The Hindu : Front Page : A rare show of cosmic event

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 03, 2005

Front Page

Front Page

A rare show of cosmic event

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Yet again Nehru Planetarium here in the Capital is all set to make the October 3 solar eclipse a memorable event for people, particularly students, interested in our solar system by organising an exclusive sky-watch and doing live planetarium shows informing them about interesting aspects of the rare cosmic event.

Though the annular eclipse will be visible only partially all over India where less than 20 per cent of the Sun eclipsed will be seen in Northern States, the scientific community here feels that it is time to break myths and superstitions related to this rare and wonderful event and inculcate scientific temper among people. Interestingly, the annular eclipse that can be seen at maximum phase from India will be on January 15, 2010.

In India, the partial solar eclipse will begin at 4-12 p.m. and end at 6-03 p.m. The timings in Delhi will be 4-20 p.m. to 5-28 p.m., Mumbai 4-11 p.m. to 6-02 p.m. and Chandigarh 4-21 p.m. to 5-18 p.m. In some cities it will be visible till sunset -- Chennai (4-25 p.m. onwards), Kolkata (4-31 p.m. onwards), Bangalore (4-21 p.m. onwards) and Hyderabad (4-21 p.m. onwards).

The Nehru Planetarium here along with the Amateur Astronomers Association will be conducting an eclipse skywatch from the back lawns of Teen Murti House between 4 p.m. and 5-30 p.m. During the event, students will get an opportunity to calculate the angular diameters of the Sun and the Moon to know many aspects of eclipses.

According to Nehru Planetarium Director N Rathnasree: "From India, we will be missing seeing the eclipse in its full glory -- a fiery outer ring of the Sun left uncovered by the Moon at maximum eclipse. However, by marking the shape of the eclipse on a projection screen, students can easily imagine how the full eclipse will be elsewhere in the world. All this will be explained at the event being organised."

Cautioning that no one should look at the Sun directly as its sharp rays can damage the retina, Dr. Rathnasree said the safest method to witness the eclipse would be to look at a projected image of the Sun. Similarly, it would also be possible to take images of the eclipse by using a digital camera equipped with an LCD display.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page

News Update

Stories in this Section