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| Jammu misses centurial event | | Rains, cloudy sky cover solar eclipse | |
MUNISH GUPTA
Jammu, Jul 22: Rare celestial event of the largest solar eclipse of the century became a missed opportunity for people in Jammu region today as since early morning the school children and sky gazers were preparing themselves for the rare celestial phenomenon but all their hopes were dashed as it started raining heavily soon after the day break. The solar eclipse which started shortly after the sunrise at 5.28 a.m was overshadowed by the dark clouds in Jammu. Dark clouds were hovering over the city landscape amid flash lightening since last evening giving jitters to the self styled astronomers and young children.
Academician Jitender Kumar said it was a natural process and ''we should not propagate superstitions by talking or discussing about its possible ill impact on human life and habitation.'' ''Unscientific discussion would only spread superstition,'' Mr Kumar said.
A class XII student, Nishat Parashar, was a bit annoyed with the weather gods depriving him of a rare sight but he said he consoled himself by sitting in front of the television set and catching the event on different channels.
I have made all the preparations to catch the rare event in my mobile but the rain god spoiled all my wishes says Rahul a businessman.
The college student, who spent a sleepless night did feel let down and said he missed the opportunity of a life time. But even that fleeting glimpse of the phenomenon, which will next be seen after 123 years, was enough, he said.
Anirudh ,a class IX student who was fully geared up to watch the celestial event and had even prepared temporary goggles to witness the event with naked eyes was disappointed when he had to sit inside his room due to heavy downpour.
Not willing to waste the opportunity he switched on the Television and watched the special broadcast live.He was completely awestruck when he saw diamond ring during one of the live broadcast shows from Varanasi, where lakhs of devotees and astronomers had queued up to witness the solar eclipse
Meanwhile experts and researchers from Kashmir University’s Department of Physics on Wednesday witnessed partially the longest eclipse of the century.
The team comprising Dr Naseer Iqbal, Dr Waseem Bari and a Scientist Sudipta Sasmal from Indian Centre for Space Physics (ICSP), Kolkata witnessed the eclipse through the “specially prepared” receivers and filters.
In Srinagar, the eclipse was scheduled to start at 5. 40 AM IST, but due to bad weather it has been observed from 6.20 AM onwards. There was a 59.4 % of coverage by the moon and this has been observed at peak eclipse time 6.30 a.m. The event continued up to 7. 24 a.m. The magnitude of the mid eclipse was supposed to be 0.666.
Moreover hundreds of people were seen gathered at various places, like Parmandal in Jammu district and Devak near Udhampur town, to take a dip after the eclipse was over.
Temples in this ‘City of Temples’, which were closed last evening to ward off ill-effects of the solar eclipse, were opened after special pooja after the period of event.
The total eclipse lasted for three minutes and 48 seconds at Taregna, which hit national and international headlines as the celestial phenomenon was believed to be best glimpsed from here.
Taregna has an ancient connection with astronomy, having been one of the two places used by 6th century Indian astronomer-mathematician Aryabhatta for his celestial studies. It is believed he was the first to announce -- after his marathon research in an observatory at Taregna -- that the earth revolves around the sun.
It needs to be mention that the last total solar eclipses visible in India were in 1995 and 1999. After 22 July solar eclipse, the next total solar eclipse will occur in 2034 mainly in northern India in parts of Jammu and Kashmir and following that will be another total eclipse in 2087. This is the last opportunity for the present generation to view a total solar eclipse.
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