Unique solar eclipse over India

The solar eclipse of January 15, 2010 was an annular eclipse of the Sun which NASA figures show had a magnitude of 0.9190.  This eclipse is unique in that it will have the longest duration of this millennium, a total of 11 minutes and 8 seconds. It reached its greatest effect as it passed over the Indian Ocean. Whilst most countries would have only observed a partial eclipse, many inhabitants of India were lucky to have the full eclipse highly visible.

Parts of India would have witnessed the eclipse duration of around 10 minutes and 24 seconds. The next annular solar eclipse with such a long duration is not expected until December 23, 3043.

OPS India exported this live solar insolation graph from the recently commissioned 1 MW solar photovoltaic grid connect system in Jamuria, West Bengal. The graph shows the reduction in solar insolation and associated drop in the systems exported power. This can be seen in the graph from 12.40pm to 3.00pm with the eclipse peaking at 2.15pm.

Below is a Video of the Eclipse over Varanasi, India, as filmed by the BBC.