Solar Eclipse or Surya Grahan (grahana/ grahanam) The longest eclipse of the 21st century will occur on July 22, 2009 and last 6 min 39 sec. The eclipse will be across a narrow corridor from northern Maldives, northern India, eastern Nepal, northern Bangladesh, Bhutan, the northern part of Myanmar, central China and the Pacific Ocean, including the Ryukyu Islands, Marshall Islands and Kiribati.
Total eclipse will be visible in many large Indian cities, including Surat, Vadodara, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna, Dinajpur, Guwahati, Chengdu, Nanchong, Chongqing, Yichang, Jingzhou, Wuhan, Huanggang, Hefei, Hangzhou, Wuxi, Huzhou, Suzhou, Jiaxing, Ningbo and Shanghai, as well as over the Three Gorges Dam.According to some experts, Taregana in Bihar is apparently the "best" place to view the event.
The last solar eclipse India had witnessed was on Republic Day, 26 January 2009. Prior to that on 26 August 2008, an eclipse that was visibile in India had occurred. Several traditional practices are associated with solar eclipse in India. Some of them have been written here.
A partial eclipse will be seen from the much broader path of the Moon's penumbra, including most of Southeast Asia (all of India and China) and north-eastern Oceania.
Total solar eclipse wil lbe visible in India on July 22 from early morning 05:28 hours to 0:40 hours ( Indian standard time). It is expected to last nearly 4 minutes.
For eclipse on 15 Jan 2010 see here
