Diary of an Astro-nomad – II

We traveled to the town of Varkala in Kerala to see the longest annular solar eclipse of this millenium, nicknamed ‘the Ring of Fire’. 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. In an annular eclipse of the Sun, the Moon casts its antumbra – the outer part of the Moon’s umbra – on the Earth.