As the denizens of the earth look upwards and see the sun die, they themselves will be in the thrall of ``death,'' and, as Virginia Woolf watching a similar phenomenon 52 years ago put it, in amazement ``recover'' as it were.

However, the last celestial spectacle of the millennium may bring little cheer to the less fortunate astronomy enthusiasts, who could not pack their bags to go to Iran or Cornwall in England to view the phenomenon in all its majesty. For one, India is the last nation in the shadow's path. For another, the shadow enters India with the sun's altitude at just seven degrees and races across the subcontinent in just about six minutes prior to sunset at 18.06.23 hours when it disappears into space from the Bay of Bengal. The velocity of the umbra as it enters India at 2 kms per second increases to nearly 3.5 kms per second as it disappears from the Bay of Bengal.

To cap it all, is the monsoon weather and meteorologists estimate there is just 5 per cent chance of clear skies. Also the eclipse duration dips sharply. When the shadow enters the West Coast the duration of the eclipse is 1 minute 1 second. by the time it crosses the Indian landfall it has decreased further to just about 20 seconds. The last place on land to witness totality in India will be Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh with a duration of just 25 seconds.

Though not exactly under the centreline of the umbra, Jalgaon and Amravati in the state will have fleeting glimpse of totality, that is if the skies are not already dark owing to monsoon clouds. While Ahmedabad is just out of the umbral region, Vadodara ought to experience noticeable totality given fair weather. In contrast, Karachi in Pakistan will experience 1 minute and 13 seconds of total eclipse. Sadly, for Mumbaikars, the chances of witnessing even a partial eclipse look very much dim. At the other end, Calcutta will witness a partial eclipse of 0.879 in magnitude with the Sun just 2 degrees above the horizon.

``It will be the total eclipse that will be seen by the most people in history because of the path it is taking and because of the way the world's population has grown,'' said Brigadier Gage Williams, Britain's Eclipse Coordinator.

According to statistics put out by NASA, the instant of the greatest eclipse, that is when the distance between Moon's shadow axis and Earth's geocentre reaches the minimum, will be experienced by Romanians. At that point the epicentre of the shadow is located among the ``rolling hills of south-central Romania.'' Here the length of the totality reaches the maximum duration of 2 minutes 23 seconds. In Cornwall Peninsula, where it is a festive season with every conceivable gimmick being employed to cash in on the event, the maximum duration is enjoyed by Plymouth, that of 1 minute 39 seconds, but London will only witness partiality of 0.968 magnitude.

However, in areas of distinct totality the spectacle will be awesome as the day disappears and the sky is filled with planets, stars, comets and meteors - only to vanish as the shadow races away - like a conjuror's trick, willing unto sight the very universe as it were in the `dark' of the day.

Lasting for 3 hours and 7 minutes, the moon's umbra would have travelled along a path of approximately 14,000 kms covering 0.2 per cent of the earth's surface at speeds ranging from about 0.65 ks per second to 3.5 kms per second, bringing to a close the last celestial spectacle of the century.

The path of the moon's umbral shadow begins in the Atlantic and crosses Central Europe, the Middle East and India. The moon's umbral shadow first touches down the Earth at 15:00:57 IST. At the beginning the umbral path is 49 km wide and the totality lasts for just 47 seconds on the central track. The instant of greatest eclipse occurs at 16:33:04 IST. The duration of totality will be two minutes and 23 seconds there. the umbral path is 14,000 im long and will be 112 km wide at the maximum. this covers only 0.2 per cent of the Earth's surface area. The umbra travels this distance in a period of about three hours and seven minutes.

The umbral shadow touches India at 17:58 IST. It enters India at the western border in the Rann of Kutch. The duration of totality here will be 1 minute 14 seconds. The central path then passes from Lakhpat to Vadodara in Gujarat. Here, the duration is one minute two seconds. It then enters Maharashtra. The shadow passes near Khetia, Yaval, bhusawal, Akola, Yavatmal and Chandrapur. The duration of totality decreases from one minute to 55 seconds. Then through Andhra Pradesh it leaves India near Vishakhapatnam at 18:06 IST. The umbra leaves the earth at 18:06:23 IST.