Pakistan to witness ‘ring of fire’ solar eclipse tomorrow

KARACHI: Pakistan will sight an annular solar eclipse, popularly known as the ‘ring of fire’, on June 21st (Sunday), according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD).

According to the met office, apart of southern parts of Pakistan, the solar eclipse will also be visible in parts of Africa including the Central African Republic, Congo and Ethiopia and in northern parts of India and China.

An annular solar eclipse happens when the Moon covers the Sun’s center, leaving the Sun’s visible outer edges to form a “ring of fire” or annulus around the moon.

According to the PMD, the maximum magnitudes of the eclipse in major Pakistani cities will be as follow:

The eclipse would begin at about 9:45am on Sunday across the country. At approximately 11:45am, the moon would completely eclipse the sun.

It would end at about 1:10pm.

The Met department said the solar eclipse of June 21 (Sunday) would be fully visible in Karachi.

“Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) will have 90 per cent eclipse visibility while Karachi will have full visibility. The eclipse will be visible from Australia to Europe, as well as to people in Central Asia and Asian countries,” said the PMD.

The ophthalmologists have described Sunday’s [June 21] eclipse “dangerous for the human eye” as it would emit ultraviolet rays that could permanently destroy the vision of the human eye.

Solar Eclipse Precautions

• Do not look directly at the sun
• Do not use homemade filters or ordinary sunglasses, even very dark sunglasses
• Use special-purpose solar filters, such as eclipse glasses or handheld solar viewers, to view the eclipse.
• Avoid looking at the Sun through telescope, binoculars and any other optical device.

Looking directly at the Sun can

• Loss of the central vision
• Distorted vision
• Altered colour vision