Total solar eclipse on July 11 not to be seen in Pakistan

Eclipse Type = Total Eclipse Saros = 146 (animated GIF)
Greatest Eclipse = 19:33:31.6 UT Date = 2010 Jul 11 J.D. = 2455389.316
Greatest Eclipse Lat = 19.7S Lng = 121.9W Duration = 05m20s (320 s)
Sun Alt. = 47° Sun Azm. = 13° Path Width = 258 km
Magnitude = 1.05802 Gamma = -0.67877 ∆T = 66.3 s — σ = ±1s [±0.0°]
Eclipse Overview = 2010-07-11.gif Canon Plate = 477PDF Document Atlas = +2001—+2020

Polynomial Besselian elements for: 2010 Jul 11 20:00:00.0 TDT (=t0)

n x y d l1 l2 µ

0 0.0740680 -0.7170260 22.0356998 0.5344230 -0.0116560 118.6143189
1 0.5572516 -0.1366579 -0.0053410 -0.0000908 -0.0000904 15.0000696
2 -0.0000276 -0.0001121 -0.0000050 -0.0000124 -0.0000123 0.0000000
3 -0.0000090 0.0000024 0.0000000 0.0000000 0.0000000 0.0000000

tan f1 = 0.0045988 tan f2 = 0.0045759

At time t1 (decimal hours), each Besselian element is evaluated by:
a = a0 + a1*t + a2*t2 + a3*t3 (or a = ∑ [an*tn]; n = 0 to 3)
where: a = x, y, d, l1, l2, or µ
t = t1 - t0 (decimal hours) and t0 = 20.000 TDT



Updated at: 2045 PST, Tuesday, July 06, 2010

KARACHI: The total solar eclipse on Monday, July 11, 2010 would not be visible in Pakistan, says a release of Pakistan Meteorological Department here on Tuesday.

The total eclipse will be visible from South Pacific Ocean, Chile and Argentine. While, partial eclipse will be visible from South Pacific and South America.

Eclipse beings 22:10 (11th July) PST
Total begins 22:16 (11th July) PST
Total ends 01:51 (12th July) PST
Eclipse ends 02:57 (12th July) PST
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2010_GoogleMapFull.html
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Ultimate eclipse photo: Easter Island, here I come
11:00 1 July 2010
Art
Events

In a series of illustrated blog entries for Culture Lab, journalist and photographer Dan Falk will be describing his attempt to capture the "ultimate solar eclipse photograph" this July. This is the first in the series.

It's one of the most compelling spectacles in all of nature: a total eclipse of the sun, a surreal event in which the sun disappears behind the moon and a small part of the Earth is plunged into midday darkness.

I've seen three solar eclipses so far, and each has been a unique experience, but the one coming up on 11 July 2010 promises to be like nothing else I've ever witnessed. It's all about location: this summer's total eclipse can be seen only from the South Pacific Ocean, the extreme southern tip of South America and a few tiny, remote islands - including the most isolated inhabited spot on Earth, Easter Island.

Easter Island is famous for its remoteness as well as the remnants of its intriguing ancient culture, including those giant carved stone heads, known as moai. We've all seen photographs of those enigmatic moai, but never with a total solar eclipse as a backdrop. My visit to the island will be a chance to capture - if I may be permitted to indulge in a hopeful, boastful superlative - the "ultimate solar eclipse photograph".

A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes exactly between the sun and the Earth, with the moon's shadow falling on our planet. As the Earth turns, the shadow traces out a long but quite narrow path, known as the "path of totality". If you're willing to travel, you can see a total eclipse from somewhere roughly once every 18 months. But from any one specific location, solar eclipses are incredibly rare, occurring about once every 300 years.

Needless to say, this is the only opportunity anyone alive today will have of seeing a total eclipse from Easter Island. According to Xavier Jubier's handy eclipse calculator, the last time a total solar eclipse was visible from Easter Island was more than 13 centuries ago, in 656 AD, and the next time islanders get to see one will be 314 years from now, in 2324. Incidentally, anthropologists believe the island was only settled in about 900 AD, which means no one has ever seen a total solar eclipse from the island.

A solar eclipse can last anywhere from mere seconds to a maximum of just over seven-and-a-half minutes. My first solar eclipse, which I witnessed from Baja California, Mexico, in 1991, was one of the longest of the 20th century, with a duration (as viewed from that location) of about six minutes and 50 seconds. This summer's eclipse, as seen from Easter Island, will last about 4 minutes and 50 seconds. That may sound like a good length of time, but when you're trying to operate a couple of cameras and fiddling with tripods and exposure settings, it goes by very quickly.

Of course, I won't be alone there. A number of passionate "eclipse chasers," along with tourists eager to witness this remarkable event, will have the island's few hotels filled to capacity. (I booked several moths ago, with a California-based agency called A Classic Tours.) A number of professional astronomers will be there as well, including a team led by Jay Pasachoff of Williams College. I'm told that a documentary crew from National Geographic Television will also be on hand.

Luckily, I've had some practice photographing eclipses, having shot the three I mentioned. I had some trouble with clouds at the Mexico eclipse in 1991, but got lucky with clear skies in Curacao, in the Netherlands Antilles, in 1998, and again in Salzburg, Austria in 1999. In Curacao, I managed to get a reasonably good telephoto image of the eclipsed sun itself (below).

eclipse1.jpg

But that is not the kind of image I'm hoping to obtain this time around. Instead, I'm looking for something analogous to the wide-angle view of the total solar eclipse above Salzburg that I captured in 1999 (below).

The reason is simple. That first photo, though pleasant enough, looks exactly like everyone else's photos of that eclipse - indeed, like any photo of any eclipse. In contrast, the Salzburg photo, which includes the distinctive foreground landscape, is unique (or nearly so). This time - if all goes well - instead of Salzburg's castle and cathedral, I'll have Easter Island's moai sculptures as the dramatic foreground scene.

eclipse2.jpg

Perhaps I should add: I intend to pull this off without any kind of digital manipulation. Obviously, with Photoshop, one could pretend to have witnessed a total eclipse over the Eiffel Tower, or from inside your local Starbucks for that matter. But where's the challenge in that? My goal is to capture a single, unique scene, just as it appeared to the unaided eye.

With less than two weeks to go, there is still a great deal of work to do. I am carefully studying maps of Easter Island and descriptions and photographs of the landscape. Upon arrival, I'll have several days to scope out the perfect site: somewhere where I can catch the eclipse with those iconic moai at the bottom of the image.

The technical details of the eclipse itself - the exact altitude and azimuth of the sun, the local time of the beginning and end of the eclipse - will determine the choice of lens needed to get the perfect shot. I intend to shoot with several camera and lens combinations during the brief span of totality, with both a digital SLR and a traditional 35-mm film SLR. Amid that rush, however, I hope to take a few moments to simply savour the spectacle with my own eyes.

I've been looking forward to this remarkable natural event for more than a decade. It's an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Fingers crossed for clear skies on Easter Island on 11 July! I'll keep you updated here on CultureLab, where I hope to finally premiere the photograph I've been dreaming about.

Dan Falk is a science journalist, author and photographer. More of his astrophotography can be found on Flickr and he tweets at @danfalk.