Can be seen from all India
Hello and Namaste. Diwali, the festival of light is coming soon. To accompany the festival of light, a rare show of light and shadow will also be there. Moon will partially obstruct sunlight on the evening of 25th October and so we will have a chance to observe a partial solar eclipse. I personally remember watching a wonderful solar eclipse as a kid in 1995. So for kids, this will be a wonderful opportunity to experience something new and rare.
How to watch?
Observing sun directly through the naked eyes is harmful to the eyes. So we cannot watch it by directly looking at the Sun. But we can surely enjoy this show. The best way to watch this eclipse is through solar goggles. Still there are some days, so you can purchase them. They are also available online. One more simple and safe option is to use a pinhole camera projector- a simple arrangement of a cardboard box having one small pinhole and one window. You can check about this on youtube too. Kids can enjoy making such a pinhole camera. Just google, find some youtube videos and let your kids do it. Let’s give them a chance to do something on their own and experience themselves!
The easiest option is this- You can find a ball. Stick a small mirror on the ball. Cover this small mirror surface by a thick paper or dark paper (if possible foil paper would be better). Then make a very small 3 mm hole on this paper. The hole is so small and that’s why it is called a pin- hole. Now you can place this ball on some utensil or some box and then position it in such a way that sunlight gets reflected from this hole in the mirror and you can see the image on an area in shadow like a wall that is some 30 feet away. For doing this, you need to have your back at the Sun. NEVER DIRECTLY LOOK AT THE SUN! This way you can get an image of Sun on a wall that is in shadow. If the wall has white colour, it would be good.
Here the small hole works as a lens and we get a very large inverted image on the wall that is some distance away. We cannot directly look at the Sun, but here we can easily enjoy image of the Sun. During eclipse, you can easily see that the disk of Sun is obstructed by the Moon. As the mirror is mounted on the ball, you can easily adjust its position and height and also you can keep it steady.
When to enjoy it?
Depending on your location, this can be observed from around two hours before the Sunset till the Sunset on 25th October. You can check exact timing and percentage of the eclipse here. So do not miss this and give your kids good exposure. They can also enjoy making this small arrangement. Only a ball, a small mirror, a thick piece of paper and a small pin is needed. You can plan to be ready with everything and take the image of Sun from around 4.30 pm on 25th October. If you are in North India, it is earlier than this. Do share your experience and reaction of the kids.
(Niranjan Welankar conducts sky watching sessions and fun- learn sessions. He also conducts sessions for fitness and meditation. To know more, you can contact: 09422108376, niranjanwelankar@gmail.com)
👌👌👌👌
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