On Wednesday, July 22, a total solar eclipse will take place and it will be visible to through northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern tip of Myanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean, including the Ryukyu Islands, Marshall Islands and Kiribati. This will be the longest total solar eclipse in the 21st century. But the total solar eclipse will only be seen in the following places: Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Dinajpur, Chengdu, Nanchong, Chongqing, Yichang, Jingzhou, Wuhan, Huanggang, Hefei, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Huzhou, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo and Shanghai, as well as over the Three Gorges Dam. Most of South East Asia will experience partial eclipse. The
Solar Eclipse 2009 has gave tourism in the areas where it will be visible a big spark.
I haven't seen or experienced a total solar eclipse but my husband told me that he had his first total solar eclipse on March 18, 1988. The place where he grew up, General Santos City, Philippines, happened to be where the center of the total solar fell in 1988. He was 16 years old when it happened. The duration of that total solar eclipse was 3 minutes and 46 seconds of total darkness. It happened in 9 A.M. of March 18, 1988. It was weird according to him but he felt so lucky to have seen it in his life time. It will happen again at the same place and at the same time (and same length) on March 18, 2053. Here is a link to a
complete account of that solar eclipse, complete with many pictures.
