REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Some 10 thousand visitors flocked the Planetarium and Observatory located at the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) Art Center, Central Jakarta, here on Wednesday morning to watch a partial solar eclipse.
"It is a holiday due to which the number of visitors has reached more than 10 thousand," Eko Wahyu Wibowo, head of the planetarium unit of the Jakarta Education Office, stated.
The location was crowded, and the roads surrounding the center were congested.
Despite the public's enthusiasm, the planetarium only provided 4.7 thousand special glasses to watch the solar eclipse.
Some of the visitors had queued up since 2 a.m. local time to ensure that they would be able to get the special glasses.
Wibowo was pleased that the sky over Jakarta was clear, and the process of the partial eclipse could be watched closely.
In Jakarta, the eclipse began at 6:19:20 a.m. local time and ended at 8:31:42 a.m. local time. The peak of the eclipse occurred at 7:21:32 a.m. local time.
Millions of Indonesians enthusiastically observed the solar eclipse totally or partly on Wednesday morning.
Several of them also thronged mosques to perform special eclipse prayers to praise Allah SWT for the spectacular phenomenon.
The total solar eclipse (TSE) was visible in 12 of Indonesia's 34 provinces, stretching some five thousand kilometers from east to west, before heading across the Pacific Ocean.
The TSE was visible for between one and a half to three minutes in most places, while the entire process of the eclipse lasted for more than two hours.
A TSE occurs when the Moon comes between the Sun and Earth and casts the darkest part of its shadow (the umbra) on Earth. During a total eclipse of the Sun, a Supermoon, which is a full Moon or a new Moon at its closest point to Earth, covers the entire disk of the Sun.
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