Eclipes Expected Today

Public urged to welcome the September 22 eclipse

Accra, Sept. 20, GNA -- Dr Emmanuel Amamoo-Otchere, Executive Director for the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographical Information Service (CERGIS), on Wednesday urged Ghanaians to welcome the coming partial eclipse on September 22 as another important occasion. Dr Amamoo-Otchere, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency on preparations being made by CERGIS to educate the public on the expected annular partial eclipse, said Ghana was lucky to be experiencing two different kinds of eclipse in six months since eclipses were rare celestial phenomenon.

=93We are fortunate to have two different types of eclipses this year,=94 he stressed and challenged religious leaders to find out why Ghana was experiencing such a rare phenomenon twice this year. An annular eclipse does not produce total obscurity of the sun by the moon so the totality of darkness of such an eclipse is not absolute like the total solar eclipse.

Ghana and the whole of West Africa would see the September 22 event partially. CERSGIS said the moon's shadow would not reach the surface of the earth hence the partial darkness.

He said people, who looked up between 0930 and 1200 hours would see the moon passing across the surface of the sun with the peak period being between 1000 hours and 1030 hours

He cautioned that annular eclipses were also dangerous to watch with the naked eye and urged the public to take the same precaution needed for safe viewing of a total eclipse.