vIndian.com (16 Jan, 2010) — Rameshwaram/Thiruvananthapuram: It was less than dark but more than twilight in the noon and the sky produced a ring of fire on Friday as the moon came in between the sun and earth to mark the millennium’s longest solar eclipse in this southern tip and its neighbourhood.
It was a spectacular sight when the photosphere of the sun was covered by the moon thereby forming a ring of fire in the sky for more than 10 minutes and which will repeat only in 3014.
For a change, the public in general and the scientist fratenity in parituclarly, turned out in hordes to witness solar eclipse, whose visibility was long and clear in Kerala.
The rare celestial spectacle which began after 11.30am till over 3pm was watched by hundreds of people and scholl children anf also foreign tourists and was aptly called a “solar festival”.
The Kerala state government made special arrangements for viewing the celestial phenomenon.
Even Science and Technology Museum, a number of colleges and schools made special arrangements for viewing the eclipse, for which glasses and filters were distributed by observatory in the state capital and also by the corporation.
One scientist called the enthusiasm shown by the people and student community as a “positive sign”.
The event also turned out to be an occasion to dispel the superstitious belief attached to solar eclipse for centuries.
However many Indians followed taboos such as staying indoors or abstaining from eating or cooking during the eclipse period. Several Hindu temples remained closed for the duration of the eclipse.
Thousands prepared to take a holy bath to cleanse themselves of the effects of the eclipse as soon as it ended.
The Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, a major facility of indian space agency Indian Space Research Organisation, conducted comprehensive tests of data obtained from the eclipse as the insight on ions thrown up by the event is said to be important for space science.
Since two of India’s rocket bases were in the path of the moon’s shadow, and ISRO set off nine small sounding rockets before, during and after the eclipse to investigate its effects on the atmosphere.
A team of astronomers photographed the millennium’s longest annular solar eclipse using three telescopes from Varkala, a western coastal town of Kerala, located on the edge of the eclipse path.
Varkala is on the edge of the eclipse region and the best view of the ‘Baily’s beads’ would be from here.
A selected team of school principals, teachers and 10 students from schools in New Delhi, Shimla and Hyderabad too were in Thiruvananthapuram during the Solar Eclipse.
In another angle, about 800 astro tourists undertook the first ever ‘Eclipse Tour’ to Maldives to view the eclipse.
Maldives is located north of the equator so passengers can veiw the southern sky constellations — the large and small magellanic clouds, ‘Crux’ galaxies and constellations which cannot be viewed from India.
As the shadow of the moon eclipsed the sun on Friday afternoon, leaving only a blazing ring of fire visible, scientists, eclipse chasers and spectators gathered in Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu cheered.
Thousands had assembled at the seaside pilgrimage spot to witness this rare celestial phenomenon — an annular eclipse of the sun for over 11 minutes.
In an annular eclipse the sun and moon are directly in line with the viewing point on earth and the outer rim of the sun is visible around the moon’s smaller shadow.
“I’ve seen many eclipses. But this is the first time I saw the golden ring of fire. It was perfect,” said Paresh Sanyal, who travelled some 2,260km from Kolkata to Dhanushkodi. Sanyal, a veteran of 15 eclipses, calls himself an ecliptomaniac.
Several skywatchers watched the celestial spectacle from Nehru Planetarium in New Delhi where special arrangements were made.
Kanyakumari, the country’s southernmost tip, turned out to be an ‘eclipse destination’, as thousands of people converged there to watch the celestial spectacle.
According to media reports, it was defeaning silence in Haridwar, otherwise bustling Maha Kumbh Mela, the scene of hectic religious activities only a day before at the start of three-month-long Maha Kumbh, when the devout took to meditation to ward off “possible ill effects” of the eclipse.
They thronged the bathing ghats once the event was over.
In Kurukshetra, a large number of pilgrims from all over the country thronged the holy city for taking a holy dip in the Brahamsarovar and the Sannihit Sarovar.
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