A workshop was organised for school and college students in connection with the annular solar eclipse that occurs on December 26, at the Regional Science Centre here on Thursday.
Nandivara Rathnasree, Director of Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi, organised the workshop and J. R. Pazhaniswami, District Science Officer, Coimbatore, presided.
Nearly 290 students from eight colleges and five schools participated in the workshop, said Mr. Pazhaniswami. A sun projection box was set up at the Centre, where the image of the sun would be projected during the eclipse, he said. “This annular eclipse will be visible only in south India,” he noted adding that it would appear as partial eclipse in other parts.
Places where this annular ring would be visible within Tamil Nadu include Udhagamandalam, Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, Karur, Namakkal, Tiruchi and Rameswaram, Mr. Pazhaniswami said.
On the plans to organise similar workshops, Ms. Rathnasree said, “we are planning to cover 30 locations in three series.” A similar workshop was organised in Sainik School, Amaravathinagar, in Tiruppur on Wednesday. “The sun projection is the best method to observation and measurement of the solar eclipse,” she said, adding that directly looking at the sun was harmful to the eyes. The workshop encouraged the students to build their own sun projection boxes, she said.
Among the school and college students, Ms. Rathnasree said that the students of Class VIII and IX were the “most proactive” in the workshops.
