Bhubaneswar: The last solar eclipse of 2021 will occur on December 4.
But it won’t be visible from Odisha or any other part of India. The eclipse will be visible only in places in the Southern Hemisphere — Antarctica, South Africa, South America and Australia.
The best view will be from Antarctica, where a total solar eclipse will be visible. Sky-gazers in South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand can see a partial eclipse.
NASA will live broadcast the celestial event from Union Glacier, Antarctica. It will be streamed on YouTube and NASA Live.
The space agency has published an interactive map, which shows the path of the eclipse across the Earth’s surface.
The duration of the eclipse will be 1 hour, 43 minutes. In Indian time, it will begin at 12.30 pm, peak at 1.03 pm and end at 01.36 pm.
This year’s first solar eclipse was witnessed on June 10.
Next year, there will be two solar and two lunar eclipses. The solar eclipse occurring on October 25, 2022 and the lunar eclipse on November 8, 2022 will be visible in India. But the solar eclipse on April 30 and lunar eclipse on May 16 will not be visible in India.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. The Sun is roughly 400 times larger than the Moon and also 400 times away from it. That’s why both appear similar in size during an eclipse.