India in 2019. On the other hand, the annular eclipse of 21Jun20, visible in parts of northern India, had a magnitude of 0.994. A small group of us were to have witnessed it in Suratgarh, Rajasthan, but unlucky to miss out a great opportunity because of travel restrictions due to the Covid pandemic. From descriptions of those who did view it, I understand it was pretty much like a total eclipse lasting just a few seconds.

Below is an animated gif file that simulates the passage of the lunar shadow, both umbral and penumbral, sweeping across the Earth from start to finish. Observe how the dense small umbral shadow corresponding to the path of annularity starts from Arabia and sweeps over the southern part of India, and later over southeast Asia.

Early morning on 26 December, we headed straight for the observing location I had selected with the Google map. It was a secluded corner of a poorly maintained public park close to Bekal beach near Bekal Fort, uninhabited at that time, not just because of the widely perceived ill(usory) effects of the eclipse.   The exact location of our observation site is shown in the map below: 

We reached the place without eating breakfast (but carrying pre-packed breakfast food of our respective choice) around 8 AM, and the early morning clouds hiding the Sun were not very encouraging. We unpacked and set up our observing devices and support facilities quickly and started looking anxiously at the sky.  It took an irritatingly long time for the clouds to lift and expose a hazy Sun, with the shadow of the Moon ‘eating’ it away slowly. The early phase of the eclipse had truly begun.  Thereafter, to our delight, there were no clouds to interfere with our view, and I felt vindicated, and indeed relieved, in my last-minute choice of the site.  In fact, we were extraordinarily lucky since it was a no-show in most other parts of the country. At best, only a partial eclipse was visible for short periods. The viewers missed the crucial 3 minutes of the annular phase, the only time a ring could be seen. In my own home city of Mysore, as also in Coimbatore, it was nearly a total washout.

The Event

Even while watching the progress of the eclipse visually and through the back projected image on a large screen for everyone to see, I was tracking it in my Nikon ultrazoom camera, capturing the pictures live on my smartphone with a Bluetooth link. Here is a selected sequence of unedited pictures from my collection, as put together later by Mahesh and printed by the Star of Mysore the same evening. The fourth picture very nearly relates to the moment of perfect annularity. The smearing seen in the pictures is an artifact of the imaging process and could have been avoided: 

Here is a set of three images, before, during and after annularity, with the smearing effect absent: 

Here is a rapid-fire simulation of the annular eclipse: 

Here is a somewhat fuzzy view captured shortly after the onset of the eclipse:

Below is the picture of a delighted duo of Krishnamurthy and Mahesh, the former constantly keeping the projected image on the screen through periodic manual adjustments.

Here is a picture taken just before onset of annularity: 

All of us combined eclipse watching with open air breakfast as in the picture below.  We were deliberately challenging the age-old superstition that held this as taboo:

As the annularity phase approached there was a noticeable drop in brightness of the sunlight and a slight cooling of the atmosphere, but there was no darkness (during the annularity phase) as in a total eclipse, something made spectacular by the naked eye visibility of the solar corona and the diamond ring effect. To this extent, what we were observing was only the second best by way of solar eclipses. Nevertheless, it was a memorable experience, especially for the first timers. Particularly attractive was the appearance of two circles with a common tangent, transitioning to two perfectly concentric circles within a span of about 90 seconds.

Here is a picture showing me and my camera set up during the early part of the eclipse, along with Krishnamurthy, Mahesh and others:

Below is a selfie by Mahesh taken sometime during the eclipse. The last vestiges of breakfast can still be seen in the hands of three of us! 

Incidentally, Mahesh was the live wire in the group, being seen everywhere, taking care of everything, a man for all seasons, perhaps the one who enjoyed the experience more than anyone else, if such a thing is possible at all when an event like this unfolds itself.  Despite being busy as a bee, he had time to improvise a pinhole camera from a discarded aluminium foil food container which was lying near the beach, and suspend it just the right way to project a small image of the partially eclipsed Sun and click the picture seen below!

All through the three-minute phase of annularity, there was wild commotion, pandemonium and undisguised delight in our camp, accompanied by loud noise, as can be seen in the following partially edited video clip provided by Mahesh: 

It took sometime after annularity had ended for the group to regain normalcy and reflect on what they had experienced, in more sober ways. 

Return

There was no point in waiting till the end of the eclipse, and we packed up and left the scene much the same way we had found it.  Some of us explored the iconic Bekal Fort, now under a warm Sun. Some had time to frolic on the inviting Bekal beach. Here is how Prerana chose to express her delight at having viewed the ring of fire: 

Here was enjoyment of a more subdued kind, on the inviting beach nearby, the duo sneaking away during the eclipse as I learnt afterwards:

After recovering our poise and packing up, we drove back to Kasargod, and started on our long return journey to Mysore.

Media Coverage

It is perhaps indicative of the changing times that, on our way back to Mysore, a representative of the Star of Mysore (SoM) evening newspaper in Mysore contacted Mahesh for information on our observation of the eclipses and some pictures. Mahesh duly obliged after making up a carefully organized selection of pictures. Well before we reached Mysore we had received an e-version of SoM featuring the story on its front page along with other stories about the eclipse published the same evening.  Here is a reproduction of it:

An inside page of SoM carried the following flattering report about us and our trip on the same day, along with our group picture provided by Mahesh: 

After our return to Mysore, we came to know that at least two Kannada newspapers had also carried our story with my pictures. Here is a reproduction of them: 

Reflections and Reminiscences

My experience of this eclipse was a great deal more enjoyable than the previous one at Dhanushkodi on 15Jan10 for a number of reasons, particularly because this was more of an eclipse party, a collective experience with great camaraderie, where two octogenarians enjoyed the unfolding events with just the same thrill as their teenage granddaughter!  Sadly, we may never get such an opportunity again.

The probability of a total or annular solar eclipse observable from any given location is one in about 375 years!  This means that they are exceptionally rare natural phenomena and one may spend an entire lifetime without observing even one such event.  In India, we have to wait a long time, until 20Mar34, for the next total solar eclipse, and one has to go to Kashmir to view it! However, for me, the next total solar eclipse experience will come much sooner, on 8Apr24 in Waco, Texas, USA.  Clearly, the message here is that you have to go where they occur instead of waiting for them to occur where you are. This is what defines the term ‘eclipse chaser’, though the term in its more restricted usage means one who does so repeatedly, perhaps like me.

In the matter of chasing eclipses, here is a list of solar (total or annular) eclipses since 1980 that I have had a tryst with so far, including those I couldn’t go as planned or had to call off for some reason, as also the ones still in my wish list:

Date	Location	Duration	Type	Remarks
16Feb80	Tungabhadra Dam, Hospet, South India	2 min, 08 sec	Total	Exceptional
22Jul09	Anji, Near Hangzhou, China	5 min, 47 sec	Total	Partly cloudy, good
15Jan10	Dhanushkodi, Tamilnadu, South India	10 min, 14 sec	Annular	Very good
13Nov12*	Cairns, Queensland, Australia	2 min, 00 sec	Total	* Sorry to miss
09Mar16	Palu, Central Sulawesi Province, Indonesia	2 min, 17 sec	Total	Great!
21Aug17	Clarkesville, Tennessee, USA, North America	2 min, 23 sec	Total	Very good
02Jul19*	La Serena, Chile, South America	2 min, 12 sec	Total	* Couldn’t go
26Dec19	Bekal Beach, Kasargod, Kerala, South India	3 min, 15 sec	Annular	Great!
21Jun20*	Suratgarh, Rajasthan, North India	0 min, 23 sec	Annular	*Victim to Covid
14Dec20*	Villarrica, Southern Chile, South America	2 min, 09 sec	Total	Plan scrapped
08Apr24	Waco, Texas, USA, North America	4 min, 20 sec	Total	Ready to go
12Aug26#	Valencia, Spain, Europe	1 min, 00 sec	Total	# Considering
02Aug27#	Luxor, Egypt, North Africa	6 min, 23 sec	Total	# On Top Priority

Ilavenil, one of the prominent members of the original group and generally a silent powerhouse, has given the following (unedited) impressions about the Bekal experience: 

"As the Sun's disk started disappearing behind the Moon, I started watching the observations with interest. Prasad sir had set up his DSLR and Krishnamurthy sir his projection of the Sun - I was trying to learn as much as I could.

The question "Is it going to be that spectacular?"  crossed my mind as the moon started to obscure the Sun's disk.

It felt exactly like a partial eclipse till it crossed 70%. Then, nature started reacting. Things became just a little quieter.

After that - maybe at around 85%, I started feeling goosebumps and chills along my spine. The chill coincided with birds returning back to their nests. I realized that I was experiencing something programmed right into my DNA. My knowledge of the phenomenon did nothing to temper the experience. Later that day, I remembered a line from (Carl Sagan’s science fiction work) Contact - "A million years of brains fighting a billion years of instinct."

The experience only strengthened my resolve to see a total solar eclipse, which I will in April 2024."

Epilogue

My motivation for writing this memoir came from Ilavenil’s recent quotation from the Tamil classic Tirukkural: “When learned people meet, it is with joy. And they part with the yearning - when will we meet again.” Alas, as indicated earlier, this group may never be able to meet again to experience together another solar eclipse, but it can do some similarly enjoyable things – like participating in a star party, like the one some of us did at Gavi Betta* or, far more challengingly, one in a Dark Sky Reserve, like Hanle in Ladakh (see my recent blog article here).

[*For me the all-night sky party at Gavi Betta was also a wakeup call – to come out of my long hibernation and get back to writing…and make up for lost time too!]

Immediately after returning home from this eclipse trip, Mahesh constituted a WhatsApp group including all those who were together at Bekal beach and later bringing in many others with a shared interest in astronomy and other basic sciences.  He has also been reminding us of the anniversary of the event for the past four years (and I hope he continues to do so), the latest one providing the trigger for this article and a more lasting memory of the event.

Mahesh’s group is alive and flourishing today. Initially, I was not in favour of continuing with the name ‘Eclipse Chasers’ for the group, but I have changed my mind now.  One can always chase a dream in the hope of it becoming a reality someday! Why not! It has provided the invisible stepping stone to progress at every stage in human history.