Eclipse hunting - Jaffna 2019
Hearing about the upcoming Annular Solar eclipse through social media and the fact that Sri Lanka was in the middle of the path of annuality overwhelmed me with the idea that I should really observer this. Even though I was enthusiastic about science from a young age, this was the first time I was matured enough to understand the importance and the uniqueness of this life time opportunity . I wanted to get the maximum out of it.
Getting ready for the eclipse
After reading up online about solar eclipse observation, it was clear to me that a few things had to be done before-hand in order to prepare for this event. Finding a location to observe and some suitable equipment was at the top of my to-do list. I had a tripod and my Nikon DSLR, however a decent solar filter was one of the main components I was missing. I was able to find some online but unfortunately the timing was two tight and non of them shipped directly to Sri Lanka. Without the filters this whole thing was just another dream. I turned to a couple of my friends who were out side of Sri Lanka to try to see if I could ask one of them to post it to me and Pamitha who had recently migrated to Australia for his studies agreed to re-post it to me. Within two days my order was processed and it was a 2 week wait till I finally got the filters.
The only remaining major decision was the location of observation. The eclipse was visible to the entire country to varying degrees. Colombo was on the partial eclipse zone with a maximum of 88% covering of the Solar disk. However northern parts of Sri Lanka (Jaffna and Trincomalee) was in the annular eclipse zone. Over the next few days I convinced my self saying “Why not go there and get the full experience. Its just 400 km not the end of the world right….” After considering my options I was able to convince my parents to agree to a 5 day trip to Jaffna giving us the needed time to visit Jaffna and also to get to be there just in time there for the eclipse.
On the 23rd of December we left home packed for a 5 day trip our first stop was at Sigiriya. The next day we reached Jaffna and we were also able to scout out a suitable location. After a good nights sleep I spent the better part of the Christmas day trying out suitable settings. We were able to visit a couple of key attractions in Jaffna including the Fort and the Nallur Temple.
Finally clear skys !!
Finally a clear sky! this was the first thing that came to mind. December 26th early morning after a quick breakfast, packed with all the gear we set out on the uneven roads of Ariyalai, to the spot where we had checked out the previous day. Farmers and village fork were starting there day and were going about there business as usual.
We parked nearby and settled on the location without any incident. At 0809 h we witnessed the initial contact and the next three hours were filled with excitement and a sense of accomplishment. The photos turned out to be great despite a few mistakes in the timing.
At the end of the day the whole experience was unforgettable. It was totally worth driving 400 km :)