KUALA LUMPUR: Rakyat Malaysia berpeluang menyaksikan gerhana matahari separa pada kira-kira jam 4.30 petang pada 26 Januari ini.

Menurut Agensi Angkasa Negara (Angkasa), gerhana matahari anulus akan berlaku pada tarikh itu selama tiga jam 46 minit bermula dari lautan Hindi ke sebelah Barat Indonesia.

Dalam satu kenyataannya semalam, Angkasa berkata fenomena itu berlaku apabila bulan merentas di hadapan matahari, tetapi tidak menutup matahari sepenuhnya kerana saiz ketara bulan lebih kecil daripada matahari.

“Rakyat Malaysia berpeluang menyaksikan gerhana matahari separa pada kira-kira jam 4.30 petang apabila bulan mula menyentuh cakera matahari. Keadaan ini dikenali sebagai ‘sentuhan pertama’ iaitu permulaan gerhana matahari separa,” kata kenyataan itu.”

Source: Harian Metro, 13th January 2009

Finally, something that I have been keeping for 9 years in my drawer come to use. I got this during my university days, which was in August 1999.

There was total eclipse that year in Europe. And England just got so excited about it, that when I woke up one morning and check for mail, I see this has been distributed to all houses for free. Why is it so? It’s the first visible total eclipse in the United Kingdom since June 29, 1927.

Well, really looking forward for 26th January. Even though only a partial eclipse can be observed here in Malaysia, why miss this rare phenomenon?