Clouds during 22 Jul 09 Eclipse
vas...@learningaccord.com
Date DayPlace Flt M Time FareAircraft Dist
21 Jul Tue Bangalore IC772 D 0605 3261 Airbus 320
21 Jul Tue Kolkata A 0825 1881
21 Jul Tue Kolkata IC205 D 0945 2438 Airbus 320
21 Jul Wed Dibrugarh A 1115 855
Bangalore : 12° 59' 01" N & 77° 35' 01" E
Dibrugarh : 27° 28' 54" N & 94° 54' 10" E
23 Jul Thu Dibrugarh IC206 D 1150 2438 Airbus 320 855
23 Jul Thu Kolkata A 1315
23 Jul Thu Kolkata IC771 D 1810
23 Jul Thu Bangalore A 2045 3001 Airbus 320 1881
TOTAL 11138 2736 x 2 = 5472 km
To appreciate how large India is, some distances (in km) from Bangalore:
Hong Kong 4004, Nairobi 4770, Moscow 5856, Athens 5980, Darwin 6517, London 8038
Following is a brief to me from my son, Col BV Naresh AMC, who was recently in Arunachal Pradesh, for about 2 years, at the Tri-Junction of China, India & Bhutan. He knows that area of the Total Eclipse Path very well, as his jurisdiction covered that area. He is now in Dehradun.
Naresh is a very keen and highly accomplished amateur astronomer (his areas of interest are galaxies, universe, black/worm holes, event horizon, dark matter/energy, first second, inflation, 10,000 billion years ahead, infinite number of universes etc); in addition to being a versatile amateur photographer and a skilled Himalayan mountain climber. He adores snakes and is an adroit snake catcher. Wherever he is posted, he automatically becomes the official snake catcher. He keeps pet pythons. He collects sea shells at Himalayan heights above 10,000 ft; as difficult a task as identifying meteorites.
Since he is not joining me at Dibrugarh, I too have cancelled my visit. At my age and state of health, I would have been comfortable if my son (a doctor) had been with me.
I took Naresh for the 1980 eclipse. Clouds are is not conducive to his taking me to the 2009 eclipse.
A brief to me from Naresh is given below
Vasanth
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BRIEF FROM NARESH
Fr: Nar...@gmail.com
To: Vas...@LearningAccord.com
Dt: Sun, 21 Jun 09 / 00:52
Sb: Solar Eclipse
Hi Dad,
I had same thoughts, some months back, of seeing my third total solar eclipse The first I saw in Karwar in 1980, along with you and the second in Bharatpur Bird sanctuary in 1995. Both were out of this world experiences with cloudless skies. But, when I did a study of the time, place, weather, cloud cover and other accessibility factors for the forthcoming eclipse in July, my conclusion was that in India the viewing chances will be a huge disappointment for the public and only the priests and pujaris will prosper.
Reasons are as follows
a) the difference between 98 percent totality and 100 percent totality is like the difference between white and black. There is hardly a dent in daylight brightness factor even at 98 percent coverage of the sun and the WOW factor is nil, so travelling to see a partial eclipse is futile.
b) At the western extreme of the arc of totality, it will be just after sunrise. Visibility chances virtually nil due to smog, horizon access, monsoon clouds. The temporary darkness will of course be experienced without seeing the sun.
c) The biggest negative factor in the Eastern extreme at Assam is that it is the middle of Monsoon and cumulonimbus clouds blot out the sky completely at that time. These clouds extend all the way East towards China. A plus factor is that the time is about an hour after sunrise. But in the hilly areas (which I know very well), the sun itself, if at all not cloud covered, will be very close to the horizon and not seen.
d) Almost the entire arc of totality lies in the Monsoon belt. So in India, the only option for a cloudless viewing is to be sitting on the right-side window, inside an aircraft flying at 35,000 feet, from South to North (or vice-versa), shortly after sunrise and hoping the plane does not tilt when everyone rushes to one side!! Outside India, only in a small patch over the Pacific Ocean, the predicted cloud cover goes to under 20 percent and the Sun is also fairly high above the Horizon.
I am not discouraging any one from flying to Dibrugarh; but be braced for almost certain disappointment.
You will certainly be in the dark; but you may not see the darkened sun.
Naresh
