The summer solstice in the present year, which is to occur this weekend, is expected to bring a visual delight for the celestial lovers of Kolkata.

If the clouds permit, the city will be able to get a sight of a partial solar eclipse lasting for more than two hours on 21 June.

While Kolkata and other major cities of India will witness partial solar eclipse, the North- western part of the country will catch glimpses of ‘annular solar eclipse’. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon and the Earth come in a straight line and almost on the same plane while the moon is farther away from the Earth in its elliptical orbit and unable to cover the disc of the sun completely.

This results in a narrow band of light around the dark silhouette of the moon causing the ring of fire to be visible.

According to the director of M. P. Birla Planetarium (research and academic), Debiprosad Duari, this Sunday, the annular eclipse will start from Congo in Africa slowly progressing through the countries of South Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Indian Ocean and Pakistan before entering India over the state of Rajasthan.

In India, the path of annular solar eclipse will enter near Gharsana at the India Pakistan border region, at around 10:12 a.m. and the phase of annularity will begin at around 11:49 am and end at 11:50 am, lasting for a few seconds.

Thereafter, the partial eclipse will end at around 1:36 p.m. The maximum duration of the annularity will be a little east of Joshimath in Uttarakhand, where the partial eclipse will start at around 10:27 am.

“The annularity there will begin at 12:09:46 pm and end at 12:10:25 pm, lasting for about 39 seconds. The eclipse will then end completely at around 12:54 pm,” informed Duari.

“This time of the ring of fire will not be as prominent as it occurred on 26 December, 2019 but will be a little narrower,” he said.

The ‘City of Joy’ will witness a partial eclipse which will begin at 10:46 am, reach its greatest phase at 12:35 pm, with 65.5 percent obscuration. The partial eclipse in Kolkata will end at 2:17 pm.