AGARTALA, June 21 (TIWN): The annular Solar Eclipse, popularly known as the "Ring of Fire" eclipse, has become visible in India and Tripura too remained witness of the event, with social media flooded with pictures from the rare celestial event. This is the first solar eclipse of 2020. Dr. Madhusudhan Debnath, Scientist and Incharge of Agartala Sukanta Academy was present to brief about the incident. The first solar eclipse of this year which coincides with the summer solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere has the longest day, will be an annular eclipse. Apart from India, the eclipse will be visible in Congo, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan, and China. The eclipse started around 10:20 am and is expected to end around 2:20 pm. It is also known as Surya Grahan in India.

The eclipsed sun should not be viewed with the naked eye, even for a very short duration of time. It may cause permanent damage to the eyes leading to blindness even when the moon covers most portion of the sun.

"Annular solar eclipse is a particular case of the total solar eclipse. Like the total solar eclipse, the moon is aligned with the sun. However, on that day, the apparent size of the moon happens to be a wee smaller than the sun. Hence the moon covers the central part of the sun, and the rim of the sun appear like a "ring of fire" in the sky for a very brief moment" Samir Dhurde of The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics said.