Skygazers to witness the mesmerising 'ring of fire' on October 14 | Details

On Saturday (October 14), almost one billion people in America will witness one of the most interesting celestial events: An eclipse of the Sun. People in North and South America will be able to watch the new moon orbitbetween the Sun and Earth.

This is an annular eclipse, one in which a sunlight ring is viewed around the moon's image at the midpoint of the spectacle. In this eclipse, the Sun is never completely hidden, but the moonwill be 4.5 days past apogee, the farthest from the Earth.The new moon on eclipse day will be 246,707 miles (397,037 km) away.

The eclipse will only be partially visible in the United States. It will gain over the North Pacific Ocean and will slide on a southeast trajectory arriving at the coast of Oregon at 9:15 am Pacific Daylight Time. This means that for the next 46 minutes, the annular phase will be visible from parts of nine states running from Oregon to Texas.

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The duration of the annularity along the centre of the eclipse centre will increase from 4 minutes 34 seconds on the Pacific coast of Oregon to 5 minutes 2 seconds on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Cities that will witness this "ring of fire" effect include Eugene, Winnemucca, NV, Albuquerque, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. After it leaves Texas, the eclipse path will pass across Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, then slide through Central America, then into south-central Colombia, through northern Brazil, before finally coming to an end over the open ocean water of the South Atlantic.

However, the sky will not get darker as in a deep partial eclipse. Yet, it promises to be a spectacular sight and enthusiasts will be reaching places from where they can best view the eclipse.

Why is this happening?

This celestial event will occur because the moon's motion is strongly perturbed by the attraction of the sun and in a lesser way by that of the planets and by the Earth.

Due to the tidal effects, the moon is slowly moving farther from the Earth, spiralling outward and ascending to a more distant orbit. As the moon moves progressively farther away, its apparent size diminishes until finally, it reaches a point where it will be too far for its dark umbral shadow cone to reach the Earth, thus precluding the occurrence of total solar eclipses.

(With inputs from agencies)

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