People of Pacitan District in East Java will be the first to witness the eclipse from 05:26 pm local time while the eclipse at its peak will be seen at 05:52 pm in Mentawai Island, West Sumatra Province.
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - An annular solar eclipse will be visible in several regions of Indonesia on Thursday, September 1, 2016.

In a press release issued here, the Meteorology Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) stated that a partial solar eclipse will be visible in 124 districts in 10 provinces of Indonesia, namely West Sumatra, Bengkulu, South Sumatra, Lampung, Banten, Jakarta, East Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta and East Java.

People of Pacitan District in East Java will be the first to witness the eclipse from 05:26 pm local time while the eclipse at its peak will be seen at 05:52 pm in Mentawai Island, West Sumatra Province.

The last phase of the annular eclipse will begin at 05:58 pm in Talang Ubi, South Sumatra Province and will end at 06:06 pm in Bengkulu.

Meanwhile, the Head of Data and Information Center of Bengkulu, Sudiyanto informed that it would be possible to observe the eclipse from almost any part of Bengkulu District.

"As long as the weather is clear, it will be possible to watch the eclipse," Sudiyanto underlined.

An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region of the earth.

It occurs when the moons apparent diameter is smaller than the suns, blocking most of the suns light and causing it to look like an annulus or a ring.

Tomorrows annular eclipse will be also visible in certain other parts of the world such as from the Atlantic Ocean, most parts of Africa, Madagascar and the Indian Ocean.

Recently, on March 9, a total solar eclipse that occurred had cast its shadow across several regions of Indonesia.

The total solar eclipse happens rarely, and the next will return occur only after a century, though some say it might occur after 350 years.

The last eclipse was clearly visible in many parts of Indonesia, but was obscured by clouds in Palembang, the largest city in the path of totality.(*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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