Solar Eclipse

I have never used my blog till date to share some gyan[:D] , So let me break that routine.Though not sure how many will agree that this news was useful :).

This is about solar eclipse , Friday 15th january 2010 being solar eclipse i'm pretty sure every one in bangalore / southern india will be super excited about it as one can see ~85% of eclipse very close to seeing a ring.

But I'm equally sure that right since we were 3~4 year old's when one was old enough to understand the funda of solar eclipse we were told not to look at the sun and not eat during the period of solar eclipse and also it is prevanlent in many households (I dont think i need to mention that it is strictly followed in my place)to put a dried grass by name darbe into all containers with cooked food stuff and into water.

I remember i had aways resented it and called it stupidity but all such harsh comments gleefully ignored until i turned 10~11 and there was a total solar eclipse visible in bangalore and all my school pals were busy buying some goggles to view solar eclipse and my mom knew that it was inevitable to convince me about it ..

By then i atleast had some sense that eyes have a lens which can concentrate the light and focus on retina to burn it out which can result in blindness, But was a super confident on those goggles and was ready to watch it for minutes, But then it was only when mom explained it to me did i realize , so here i quote though not exact words but on similar lines..

Firslty i have already mentioned as to why one should not look at the sun not only on eclipse but on any day for that matter .

Now coming to goggles what exactly does it do ? All it does is that it reduces the intentisity in the order of 10^6 (Also tries to block uv and IR rays) but still exposure to longer duration beyond say 10secs is still harmful { To prove this you can do simple experiment of using a lens and hold it against sun with a paper held below (once in bright sunlight and then in shade) ,Both the time its going to burn the paper though in shade it may take a little longer.}

Also there is no guarantee that the goggle is conformant with what is it is expected to do and it is not a risk worth considering the gift of vision is at stake.

Now coming to the topic of why to fast during solar eclipse and the usage of darbe.. It is told that during solar eclipse there are certain harmful rays which increases the bacterial growth and thus not advisable to eat , and darbe is known to have great capacity to diffract light and sound waves and thus used to preserve the cooked food."

So when i was about to leave almost convinced but greatly disappointed that i cannot watch eclipse ,

Mom stopped me and gave me a 15"X15"(approx)cardboard and asked me to cut out a 2"X2" hole and paste chocolate wrapper(Aluminum foil also will do). and make a small hole in it and to hold it against the sun and look at the reflection it cast , I didnt believe that it would work but surprisingly it did only later did i know that it was easier version of a pinhole camera.That was how i watched my first solar eclipse and waiting to watch one on 15th :).

Now before i forget I musnt forget how mom and her siblings used to watch solar eclipse in her village , they used to get cow dung and mix it with water in a bucket and used to watch the reflection cast by sun.. cool na I really love how one can go about even the seemingly toughest problem if one wants to do something really badly :).

Now i know i did enter the controversial territory when i quoted about harmful radiations from sun during solar eclipse , yes science says its bullshit but have they been able to prove it completely ? May be some of the facts proven by vedic period have turned out into plain non-sense superstition due to manipulation in stating those facts but we cant deny of all the glory , why dont we try to provide proofs to those facts (either proving them to absolute right or wrong) rather than bullshitting them and trying to hide them as a shame rather than displaying it as a star of our great heritage...