Skygazers and enthusiasts on Thursday gathered on Beach Road in Puducherry to catch a glimpse of the partial solar eclipse.
A large number of children were among the crowd that eagerly gathered behind Mahatma Gandhi statue to watch the rare celestial event.
The Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Science Centre-cum-Planetarium had made elaborate arrangements to enable the public to witness the partial eclipse through solar-filter telescope.
The annular solar eclipse, with the sun appearing as a ‘ring of fire’ in the morning sky, was visible in Nilgiris, Coimbatore and several parts of South India.
An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon, due to its distance from the earth, fails to cover the entire sun, thus accentuating its contours to form a ‘ring of fire’ , or an annulus around the moon. At the Beach Road, people were seen viewing the event through eclipse glasses distributed by the planetarium staff.
A. Hemavathy, vice-president of Pondicherry Science Forum (PSF), said the partial solar eclipse started at 8.08 a.m. and ended at 11.14 a.m. At 9.34 a.m. around 81 per cent of the eclipse was visible in Puducherry.
PSF had made arrangements to enable people to view the eclipse at 47 locations in Puducherry and Karaikal. The next total solar eclipse in Puducherry will be in 2031, she said.
Participants were also informed about the dos and don’ts while watching the solar eclipse, dispelling wrong notions around the event.
