TSE 2009 Report and the future.

I (and others) have only had one serious tryst with a TSE so far and it proved with no uncertainty that we've accumulated a lot of bad karma from our previous births, atleast as far as Eclipses are concerned.

I did learn a lesson for a change, that sometimes you should bank on your first intuition regardless of how irrational it might sound. My first intuition *was* to go to Varanasi - which indeed did witness a fantastic totality while Patna (which was to be at a cloud-minimum), Taregna (of the Aryabhata fame. Gathered 50,000 people to witness the Eclipse, including the Bihar CM. Was widely believed to be the best venue for the TSE), et al saw darkness and nothing else.

Our own Dibrugarh experience was pretty disastrous.

Traveling 3,500 KM through trains, sweat and dirty toilets only to see darkness descending on the Brahmaputra as we stared on with our photography setups was but depressing. Infact, it was so depressing that I gave up on my Arunachal Pradesh / Tawang Circuit plans and went to Delhi instead. In contrast, the good folks from ABAA did get to muffled totality from Puri while folks from AAAD got arguably the best amateur shots of the TSE from the subcontinent. Varanasi proved to be lucky not just for AAAD but also for Amar, Aparna, Pallavi and Vivek - all from BAS as they got to witness some fantastic moments of totality. Here are some of their Pics and a Video and another video. Raghu Kalra at Sasaram in Bihar witnessed yet another miracle, with a short window at totality. Other places that saw totality included Guwahati (450KM from Dibrugarh. And not quite totality. 99% since Guwahati was just south of southern limit) and Jalpaiguri (right on the central line!)

Thanks to our (mis)calculated bargain on going all bullish about Dibrugarh, we were probably amongst the most disappointed people after the eclipse. But all said and done, witnessing the darkness we experienced at Dibrugarh wasn't all that bad in retrospect. It's only intensified my thirst for TSEs to crazier magnitudes.

To deviate off-topic slightly, We found the media everywhere abuzz about the TSE. As expected, most of it was noise, Astrology, hype, FUD and nonsense.

Back on the topic, the question now is about upcoming eclipses. I'll list some information I've compiled here.

1. 2010 Jan 15th: Afternoon,92% Annular - Passes through KanyakumAri, Madurai and Rameshwaram. This is a sure-shot eclipse (although you never know). But there won't be any darkening or anything dramatic as such. Personally, I intend to be at Rameshwaram
2. 2010 July 11th: TSE in the Pacific, passing through Tahiti (of the Mutiny on Board HMS Bounty fame). I'm not sure whether they have grass-skirt clad hula-dancing girls there anymore, but if you've the money to burn - you can consider this option.
3. 2012, 13th Nov: TSE over the North Australian coast. Passes through Cairns. I'm likely to do this
4. 2015, Mar 20th: Passes through the middle of nowhere.
5. 2016, Mar 9th: Indonesia, Sumatra
6. 2017, Aug 21st: Passes through USA
7. 2019, July 2nd: South America. One of the many through the Argentina-Chile belt
8. 2020, Dec 14th: One more, through Argentina / South America

So long as you're prepared to travel for it, you'll always have a TSE for you. So long as you're not really unlucky, the law of averages will take over and you will get to see one. Personally, atleast 3 of the above listed are on my hitlist.

The Indian subcontinent is particularly unlucky this century (but for the Eclipse that just passed), atleast in comparison with the number of TSEs passing through Australia and South America. But South India is blessed with a huge load of Annulars, with the one on 2010 Jan 15th being the first of many. The Madurai region especially is very lucky and will play host to 3 Annulars in the next 30 years

1. 2010 Jan 15th
2. 2019 Dec 26th - Kasargod, Madurai, Rameshwaram et al
3. 2031 May 21st - Madurai - Jaffna et al, again.Another Mid afternoon Annular!
4. 2074 Jan 27th

Talking TSEs in India, the only one we'll get to witness this century is an evening 5PM TSE spanning roughly 2 minutes passing through Srinagar and Leh on 20th Mar 2034. This is another candidate for a must-see.

For the sake of Trivia, here's more assorted eclipse info. Mostly specific to Bangalore.

1. Bangalore will see 92% annularity spanning 2 mins and 40 secs on the morning of June 22nd 2085. I'll be 97 years old then.
2. Bangalore will witness 1 min 50 secs of totality at 1:30PM, mid afternoon on the 5th of July 2168! First totality in Bangalore in 670 Years! I'll be 180 Years old then.
3. Bangalore will see a stunning 11AM late morning Total Solar Eclipse spanning 5 minutes on the 7th of May, 2255. I'll be 268 Years old then.
4. Bangalore will witness a 3 minute evening total solar on the 22nd of July 2381. Exactly 372 Years after TSE 2009. The Bangalore Astronomical Society will also be celebrating it's 375th Birthday then. I'll be grand-old 393 Years by then.
5. The 15th Century was really lucky for Bangalore as far as Eclipses are concerned. 3 TSEs!
6. The last Total Solar Eclipse in Bangalore was a 51 second morning Total Solar on the 13th of Dec 1498. Rule of KempananjEgowDa, feudatory of the Vijayanagara sAmrAjya. Father of Hiriya Kempe Gowda of Yelahanka, founder of B'lore.
7. 1467, Mar 6th - 2, 33secs of totality in the morning
8. 1434, June 7th - 4, 02 secs of totality at mid-afternoon
9. 1296, Oct 28th - 1, 54 secs of totality at morning