Can solar eclipse occur only on newmoon day? Eclipse on 01.08.08 is after newmoon day. Why?

Question

Eclipse on 1st Aug 08 is after new moon time. Newmoon ('Amavasi' in Indian astrology ) is only till 3PM IST. Eclipse occured just after this time in south India. Please Explain..

Answer 1

Solar Eclipse occurs on New moon day only. This is obvious by seeing the path of the moon traveling in between Earth and Sun which results in Eclipse

Answer 2

Eclipse started in Western hemisphere. So, technically it is on the previous day, there. Perhaps this situation is not envisaged by our Siddhanta karta s of ancient Indian astronomy.

Answer 3

The time of new moon is when the sun and moon are in line as seen from the centre of the earth. Because of parallax, the moon appears in a slightly different position depending where you are viewing it from on the earth's surface. This can lead to a difference of up to two hours in the time when the moon appears to line up with the sun, as seen from some locations, compared with the time of new moon.

Answer 4

There is no such thing as newmoon day.  New moon occurs at a particular instant, and at that instant different places on the earth have diferent times and dates.