Incredible Situation.....

Mysterious lights



A huge new UFO mystery has started in England recently, after a string of sightings of bright orange lights in the night skies over East Anglia were spotted. The dazzling light shows have bewitched and intrigued eyewitnesses all over Norfolk and as far south as Ipswich, Suffolk. John Young, 43, of Sprowston, near Norwich, who was stunned when he woke up at about 3.30am and looked out of the window, grabbed his camera after spotting a strange shining light.



Like a star

“I glanced out of my bedroom window to see a bright light in the sky, much like a star except slightly larger in appearance and considerably brighter,” the Telegraph quoted Young as saying. “It didn’t move but when I played it back on my computer I was surprised to see the object was a perfect sphere with a hole in the middle. “You can even see it appears to rotate clockwise for maybe 20 seconds then anti-clockwise for the next and so forth.

Puzzled and curious


“I’m perplexed as to what I saw. Maybe there’s a simple explanation but I haven’t a clue what it was," he said. Young had spoken out after dozens of mysterious orange lights were spotted all over Norfolk, including Norwich, Dereham, Downham Market, Holkham and Caister. Andrew Goodchild, 42, a helicopter pilot, was baffled by an unidentified orange light he saw over Norwich just before 10pm on August 2.



Not a balloon

Goodchild, who has flown since 1991, said he initially thought it was a low-flying chopper but quickly realised the light was unusual. Malcolm Vicary, of Old Catton, Norwich, said he was also intrigued by the suspected UFO that night. “At first I thought it was a hot air balloon because of the orange glow. It suddenly changed direction for a short distance then resumed its original course. The orange glow then went out,” Vicary said.

Wasn't an aircraft



"It then started to descend quite fast in the direction of St Faith's, very close to Norwich airport. I'm sure it wasn't an aircraft because there were no navigation lights or sound," he added. Other witnesses to the bright light were Dennis Sayer, of Dereham and his wife. “Me and the wife spotted an orange light passing our house here in Dereham from the Windsor Park area at about 11.15 on Monday night," Sayer said.

Celebrating 62nd Independence Day......

As 15th August 2009 approaches, Indians prepare to celebrate the country’s 62nd Independence Day. 62 years ago on 15h August 1947, the tri colour was unfurled and India got independence from years of colonial rule. The country’s first Prime Minister Pandit JawaharLal Nehru delivered the historic “Tryst with destiny” speech from the ramparts of Red Fort as thousands of Indians stayed glued to their radio sets to listen to their leader and be a part of the dreams envisioned by them.

It has been a journey during which India has marched along and today as a powerhouse of potential and prospect. Several milestones were achieved in this journey. The Green Revolution under Dr. M. S. Swaminathan saw India become self sufficient in food grains while the White Revolution pioneered by Verghese Kurien saw co-operative societies help the common man reap the benefits of a planned effort to increase the productivity in milk.
In sports, India conquered the World Cup of cricket in 1983 beating the mighty West Indians at Lords while it took giant strides in space technology by launching its satellite into space Aryabhatta in 1975. On the entertainment front, Hindi Cinema churned out many talented individuals as actors and movie directors. The industry owing to this legacy which has been passed over the years has turned out to be one of the most vibrant and one of its kind. Several movies became world renowned and actors like Raj Kapoor become favorites in many countries while directors like Satyajit Ray captured reality in the celluloid.
But the journey has had its share of dark moments. Be it the Godhra Riots in Ahmedabad, the gruesome Bombay blasts of 1993, the anti Sikh riots of 1984 or the recent series of bomb blasts, each one left some scare in the minds. It is saddening to see that the sacrifice of the millions of Indians to get freedom for the future generations is being taken for granted. Weeds of corruption found its way into various streams of Indian bureaucratic as well as the society post Independence and this has taken its toll in various aspects pertaining to the country’s growth. But the nation has shown a great deal of resilience and fought back after each blow to prove its critics wrong who felt that it might succumb to these forces.
The country has moved from pillar to post which can be reflected in the growth of the GDP which broke the Hindu growth rate of 3%-4% to catapult to 7%-8%. Several Indian companies have made a mark for themselves on the global platform such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys and others alike. Mergers and Acquisitions like Tata Corus, Arcelor Mittal and others have not only been eye-catching but have established India’s presence on the global platform.
But this is just the beginning of the journey. Goes a saying that “Conquering the peak is not as important as staying there“. The present generation and the ones to follow have to keep in mind the toil, sweat and blood of countless Indians and value each moment of freedom which we all enjoy today. Everything comes at a cost, and so does this freedom that we enjoy. But to preserve it and pass it on to the future, we need to act and be responsible for our acts.
We at WittySparks have collected some memorable movies, wallpapers (a couple of interesting wallpapers and photographs) and songs which would appear in the next post as a mark of salute to the millions of Indians who gave their life so that we could live in a free India!
Happy Independence Day – INDIA – Mera Bharat Mahaan…..

Solar Eclipse --- July 22nd

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially covered. This can only happen during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from the Earth. At least two and up to five solar eclipses can occur each year on Earth, with between zero and two of them being total eclipses.[1] Total solar eclipses are nevertheless rare at any location because during each eclipse totality exists only along a narrow corridor in the relatively tiny area of the Moon's umbra.

A total solar eclipse is a spectacular natural phenomenon and many people travel to remote locations to observe one. The 1999 total eclipse in Europe helped to increase public awareness of the phenomenon, as illustrated by the number of journeys made specifically to witness the 2005 annular eclipse and the 2006 total eclipse. The recent solar eclipse of January 26, 2009, was an annular eclipse (see below), while the solar eclipse of July 22, 2009 was a total solar eclipse.



In ancient times, and in some cultures today, solar eclipses have been attributed to supernatural causes. Total solar eclipses can be frightening for people who are unaware of their astronomical explanation, as the Sun seems to disappear in the middle of the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes.

Types

Annular eclipse: There are four types of solar eclipses:



1> A total eclipse occurs when the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon. The intensely bright disk of the Sun is replaced by the dark silhouette of the Moon, and the much fainter corona is visible. During any one eclipse, totality is visible only from at most a narrow track on the surface of the Earth.


2> An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.

3> A hybrid eclipse (also called annular/total eclipse) transitions between a total and annular eclipse. At some points on the surface of the Earth it is visible as a total eclipse, whereas at others it is annular. Hybrid eclipses are comparatively rare.



4> A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This phenomenon can usually be seen from a large part of the Earth outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse. However, some eclipses can only be seen as a partial eclipse, because the umbra never intersects the Earth's surface, passing above or below the Earth's polar regions.
The match between the apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon during a total eclipse is considered coincidental. The Sun's distance from the Earth is about 400 times the Moon's distance, and the Sun's diameter is about 400 times the Moon's diameter. Because these ratios are approximately the same, the sizes of the Sun and the Moon as seen from Earth appear to be approximately the same: about 0.5 degree of arc in angular measure.
The Moon's orbit around the Earth is an ellipse, as is the Earth's orbit around the Sun; the apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon therefore vary. The magnitude of an eclipse is the ratio of the apparent size of the Moon to the apparent size of the Sun during an eclipse. An eclipse when the Moon is near its closest distance from the Earth (i.e., near its perigee) can be a total eclipse because the Moon will appear to be large enough to cover completely the Sun's bright disk, or photosphere; a total eclipse has a magnitude greater than 1. Conversely, an eclipse when the Moon is near its farthest distance from the Earth (i.e., near its apogee) can only be an annular eclipse because the Moon will appear to be slightly smaller than the Sun; the magnitude of an annular eclipse is less than 1. Slightly more solar eclipses are annular than total because, on average, the Moon lies too far from Earth to cover the Sun completely. A hybrid eclipse occurs when the magnitude of an eclipse transitions during the event from smaller than one to larger than one—or vice versa—so the eclipse appears to be total at some locations on Earth and annular at other locations.

The Earth's orbit around the Sun is also elliptical, so the Earth's distance from the Sun varies throughout the year. This also affects the apparent sizes of the Sun and Moon, but not so much as the Moon's varying distance from the Earth. When the Earth approaches its farthest distance from the Sun (the aphelion) in July, this tends to favor a total eclipse. As the Earth approaches its closest distance from the Sun (the perihelion) in January, this tends to favor an annular eclipse.


Terminology
Central eclipse is often used as a generic term for a total, annular, or hybrid eclipse. This is, however, not completely correct: the definition of a central eclipse is an eclipse during which the central line of the umbra touches the Earth's surface. It is possible, though extremely rare, that part of the umbra intersects with Earth (thus creating an annular or total eclipse), but not its central line. This is then called a non-central total or annular eclipse. The next non-central solar eclipse will be on April 29, 2014. This will be an annular eclipse. The next non-central total solar eclipse will be on April 9, 2043.


The phases observed during a total eclipse are called:

1> First Contact - when the moons shadow first becomes visible on the solar disk. Some also name individual phases between First and Second Contact e.g. Pac-Man phase.
2> Second Contact - starting with Baily's Beads {cause by light shining through valleys on the moon's surface} and the Diamond Ring. Almost the entire disk is covered.

3> Totality - with the shadow of the moon obscuring the entire disk of the sun and only the corona visible

4> Third Contact - when the first bright light becomes visible and the shadow is moving away from the sun. Again a Diamond Ring may be observed.

Predictions
Geometry
The diagram to the right shows the alignment of the Sun, Moon and Earth during a solar eclipse. The dark gray region below the Moon is the umbra, where the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon. The small area where the umbra touches the Earth's surface is where a total eclipse can be seen. The larger light gray area is the penumbra, in which only a partial eclipse can be seen.

The Moon's orbit around the Earth is inclined at an angle of just over 5 degrees to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun (the ecliptic). Because of this, at the time of a new moon, the Moon will usually pass above or below the Sun. A solar eclipse can occur only when the new moon occurs close to one of the points (known as nodes) where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic.

As noted above, the Moon's orbit is also elliptical. The Moon's distance from the Earth can vary by about 6% from its average value. Therefore, the Moon's apparent size varies with its distance from the Earth, and it is this effect that leads to the difference between total and annular eclipses. The distance of the Earth from the Sun also varies during the year, but this is a smaller effect. On average, the Moon appears to be slightly smaller than the Sun, so the majority (about 60%) of central eclipses are annular. It is only when the Moon is closer to the Earth than average (near its perigee) that a total eclipse occurs.

The Moon orbits the Earth in approximately 27.3 days, relative to a fixed frame of reference. This is known as the sidereal month. However, during one sidereal month, the Earth has revolved part way around the Sun, making the average time between one new moon and the next longer than the sidereal month: it is approximately 29.5 days. This is known as the synodic month, and corresponds to what is commonly called the lunar month.


The Moon crosses from south to north of the ecliptic at its ascending node, and vice versa at its descending node. However, the nodes of the Moon's orbit are gradually moving in a retrograde motion, due to the action of the Sun's gravity on the Moon's motion, and they make a complete circuit every 18.6 years. This means that the time between each passage of the Moon through the ascending node is slightly shorter than the sidereal month. This period is called the draconic month.

Finally, the Moon's perigee is moving forwards in its orbit, and makes a complete circuit in about 9 years. The time between one perigee and the next is known as the anomalistic month.

The Moon's orbit intersects with the ecliptic at the two nodes that are 180 degrees apart. Therefore, the new moon occurs close to the nodes at two periods of the year approximately six months apart, and there will always be at least one solar eclipse during these periods. Sometimes the new moon occurs close enough to a node during two consecutive months. This means that in any given year, there will always be at least two solar eclipses, and there can be as many as five. However, some are visible only as partial eclipses, because the umbra passes above Earth's north or south pole, and others are central only in remote regions of the Arctic or Antarctic.

Path
During a central eclipse, the Moon's umbra (or antumbra, in the case of an annular eclipse) moves rapidly from west to east across the Earth. The Earth is also rotating from west to east, but the umbra always moves faster than any given point on the Earth's surface, so it almost always appears to move in a roughly west-east direction across a map of the Earth (there are some rare exceptions to this which can occur during an eclipse of the midnight sun in Arctic or Antarctic regions).

The width of the track of a central eclipse varies according to the relative apparent diameters of the Sun and Moon. In the most favourable circumstances, when a total eclipse occurs very close to perigee, the track can be over 250 km wide and the duration of totality may be over 7 minutes. Outside of the central track, a partial eclipse can usually be seen over a much larger area of the Earth.