Total Solar Eclipse 22nd July 2009:
On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a narrow corridor that traverses half of Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow begins in India and crosses through Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar and China. After leaving mainland Asia, the path crosses Japan's Ryukyu Islands and curves southeast through the Pacific Ocean where the maximum duration of totality reaches 6 min 39 s. A partial eclipse is seen within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes most of eastern Asia, Indonesia, and the Pacific Ocean.
How Eclipse Look from Vadodara:
Eclipse Data For Vadodara
The Climate in Detail
India
With the monsoon season at its height, sunny weather is in short supply over India. Just about every day sees thunderstorms and showers forming along the eclipse track, building to an afternoon maximum as the sun warms the ground each day, or responding to upper atmospheric triggers to bring nighttime lightning and rain. The weather is tumultuous, with few safe havens for eclipse viewing. The modest refuges that can be found are tucked behind chains of hills that block some of the humid monsoon flow.
At Mumbai, prevailing winds are from the west through southwest, bringing moist air and sticky 25-degree dewpoints onshore from the Arabian Sea. Relative humidities in this muggy air average 85% when combined with typical eclipse-hour temperatures of 27°C . Clear skies are entirely unknown in this season – and the frequency of broken to overcast cloud averages more than 92%. Apparently, the west coast of India is not the best location to go looking for this eclipse.
It shows that the mean cloudiness at Mumbai is actually slightly lower than sites farther inland, in spite of the gruesome statistics quoted above. Some of this is due to Mumbai’s location on the coast where cooler temperatures and occasional sea breezes combine to limit slightly the daily cloudiness. At Bhopal, the frequency of overcast skies reaches nearly 50%, but a lower frequency of broken cloud, and even a one-half percent frequency of clear skies combines to give the city an average cloudiness similar to Mumbai. Dewpoints tend to be lower, 22°, but temperatures follow suit, and so eclipse observers can expect no relief from the high humidity.
Observing in India will have to make the best of an unfortunate lot. The satellite observations of cloudiness compiled in show a minimum in the central-line cloud cover just to the east of Patna. This region, along the Ganges River, lies north of the 700-m-high Chota Nagpur Plateau; the air descending from the plateau to the Ganges warms and dries slightly to bring a small decrease in the cloudiness. According to the satellite data, the mean cloudiness drops from about 77% at Allahabad to 63% in the minimum east of Patna. These are not great numbers, but they are the best to be had for July. Ground observations are not so optimistic, but they do show a minimum cloudiness of 71% in the area, at Varanasi, about 200 km upstream from Patna. A separate measurement, the percent of possible sunshine, clearly shows the suitability of a location at Patna. The 48% recorded there is higher than any other in India. The percent of possible sunshine is the statistic that best represents the true likelihood of seeing the eclipse.
Despite the trend to sunnier skies near Patna, the humidity in the atmosphere continues the same high values already noted at Mumbai and Bhopal. The average dewpoint at eclipse time is 26° in Patna, which, combined with the usual temperature of 28, gives a relative humidity of 91%. This sultry weather, in India and in China, will be a tough challenge for those used to the drier climates of most of North America and Europe.
Beyond Patna, the eclipse track heads northeastward, crossing parts of Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, all the while running along the southern slopes of the Himalayas. Winds flowing up the valley of the Brahmaputra River bring the monsoon air up against a steadily rising terrain, squeezed by the convergence of higher ground to the south and north. The resulting adiabatic cooling quickly saturates the airmass, creating a region with the world’s highest rainfalls (near Cherrapunji, south of the eclipse track near Gauhati), with over 11 metres of precipitation each year.
This region is the cloudiest along the entire track, with average cloud amount near Gauhati reaching over 85% in the satellite data, and the percent of possible sunshine falling to a meagre 29%. Dibrugarh, at the head of the valley of the Brahmaputra, has an average cloudiness of 86% according to surface-based cloud observations from the local weather station.
In India, cyclones are a possibility from April to November, but the period from June to August or September tends to have little activity and the storms are usually weaker than those earlier or later. Cyclones bring a considerable amount of moisture and cloud, but those are already in abundant supply and so it would be very bad luck indeed, if one of these storms were to be a significant factor on eclipse day.
Team AAAV Plans
Despite Fact that wether playing major role in eclipse Team AAAV schedule their Research Project On Eclipse, and devided in 2 teams 1 will experiment at Varanasi and other will stay here at vadodara.
For FUll list of 20 projects to be done and to participate in ecplipse project do write to Project Manager VIA email at following id:
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Data Thanks...Fred Esprenk & Jay Anderson.. NASA GSFC.
Club Activities in Brief :
The Amateur Astronomer's Association of Vadodara (AAAV) is an as assemblage of amateur astronomers engaged in promotion and popularization of astronomy as a hobby, serious observational activities, lecture sessions and opposing the influx of superstitious beliefs like astrology etc. amongst the masses.
Since its birth in January 1996, this association is engaged in the following regular activities..
- Holding regular sessions of Night Sky Observation through telescope for general public of the city at at Bal Bhavan, Near Sayajibaug,Vadodara.
- Studies and collection of data of every noticeable events like comets tracking, planets, Sun spots, Occultation, Eclipse, Meteor showers, Variable Stars etc. from our observation site.
- Arranging lecture session on various topics of Astronomy and Astrophysics on every Sunday 6.00 p.m. at Bal Bhavan , Vadodara.
- Lecture series on Astronomy for school students at the schools (On Invitation)
- Live Planetarium show through computer with various Astronomy software's. (We provide this facility at your place also if invited)
- Arranging film show, slide show, exhibition, work-shops, seminars and special observation programs during the Astronomical events of special enthusiasts of the city.
- Arranging certificate course containing syllabus on basis of Astronomy, Physics, Observational (Practical) Astronomy, through out the year in three stages with three stages examination (Theory and Practical) (January to April, May to August and September to December)
