Indian students on solar eclipse 'odyssey' to China

A group of 10 students from various schools of the country are among the lucky few chosen to watch the 21st century's longest solar eclipse from Anqing in China, one of the best places in the world to view the spectacle July 22, apart from a village in Bihar.

The students will leave for China Saturday on an eight-day scientific expedition called 'heliodyssey' to watch the eclipse that will last for six minutes and 44 seconds, making it the longest eclipse till 2132.

The students were selected through a countrywide online examination conducted May 17 by Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE), a Delhi-based organisation working to make science and astronomy popular among youngsters.

The students, a majority of them from Class 6 to 8, will be trained in various experiments and scientific procedures and will collect data related to temperature, intensity of light and humidity during the eclipse, besides studying the properties of the sun.

"There are several properties of the sun which can only be watched during a solar eclipse. The corona, which is the sun's outer atmosphere, is visible as a pearly white crown surrounding the sun only during a total solar eclipse," SPACE president Chander Bhushan Devgun told IANS.

The students will be felicitated at the Chinese Embassy Saturday before they leave for the mega event in Anqing, a city in southwestern Anhui province. In China, they will also meet the Indian ambassador and foreign secretary designate Nirupama Rao.

Nearly 1,200 students had applied for the qualifying examination based on applied science, astronomy and logical reasoning. Of these, 61 scored above 75 percent and the top 10 won a fully sponsored trip to China.

The next 30 students will be taken to Taregana near Patna, one of the places in India that fall in the total solar eclipse belt.

Devgun said: "The aim behind the 'heliodyssey' event is to inculcate interest among the common man, especially students, towards science and to study the scientific phenomenon that is caused due to the geometrical positioning of these heavenly bodies.

"These students will be a part of the official SPACE team of astronomers and scientists working on various experiments during the total solar eclipse and record the event scientifically. They will not only get a chance to represent their school and themselves internationally but the exposure opens their horizons for scientific research and the cultural diversity adds to their personality."

Devgun is a mechanical engineer who left his job to start a professional astronomical organisation.

The first 'heliodyssey' programme was conducted in 2006 when students were taken to Turkey to watch the total solar eclipse followed by a trip to Siberia in Russia in 2008.

SPACE will also organise public viewing of the eclipse at four places in India.

"Our teams along with experts will be available at Sasaram and Taregana in Bihar, in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh for helping people watch the eclipse," Devgun said.

Nehru Planetarium director N. Rathnasree said: "According to NASA, Taregana near Patna could be one of the best places to watch the eclipse as based on satellite images, clouds are likely to be less (over the region) and so the possibility of watching the eclipse there is more compared to other parts of the country due to the ongoing monsoon."

Last updated on Jul 17^th, 2009 at 13:21 pm IST--IANS