Rujewa and Wang’ing’ombe to see ring-of-fire effect

MARIAM SAID

TODAY, the moon will pass in front of the sun, creating a beautiful ring-of-fire effect in two regions in the country.

The ring-of-fire is a bright ring on the circumference of the Sun. Just when the Moon is about to enter or leave the edge of the Sun the points of light coming through the gaps in the mountains on the Moon is the ring-of-fire.

According to astronomer, Dr Noorali Jiwali, the 100km path of Annular solar eclipse passes from Gabon through Congo into Tanzania across Lake Tanganyika, Katavi, Rukwa, Mbeya, Njombe and Mtwara.

Then the Annular solar eclipse—where the ring of sun can be seen—will cross to Mozambique, the India Ocean onto Madagascar and then to Reunion Islands.

The regions which the ring-of-fire effect will be experienced are Rujewa, Mbeya and Wang’ing’ombe, Njombe.

The eclipse magnitude estimated to reach 97 per cent. The ring-of-fire effect expects to last between two and four minutes, however the entire solar eclipse episode will take some four hours.