The morning of July 22 wasn’t just an ordinary morning, not by any stretch of imagination whatsoever. There was an air of exuberant expectancy reverberating upon the ethereal envelope, which overtly smacked of gross ‘astronomical’ ramifications. Myriad sane homo sapiens were profusely smitten by a once-in-a-lifetime celestial treat; an ephemeral cosmic odyssey which in essence was a sight to behold. It was ‘darkness at dawn’ as India woke up to a ‘black sunrise’; a rare total solar eclipse had literally plunged vast swaths of India into darkness just around the stroke of dawn. Millions of people, who had waited with bated breath since wee hours of the morning to catch an atypical glance of the alluring ‘diamond ring’, the sun’s corona shining around the moon’s shadow for those elusive few moments, were finally enthralled and ecstatic. The 21st century had finally witnessed a total solar eclipse, which lasted for about 6 minutes 44 seconds, making it the longest eclipse of the century.

The solar eclipse instantly initiated a clear dichotomy among various cross-section of people vis-à-vis their variegated, skeptical and murky perceptions. It was a unique occasion for both astrologers and astronomers alike; the former cautioned it as an event that could spell global doom while the latter felt elated to be a part of this rare celestial luxury of sorts. This apart, nearly 15 lakh pilgrims from various parts of India took a dip in the sacred sarovars (holy ponds) near Kurukshetra, Haryana, on that consecrated morning coinciding with the eclipse. But as was evidently axiomatic from the amalgam of a sea of humanity of sycophants with a celestial bent of mind, succinctly portraying a sense of cosmic toadyism, science finally got the better mawkish religious abandon, hitherto steeped neck-deep in antiquated and credulous beliefs.

Before delving into an assortment of facets of the rare solar eclipse as was witnessed in and around Guwahati by myriad cosmic-smitten Guwahatians, a peep into the hitherto little known astronomical anecdotes of solar eclipses and its quaint history, would not only be an inquisitively interesting endeavour, but at the same time, test our rusted indices of inquisitiveness.

The word eclipse is actually of Greek origin literally meaning ‘abandonment’. A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially covered. This can only happen during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from the Earth. Without the sun’s light, the sky darkens enough for stars to be seen and the sun’s corona makes a spectacular halo around the moon. Eclipses are also scientifically interesting because they allow a rare glimpse of the cooler corona, glowing gases near the sun’s surface and solar flares, which are normally not visible due to the brightness of the sun.

Eclipses of the Sun are awe-inspiring phenomena. It is no wonder that in many early cultures they were believed to be the end of the world or omens. In China, India, southeastern Asia and Peru there were beliefs that dragons or demons attack the Sun during eclipses. The ancient Egyptian myth of the snake Apep that attacks the boat of the Sun god is believed now to refer to solar eclipses. The Chinese and the Incas tried to frighten these monsters away but the Indians made a different attempt by immersing themselves in water. They performed this religious ritual to help the Sun struggle against the dragon. Even today, in some countries, it is still traditional to bang pots, chant or shoot into the air when an eclipse happens. Some superstitions that believe solar eclipses emit harmful radiation or cause sickness still persist.

The first datable record of a solar eclipse was in June 15, 763 BC, in Assyria, (Mesopotamia, Iraq), but earlier notations, among them Chinese diviners’ queries on oracle bones from 1,300-1,100 BC, clearly refer to eclipses. Ancient eclipse records made in China and Babylonia are believed to be over 4,000 years ago. Astronomers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) used Chinese observations of five solar eclipses that occurred between 1161 BCE and 1226 BCE to study the rate of Earth’s axial rotation over the past 3,200 years. These eclipses were scratched on oxen shoulder blades in the Chinese city of Anyang. From 720 BC-480 BC, astronomers in the state of Lu, now China’s Shandong province, recorded eclipses that can be reliably dated. By the first millennium AD, Chinese imperial astronomers could predict eclipses with an accuracy of within 15 minutes. Recent research has demonstrated that solar eclipses had been depicted in the fascinating mythology of ancient Egypt, and produced evidence that the ancient Egyptians observed solar eclipses over 4,500 years ago.

One of the most important historical solar eclipses is that of the annular solar eclipse of January 27, 632 AD. It was visible in Medina during the lifetime of Prophet Mohammad and coincided with the death of his little son Ibrahim. The Prophet stated explicitly and definitely that the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon are not bad omens, but are cosmic spectacles that demonstrate the might and knowledge of Allah the Great. The Egyptian astronomer and mathematician Ibn Yunus (950 AD-1009 AD), regarded as one of the greatest observational astronomers of his time, made important, precise observations of lunar and solar eclipses in Cairo. The element helium was discovered on August 18, 1868, by the French astronomer Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen (1824-1907) when he observed the spectrum of the Sun during a total eclipse in India. Helium is the second most abundant chemical element in the Universe. The total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, is famous for astronomical observations that were carried out during that eclipse and confirmed some of Einstein’s (1879-1955) work on general relativity. British astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944) travelled to the island of Principe near Africa to observe that eclipse. He sought to verify Einstein’s conclusion that light is deflected in the gravitational fields of celestial objects, i.e., the gravitational field of a star like the Sun acts as if it were a huge, cosmic lens that refracts light.

Fast forwarding the clock of history to more recent times and coming back closer to home, people of Guwahati city had observed an almost near total visibility of 99.8% of the solar eclipse on that very special morning of July 22. It must be remembered that July 22 is the 203rd day of the year (204th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. According to Guwahati Planetarium curator Babul Chandra Bora: “Though Guwahati city was not under the Total Solar Eclipse (TSE) zone, yet, Guwahatians could experience a partial solar eclipse. Thus, Guwahati, in essence, experienced a partial solar eclipse, which started at around 5:30 am, reaching its ‘greatest phase’ with an obscurance of 99.8% of the sun’s disc at 6:30 am. It finally ended at 7:37am. The visibility and duration of the solar eclipse got enhanced to a considerable extent in those places which were located north of Guwahati city, like Changsari, Baihata Chariali, Goreswar and Tezpur, besides such other places like Goalpara and also Majuli in Jorhat. It was because the path of totality of this solar eclipse had passed through north of Guwahati and covered most places of Assam on the north bank of Brahmaputra. It had missed Guwahati by only few kilometres and the totality in Guwahati was about 99.8%. Baihata Chariali witnessed the longest solar eclipse of the century, with TSE lasting for about two minutes.” He also went on to add: “Thank God, Guwahatians were lucky as weather didn’t play a spoilsport. In most parts of Assam like Dibrugarh and Tinisukia, weather had played a complete spoilsport, where thousands of enthusiasts had converged to watch the sight but could not do so as rain clouds obscured the eclipse.”

Among the many Guwahatians, the lucky school-going brother-sister duo of Vikramaditya and Sanghamitra Bhattacharjya, who had viewed this rare spectacle, using special solar view goggles from their Kahilipara residence, had this to say in utter ecstasy: “Our joy knew no bounds, when we both saw that beautiful ‘diamond ring’. It was a sort of a dim-light effect, which we usually see in our bedroom. We didn’t want to miss it by any means, as it was a lifetime spectacle. Our sweet mother, Gitika Bhattacharjya, who had also joined us in viewing the eclipse, allowed us to skip school for that day.” Veteran astrologer Tilak Chandra Sarma (Shastriji), who had also viewed the eclipse from his Milanpur residence at Chandmari, was more profound while echoing his views: “The eclipse actually took place in the holy month of Sharavan (July-August). This is the month when Mother Nature nourishes the Earth with monsoon rains. It is also the month when Lord Shiva was born. According to Indian astrology, it’s actually the Shudra graha (planet) Rahu that covers the Sun during an eclipse.” Ending his conversation on a more pragmatic note, he finally said: “There is absolutely no need for people to fear the Sun during an eclipse as it is the most powerful celestial object of the universe.”

Total eclipses, in essence, are very rare. According to Professor Siraj Hasan, Director of the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), “an average of 230 eclipses take place in a century and the previous longest duration for a total solar eclipse was registered in 1955, when it occurred for 7 minutes and 31 seconds.” The next annular eclipse, in which the moon crosses the centre of the sun but does not fully cover it, will be visible in central Africa, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China on January 15, 2010. The next total eclipse, on July 11, 2010, will only cross the South Pacific, making landfall only on the Cook Islands and Easter Island. Babul Chandra Bora, while giving details about future solar eclipses said: “The next total solar eclipse in India will take place on March 20, 2034, through Jammu and Kashmir as its totality path. But an eclipse of such a magnitude in the Brahmaputra valley as had occurred on July 22, 2009, is not likely to take place within the next 900 years.”

Saikh Md Sabah Al-Ahmed