The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : City keeps its date with Venus

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

City keeps its date with Venus

By Our Staff Reporter

Bangaloreans used all available means to watch the transit of Venus on Tuesday. Many science enthusiasts gathered at the planetarium to have a safe glimpse of the sun and Venus. — Photo: K. Gopinathan

BANGALORE, JUNE 8. A glimpse of Venus in transit mattered most to Bangaloreans on Tuesday. Scores of people thronged Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium on Sankey Road, Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum on Kasturba Road and a couple of other places where special facilities were arranged to view the celestial event.

Many others were glued to television at home or in office. Some browsed the web to view live pictures.

Young and old alike, and people from all strata of society, queued up at the venues with great enthusiasm to witness the fascinating event.

Some carried handycams, and others cameras and solar filters of different shapes. The general feeling among stargazers was one of excitement even as the serpentine queues to witness the phenomenon through the reflecting and refracting telescopes never seemed to shorten. Many skipped their office work, while others travelled long distances to reach the venues.

Luckily for Bangaloreans, rain did not play spoilsport. Clouds did appear once in a while, but the sky was generally clear. The transit of Venus occurs when the sun, Earth and Venus come in a straight line. Only six transits of Venus have taken place between 1631 and 1882. It will recur on June 6, 2012.

At the planetarium, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sponsored the facilities to view the transit.

People shared their excitement with The Hindu . Susan, who teaches at Presidency School, said she had brought students of classes eight and nine to the planetarium. They were divided into groups and asked to prepare reports on what they saw and heard at the place. The students were seen jostling for space to be the first among the viewers.

For geologist Jayarajan, the rare sight looked like the two (the sun and Venus) "playing table tennis after a gap of 122 years".

Vineet, a 10th standard student of New Horizon School, said what he saw through the telescope helped him understand better what he had read in his textbooks.

"It is indeed an amazing and a lifetime experience to witness," said Krishnamurthy, a statistician. Observing it through the telescope was better than viewing it through solar filters. "The difference is comparable to a simple-lens camera and a wide-angle lens camera." Arti, a non-resident Indian, took pride in the fact that it could be viewed and was visible only in eastern countries such as India. For Bharati, a corporate manager, the event was worth half-a-day's leave. So too for her son, a class-four student. She did not want to miss the chance. When pointed out that she could witness it again after eight years, she quipped, "The future is uncertain." Most Bangaloreans, who saw the phenomenon, seemed to agree with her.

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