Around 8 a.m. on Sunday, Elliot’s Beach was witness to an unusual sight — a large crowd of people gathered around telescopes, gazing at the sky. After minor arguments with some boys playing cricket right next to the expensive equipment, members of the Tamil Nadu Astronomical Society carefully adjusted their telescopes to focus directly on the sun. After all, it was International Sun-Day.
Around 8.30 a.m., the excitement in the crowd was clearly evident. It looked like some kind of smoke was emerging from the eastern side of the sun.
“Now that the sun is in the solar maximum phase, solar prominences are more common. The increased magnetic activity in the sun during the 11-year solar maximum results in a large number of solar prominences, where sparks appear to emanate from its side,” D. Vijayakumar, president of the society, explained.
Saturday, June 21, was the summer solstice, and the day after was the International Sun-Day — an event celebrated across 20 countries on the first Sunday after the summer solstice. “It is a way to create awareness on the sun. Even though everything that takes place here is because of the sun, few people know anything about it,” Mr. Vijayakumar said.
Nila Kadhir, a Class III student, after peering at the sun, looked up from the telescope and asked, “Why is it that the sun looks orange in one telescope and yellow in the other?” On getting her answer, she ran up to her parents to excitedly convey this bit of knowledge, “It is only because of the hydrogen in the sun that it looks orange in this picture, but this is not its true colour.”
“It is the children that are most important to me. If I am able to encourage young children to develop an interest in astronomy, I think my job is done,” Mr. Vijayakumar said.
The society has been working towards educating the public on the wonders of the sky for eight years. When the skies are clear, the 25 members get together, set up a telescope and try to reach out to people to understand our night sky better.
