Gear up for a celestial special on Wednesday

Star-gazers in Madhya Pradesh or Bihar watch out. A total solar eclipse awaits you on Wednesday morning. This rare celestial encounter is taking place after 100 years.
Travel agencies have come up with tour packages to vantage locations from where the eclipse can be watched. “We’ll take foreigners to all places in India where the total eclipse is visible,” said Anju Bali of Vibgyor Travels Pvt. Ltd.

The religious are gearing up for the day many consider ominous. “Usually people like to donate food. Some give away clothes worn during the eclipse,” says Aruna Jaitley, a government school teacher. Pregnant women stay indoors as it is believed the eclipse can harm the foetus. Many don’t cook. Eclipse over, they replace the water in jars and change the linen in the house. Others read the Ramayana. Temples are closed during an eclipse.

The rationalists are no less excited. The Indian Institute of Astrophysics has planned some experiments to study the existence of waves in the outer ring of the sun during a total eclipse. 

Eclipse Chasers  Athenæum, the eclipse sphere of SPACE, will find ‘how the shadow band intensity and duration vary as a function of distance from the centre of the eclipse totality and as a function of altitude of the eclipsing sun’.

“We are also organising a trip from Delhi to China via Patna on a chartered plane. We will go till China to watch the eclipse,” said Ajay Talwar, observation head, SPACE.