Bahrain folks witnessed on 20th December the deepest ever solar eclipse in more than 100 years . This time the Moon was at its apogee (farthest distance from earth) and was visually smaller than usual. Because of this it was not able to cover the complete disc of the Sun and this the “Annular eclipse” or “The Ring of Fire”.
The shadow of the Moon started from Saudi (154 km wide), passed Southern India (129 km wide) cutting across Srilanka, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Northern Mariana islands and ending in North pacific.However in Bahrain it was partial. It was cloudy on the horizon and so the rise of the eclipse (6.22 AM) could not be seen clearly . 5 minutes later it protruded out slowly in gleaming red. As more and more light from the sun got exposed the colours started changing vividly from dark pink to red and orange..
At 6.36 pm the maximum coverage of the Moon over the Sun’s disc was app. 90.7% and was looking like a nice crescent think blade of C figure.
As the light intensity was not so pronounced, photos were taken without filters. However when the Sun started getting more visible (say after 80%) and also as the horizon effect was already gone by then, we used filters and glasses to cover to protect the eyes.
Overall it was a once in a lifetime experience !!