Fearful Indian villagers await solar eclipse

Press, 16 February 1980, Page 9

Fearful Indian villagers await solar eclipse

Bv

GRANVILLE WATTS.

of Reuter’s (through NZPA) New Delhi

Indians are preparing for a spectacular astronomical event today — a total eclipse of the sun. The darkness at noon begins at 12.42 p.m. Indian Standard Time (8.12 p.m. NZDT) in the south Atlantic Ocean and the path of totality cuts across Africa and the Arabian Sea and hits India’s west coast at 3.39 p.m. (11.9 p.m. NZDT). The giant shadow, cast over a belt up to 130 km wide, travels about 1700km/h, in a north-easter-ly direction leaving India’s east coast and ending in Mongolia. ' It'should be partially visible over southern Asia and parts of South-East Asia and China. ■ Thirteen rockets will be launched from three weather stations to study sun-weath-er relationship during the eclipse and more than 1000

’scientists from India and abroad have already staked out their observation points. The scientists include astronomers from the United States and Britain and the world famous science-fiction writer and space expert, Arthur C. Clarke.

But millions of ordinary Indians will also view the phenomenon which was described thus in one early British account: “Just before the Sun is entirely covered, the landscape assumes an unearthly hue. Awe seizes the beholder. One sometimes sees the Moon’s shadow advancing through the air with terrify-! ing swiftness as if to smite! him. I “In a few seconds it! reaches him and the last rayl of sunlight is gone, the plan-; ets and bright stars appear. Around the black bail now hanging in the sky, the pearly corona flashes out in all its weird beauty. At its base glow the prominences, like rubies set in pearl. Men’s

faces grow ghastly. The silence of death is on the beholders.”

Indeed many Indians are already scared at the prospect of the eclipse, having been warned by India’s numerous astrologers and amateur astronomers not to eat before, during or after the sun goes out. In ancient times, eclipses of the Sun were regarded as portents of disaster, and some Indian astrologers have warned that the February 16 eclipse will be followed by a disastrous earthquake in India. A strong earthouake in the mountainous Ladakh area in the north-west caused panic on Thursday among fearful villagers.

For the first time the Indian National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences is conducting an experiment' to measure the rate of excitement of patients before and after the eclipse.