A much expected partial darkness in the capital city on Thursday as a result of the predicted partial eclipse in Ghana and some parts of the ECOWAS Region did not come on.
Although some parts of the country experienced the sun being partially covered by the moon, Accra did not witness it. The weather condition in the capital was humid making it impossible for the people to experience the sensational aspect of the partial eclipse of the sun.
Former Director of the Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System, Prof. Amamoo Okyere interacting on Kasapa FM Thursday explained that although the capital experienced the partial eclipse of the sun, the citizenry did not enjoy the sensational aspect because the moon was cloud-masked.
Prof. Amamoo had earlier predicted that Ghana would on Thursday, September 1, 2016; experience another rare spectacle of partial eclipse of the sun from 6:13am to 9am with the moon’s image expected to gain 80% of the sun’s surface at 7:20am and will last for about an hour.
However, that was not the situation in Accra although some parts of the country – Takoradi, Kasoa and Koforidua experienced it.
“I am disappointed more than you all because of the rain. Yesterday when I spoke about the partial eclipse of the sun my prayer was that we get a good weather so that we will watch this. But you see we are in September and this is part of the raining season. The 2006 one was in March – dry season. The 2013 one was in November and it came at the tail end of the raining reason and we were lucky we were favoured by a cloudless time”.
“We said 7:20am the moon would have gained 80% surface of the sun. At 7:20am it was cloud- masked and we didn’t see it. The passing of the shadow of the moon which would have added to the darkness of the atmosphere is passed. So you see this sensational aspect has been missed”, he noted.
Partial Solar Eclipses happen when the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth, but they don’t align in a perfectly straight line. Because of this, the Moon partially covers the Sun’s disc.
Prof. Amamoo commenting further urged those who did not experience it to take heart since the country would experience another eclipse of the sun in March 2034.
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