Exactly 1 year ago (22nd July 2009) was in Sasaram for last watchable total solar eclipse of this century from India. That was followed by trip to Varkala , for 15 Jan 2010 Annular eclipse, all this was preceded by Solar eclipse workshop in Delhi in Jan 2009, where the excitement started. Hopefully should be able to witness totality few more times in my lifetime.
Seems tweeting has taken toll of blogging!
It will be a different morning on 22nd July in India, as we would wake up to an eclipsed sun, with much of central india experiencing a short night. Yes!! A total solar eclipse & only first of the two in this century to be seen in India. Next one being in 2034 which is to be seen from Ladakh.
Check Eclipse details for TSE July 22nd 2009.
Also check the interactive google map for shadow path. Click on any location to see the eclipse details for that location. Blue line is the central line of totality path, places on are the best to view totality.
Main cities in totality path starting from Surat, Indore, Itarsi, Bhopal, Jabalpur, Katni, Varanasi, Sasaram, Patna, Saharsa, Darjeeling, Tawang, Dibrugarh and then passing over into China.
My plan is to see it from either Bhimbetika near Bhopal , or from Sasaram in Bihar, which ever place is to have better weather conditions (aka clear skies!).
Bhopal trip
* 18th Pune-Bhopal (Jhelum exp)
* 19th in Bhopal , catchup with local crowd
* 20th some sight seeing (bhojpur/sanchi)
* 21st recce trip to bhimbetika
* 22nd morning – observe eclipse, and leave for Pune in evening.
Bihar trip
* 18th Leave for Varanasi from Mumbai/Pune
* 20th morning reach Varanasi, Kashi Vishwanath darshan, same afternoon/evening reach Sasaram
* 21st Join AAAD group, and preparations
* 22nd morning – observe eclipse.
* 22nd afternoon – leave for Puri
* 23rd arrive in Puri, Lord Jagannath darshan
* 24th in Bhubaneswar
* 25th Take Konark exp to Pune.
Check map here to see where most Astronuts are going for eclipse.
If you have enough money to blow then maybe take the eclipse flight
Another one not to miss is Annular Solar eclipse on Jan 15th 2010 visible over Tamilnadu (Madurai, Kanyakumari, Rameshwaram).
night skies are getting better again after 3 months of clouds.. and we have an unexpected guest.. in comet holmes (to be correct comet 17p/holmes ), it suddenly turned bright enough to be visible by naked eye..from a very faint magnitude of 17.. at the moment it is located in constellation perseus (see path map ) or read more here.
A good time to see if would be after 8pm, looking towards north eastern side & slowly moving up, till an angle of 30-40 degrees. or towards midnight look up straight over head & then turn little north (abt looking at abt 70-80 deg).. refer to star chart ( or try in kstars – close to star named Mirfak going towards pole star ).
If you are in a place with least light pollution, then can easily make it out amont the fine stars, as it appears as a tiny hazy globe (with bright center when seen through binoculars).
gee.. time to clean up my 4″ reflector 
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Venus occultation
Originally uploaded by karunakarg.
18th evening saw, moon & venus cozying up… one of the rare events of moon eclipsing a planet… here moon approaching venus few mins before hiding it (called occultation).
this photograph through a telescope (4″ 1000mm, 25mm eyepiece), shot at 0.1″ , f/4.0 by canon A630 using afocal method
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jupiter2
Originally uploaded by karunakarg.
Jupiter through 4″ reflector, 25mm eyepiece, 1/5s shutter.
jupiter
Originally uploaded by karunakarg.
Jupiter shot through 4″ telescope, shot at 1/10s with canon a630, through 25mm eyepiece.
jupiter
Originally uploaded by karunakarg.
Jupiter with three of its moons
Finally a good shot of the moon, taken through my 4″ reflector using 25mm plossl eyepiece, using a camera adaptor from tejraj.com
Some pics of total lunar eclipse on 4th March as view from lawns behind teen murti bhawan.
It got rather cold, with heavy dew.. which dampned telescopic views…
Images below when approaching totality.. first one a direct shot at 4x zoom, second one through nikon superview binoculars.
Coming out of totality…. getting back to normal..
In little over an hour, begins total lunar eclipse… so a live blogging of the event…
