Solar Eclipse
A Partial solar eclipse in India on March 19, saw thousands of religious-minded people taking bath in rivers and praying, while the curious gathered at planetariums to watch the celestial show. Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, blotting out the sunlight.
In Delhi, the Sun rises at 6:27 by which time 8.5 percent of the disk of the Sun was already covered in eclipse. The eclipse was witnessed at its maximum at 7.06 a.m. with more than 47 percent of the sun covered. It ended at one minute past 8a.m.
All major Hindu temples in Andhra Pradesh were closed and hundreds of men and women took a dip in the river during the eclipse. Including children, took up vamtage points to watch the eclipse with solar filters, the more religious bathed in rivers in the belief it would protect them from the ill-effects of the eclipse.
A large number of students, gathered at the Biria Planetarium in Hyderabad to watch the solar eclipse. A student said that he had read about the eclipse only in text books, but that was the first time he had watched.
All Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu and Andra Pradesh, remained shut during the eclipse. The eclipse was also visible from Russia, China, the United States, Hong Kong, Japan and the northern regions of Alaska.
