Total Solar Eclipse: 5 TIPS for sky gazers ahead of rare celestial event today

Total Solar Eclipse 2019: Parts of South America will experience the first total solar eclipse since 2017 on Tuesday. The total eclipse is expected to last up to four minutes, depending on the location, according to NASA. After this year's event, the next total solar eclipse will be visible on December 14, 2020, over parts of South America, according to NASA. Sky gazers in India will not be able to watch the rare natural phenomenon since it would be night in the country. In parts of South America sky watchers can see a partial eclipse. The solar eclipse will start at 12:55pm EDT (10:25pm Indian Standard Time) and end at around 12:59pm EDT (10:29pm IST). The eclipse will be at its peak when the moon will fully cover the sun. NASA will be covering the beautiful natural phenomenon in English and Spanish and will also share live images, videos, and updates before, during and after the eclipse.

Total Solar Eclipse: 5 tips before you go out to watch rare celestial event today

• Projection works well. You can make your own projector or use a telescope or binoculars.
• Solar filters, or eclipse glasses, provide the only safe way to look directly at a partial or total eclipse. Make sure they meet the ISO 12312-2 standard.
• Do not look at an eclipse through an unfiltered camera viewfinder, telescope, binoculars or other optical device even with a solar filter. Those items magnify sunrays and can quickly damage the retina.
• NASA recommends welder’s glasses rated 14 or higher. These can be found at your local welding supply store. Keep in mind that welder glass grading may be different in different countries.
• Do not use solar glasses that are older than three years or have scratched lenses.

Total Solar Eclipse 2019: Where to watch LIVE stream?

You can watch the Total Solar Eclipse LIVE from any part of the world on:

1. www.nasa.gov

2. nasa.tumblr.com

What is Total Solar Eclipse?

A 'Total Solar Eclipse' occurs when the moon blocks the sun's entire solar disk in the sky, which results in dimming and cooling of the atmosphere for minutes at a time since the lunar shadow travels across a particular region of Earth’s surface. The moon orbits about 239,000 miles from Earth, appear the same size in the sky as the sun, which on the other hand, is significantly larger than the moon and much farther away.

On January 6, the world geared up for a partial solar eclipse that too was not visible in India due to night time in the country. During a partial solar eclipse or Surya Grahan, the Moon covers a certain portion of the Sun giving it a crescent or disk like shape with a hollow centre.

In total, the year 2019 will witness five eclipses, two of which will be visible in India. While total solar eclipse is a rare historical phenomenon, partial solar eclipses occur every six months or so. In 2018, sky gazers witnessed a total of five eclipses, two of which were total lunar eclipses and three partial solar eclipses.