On February 16, 1980, India witnessed the primary whole photo voltaic eclipse of the century and it created a fantastic buzz amongst scientists and skygazers. As a younger pupil, Arvind Paranjpe, now the director of the Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai, set out along with his buddies to seize the occasion. “We went to a small village referred to as Shiggaon, situated close to the Maharashtra-Karnataka border. Taking our devices up a small hill, we tried to seize the eclipse utilizing Polaroid lights. We constructed a small non permanent darkish room and developed the movie there.
He has been an eclipse chaser since then and has witnessed 4 different whole photo voltaic eclipses – India (1995), Iran (1999), Zambia (2001) and the US (2017). He says that each eclipse has its personal appeal.
On December 4, a complete photo voltaic eclipse shall be seen from Antarctica, however Paranjpe will sadly miss the occasion.
Partial phases of the eclipse can be seen over the southern tip of South America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It won’t be seen from India.
Asked what was his favourite second to look at the eclipse, he says: “Just earlier than the eclipse you see the moon’s shadow coming in the direction of you at a excessive pace. If you might be on a mountain, you may see from the horizon far to the west that the shadow is approaching you in simply 4 to 5 seconds. It’s an fascinating sight however may scare you. ,
“Although I had traveled to China in 2009 to watch a total solar eclipse, the area was completely covered with clouds and I experienced a night comparable to the darkest of nights and left with a spooky feeling.”
He provides that one other stunning phenomenon referred to as shadow bands or wavy strains of transferring mild and darkness might be seen earlier than and after a complete photo voltaic eclipse. “I think the myth about snakes and solar eclipses may have originated when people saw shadows moving like snakes,” he laughs.
For astrophysicists, a photo voltaic eclipse gives a uncommon alternative to check the photo voltaic corona, or the outermost a part of the Sun’s environment. “There are nonetheless many unanswered questions concerning the photo voltaic corona. Why does it have such a excessive temperature of greater than 5500 °C? Most researchers research the Sun’s corona at totally different wavelengths throughout an eclipse.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
