[Update January 15th, 2010]: for information on Surya Grahan on 15th January 2010, please go here.
Eclipse has religious and astrological importance in our life. Hindu religion advises observing a different daily routine (din-charya) on the day of eclipse. Astrology, especially Mundane astrology (branch of astrology used to predict world affairs and world events, as opposed to individual's events), uses eclipse as one of the most important tools for predictions.
Generally we rely on Panchang for knowing the exact date and time of eclipse. I have talked about eclipse calculators available on Internet and now there is another very good tool named Wolfram announced that can help us in finding eclipse related information. Wolfram is a new search engine technology that uses natural language processing to give results of query which are more than just keywords and answers graphically. I'll not talk more about Wolfram because that is not purpose of this post, rather stick to our topic of getting date and time for the next eclipse.
You can go to http://www.wolframalpha.com/ and search for "Next Solar Eclipse" to get the details of the upcoming eclipse. You can also simply click on this link and it will show you the date and time of the next eclipse. It will not only show you the date and time of the eclipse but also other important information like duration, countries where visible, graphical view (see image above) etc. I am sure it will be a very useful tool for astrologers as well as general Indian public.
Of course, Wolfram is not limited just to finding eclipses and it can be used for many other scientific, mathematical and astronomical purposes. You can try out following queries as well (just click the link) -
1. Compute Next Lunar Eclipse
2. Compute Next Solor Eclipse
3. Compute the location of Venus on 17th May 2009
Just to save your time, here are the dates and times for upcoming eclipses given by Wolfram-
Next Lunar Eclipse
3:09 PM IST on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 (Note: this is Penumbral Lunar Eclipse and doesn't regarded as eclipse for astrological as well as religious purpose)
Next Solar Eclipse
8:05 AM IST on Wednesday July 22, 2009 (Starts: 6:23 AM, Maximum: 8:05 AM, End: 9:47 AM)
My Panchang (Chinta Haran) tells following information about the complete eclipse on 22nd July -
"There will be complete Solar Eclipse on 22nd July 2009, Hindu date - 'Shravan Krishna 30, Wednesday, Samvat 2066.' This eclipse will be visible throughout India. According to Indian Standard Time, the entry time of this Solar Eclipse will be 5:28 AM. Mean time for Solar Eclipse will be 6:23 AM and the exit time will be 10:42AM. This eclipse will be on Pushya Nakshatra and Cancer Sign (Karka Rashi)."
As we can see there is slight variation in the start, maximum and end time of my Panchang and Wolfram data. I cross checked with Nasa utility and found that my Panchang calculation is little more closer to the Nasa calculation than the Wolfram calculation. Still I believe that Wolfram calculation is good enough for most proposes, also graphical representation is something that can not be found anywhere else.
If time permits, I'll also write about the forecast for this solar eclipse for everybody. Please subscribe to this blog to keep updated and get articles in your email.
1. Solar Eclipse (Surya Grahan) Calculator
2. Lunar Eclipse (Chandra Grahan) Calculator
3. My articles on Mundane Astrology