THE eclipse of a lifetime takes place in July, and people here will get to see a small slice of the action.
During the July 22 solar eclipse, the Sun will be completely blacked out, and day will turn to night for six minutes - the longest eclipse this century.
Complete darkness will affect a swathe of land that will stretch across parts of India, Bangladesh, China and the Pacific Ocean, but which will be just 16km- to 32km-wide.
In Singapore, which is outside the band, the Sun will be partially cloaked.
A solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes in front of the Sun and blocks it.
While there are up to five eclipses a year, total eclipses are rare, happening in the same location once every 370 years and lasting mere seconds to minutes. The last one - which lasted about 21/2 minutes - was on Aug 1 last year.
The July eclipse will be partially visible in Singapore from 8.41am to 9.44am, peaking at 9.11am.
Seen from here, 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the Sun will be obscured because of the Moon's path in relation to Singapore's location.
To catch the sight in its full glory, a small band of eclipse-chasers from the Astronomical Society of Singapore will be travelling to the Chinese city of Wuhan, about 600km west of Shanghai, to view and photograph the spectacle.
Remember to wake up earlier on this day if you want to see the eclipse !
source : http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_349118.html
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