On Friday, 2010 January 15, an annular eclipse of the Sun is visible from within a 300-km-wide track that traverses half of Earth.  The path of the Moon’s antumbral shadow begins in Africa and passes through into Asia. 

When the antumbra reaches Asia the central line passes directly between the southern tip of India and northern Sri Lanka (07:51 UT).  Both regions lie within the path where maximum annularity lasts 10 minutes 15 seconds.  

The annular eclipse will be visible in Sri Lanka on the 15^th of January 2010 from 11.10 a.m. to 3 p.m.  This phenomenon would be witnessed in Sri Lanka after over half a century. 

This rare event will blanket Sri Lanka’s northern areas for up to ten minutes in darkness in one of the most amazing displays of the sun and moon over our earth. 

The best areas to witness this phenomenon are Anuradhapura and Jaffna. 

All interested observes are welcome to visit Sri Lanka to witness this rare event. The solar eclipse coincidentally happens during the same weekend as Thai Pongal on January 14^th which will be all the more reason for visitors to celebrate a long weekend that would be one to remember. 

The links below provide further information on the solar eclipse:

 http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2010.html#SE2010Jan15A

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/ASE2010/ASE2010.html

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/ASE2010/ASE2010fig/ASE2010-fig208.pdf

http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/ASE2010/ASE2010tab/ASE2010-tab213.pdf