Partial solar eclipse to enthral on October 25 evening

Panaji: Goa will witness a partial solar eclipse on October 25, the day after Diwali.
Across most parts of India, the eclipse will begin in the afternoon.
Information shared by the Positional Astronomy Centre, Kolkata and India meteorological department (IMD) revealed that the ending of the eclipse will not be visible from India as it will be in progress post sunset.
In Goa, the partial eclipse will begin at 5pm, with an obscuration of 17% at the time of the ‘Greatest Eclipse’. The duration of the eclipse, from beginning upto sunset, will be one hour.
“Greatest eclipse is the point in time when maximum part of the sun will be eclipsed. If it was a total solar eclipse, it would have been 100% obstruction at the time of the greatest eclipse,” IMD Goa scientist, Rahul M said.
The eclipse will be visible in Europe, Middle East, north-eastern parts of Africa, western Asia, the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Indian Ocean.
The IMD has warned that the eclipse should not be viewed with the naked eye, even for a short time, and even when the moon covers most portion of the sun. “This can cause permanent damage to the eyes, even leading to blindness,” IMD said.
A safe way to observe the eclipse is either by using proper filters like an aluminized Mylar, black polymer, welding glass of shade number 14 or by making projection of Sun’s image on a white board by telescope, it said.
There was a total solar eclipse on October 24, 1995, which was visible from India. A narrow path of totality also passed through some places of the country. That year, too, Diwali was on a day before the eclipse, October 23.