On July 22 - the longest solar eclipse

The eclipse will begin in western India a little before three o'clock on the night of our day, and the shadow of the moon will move quickly over India and China, and about an hour and a half later it will already pass over Shanghai, where the members of the Israel Astronomical Society will be waiting for it, and will continue over the Pacific Ocean until sunset in the eastern ocean

Israel time must be added 3 hours to the time indicated according to Greenwich time and this means that we will have to hold night shifts to cover the event. To China time (for the benefit of our surfers traveling there) eight hours must be added to Greenwich Mean Time, which means that the members of the delegation to Shanghai will be able to watch the eclipse around 09:35.

On Wednesday, July 22, 2009, a particularly long solar eclipse is expected, both in terms of its duration (at a certain point over the Pacific Ocean, viewers will be able to see an eclipse lasting 6 minutes and 39 seconds, almost the maximum possible) and in terms of the length of the path that those staying within it will be able to experience a full solar eclipse - From the west of India through Napal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma and China and vast areas in the Pacific Ocean. The long duration of the eclipse is due to the coincidental fact that about four and a half hours before the start of the eclipse the moon will be in Phrygia - the closest point to the Earth.

After the moon's shadow leaves the mainland it will cross the Ryoku Islands of Japan and head southeast through the Pacific Ocean. A partial eclipse will be seen in other parts of India and China, Indonesia and more. A delegation of the Israeli Astronomical Society is leaving for China today, and towards the end of the journey, they will stay in Shanghai, and watch the eclipse from there.

The eclipse will begin at 00:53 GMT (03:53 Israel time) in the Gulf of Kombai in western India, and will go northeast from there. As usual, eclipses always begin at sunrise and the sun will be at an angle of three degrees above the northeastern horizon above the city of Surat in India (population 4 million). Among other things, the eclipse will pass near Bhopal

that due to its distance of about 40 km from the center of the eclipse line, its inhabitants will experience only 3 minutes and 9 seconds of a total eclipse. Tourists in the Taj Mahal area can expect a 90% eclipse and those who watched such an eclipse (during the total eclipse in Europe in 1999 in Israel saw about 90%) there is no big difference between what they see and a normal day, unless they watch the sun (with protective glasses of course) .

At 00:48 the eclipse will reach eastern India Nepal and Bangladesh, although the capitals of these two countries (Kathmandu and Dhaka) will experience eclipses of 96% and 93% respectively. The reason - as the eclipse progresses towards its peak, the corridor where the full eclipse is visible becomes narrower. In this case it will extend to a width of only 25 kilometers.

The center of the eclipse will reach the Indo-China border at 01:05, when the speed of the shadow in this area is 1.8 kilometers per second, and the length of the eclipse in the center in this area is 4 minutes and 26 seconds. The southern part of the eclipse corridor will cover northern Burma. After that, the entire eclipse will enter Yunnan province in China and the autonomous region of Tibet.

The moon's shadow will pass along the center of Sichuan province, and the play's capital city of Chengdu, with its 2.3 million residents, will watch 3 minutes of eclipse.

Later, an eclipse of almost five and a half minutes will be visible from the city of Wuhan - the capital of Hubei province - the fourth largest city in China with a population of 9.7 million people. In this area the width of the track is 244 kilometers and the speed of the shadow is 1 kilometer per second.

The eclipse will continue and be seen in the following major cities: Hangzhou, and at the end of the trip in China, the eclipse will reach the city of Shanghai, whose 18.7 million inhabitants will be able to watch a five-minute eclipse at 01:39 GMT. For those who broadcast 66 kilometers from Shanghai, almost another minute of enjoyment is expected (5 minutes and 55 seconds). The islands of Jinghai Province, southwest of Shanghai will be the last area in China to observe the eclipse (01:41).

After crossing the South China Sea, the eclipse will reach Japan's Ryoku Islands (also called the Nansei Islands) at 01:57. The island chain includes many islands all scattered along the path of the eclipse. The largest island in the area is Yakushima, which, being at the northern end of the path, its residents will only be able to experience about 4 minutes of total eclipse. The island of Akoski-Shima is closest to the center of the eclipse, and viewers there will be treated to 6 minutes and 20 seconds of total eclipse. The eclipse will also reach the Japanese islands of Iwajima and Kitayo at about 02:27 and there it will be visible for about 5 and a quarter minutes and 6:34 minutes respectively.