For most Malaysians, what was dubbed “the eclipse of the 21st century”, so named due to its duration, was a non-event, where only a partial solar eclipse was seen from around 8am to 10am.

“Manta Ray” took the following photo of the eclipse at 9.05am from Kota Kinabalu using a P&S zoomed to 200 mm maximum capacity:

People in Perlis would see most: 18% while Sarawakians would only see 2%.

But add to the mix the predicted thunderstorms in most parts of the country, the outlook was already bleak to start with.

According to NASA, the best place on this planet to see the eclipse is at the village of Taregna in the Indian state of Bihar, 30km south of Patna, the state’s capital. The total eclipse was visible there for 3 minutes 48 seconds. It started at 5.30am, peaked at 6.24am and lasted for 2 hours. The maximum duration of the eclipse was 6 minutes 38 seconds, visible from the Pacific Ocean.

Perhaps even the Naples photographer was at Taregna…

The eclipse’s path:

The total solar eclipse as seen from southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, 9.16am:

There was an email making the rounds warning that the eclipse would coincide with an earthquake and tsunami in East Asia.

Source
The Star, 22nd July 2009

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