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Special
flight provides lifetime experience to eclipse chasers by
Smita Srivastava New
Delhi/Onboard: Around 30 astronomy enthusiasts boarded a chartered plane at
the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday to chase the total solar
eclipse up to Gaya above the clouds at a height of 41,000 feet It was an initiative
of travel agency Cox and Kings India, under the guidance of Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum
(ECA), a wing of the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators
(SPACE), an organisation working to make science and astronomy popular among the
youth. Though quite popular in other countries, the idea of an eclipse flight
was new in India and garnered a good response in the country. "We did not even
bother how many people would come here or not. Just to have that first flight.
We did not even bother what are we going to do? How many tickets are we going
to sell? But since the response is so good," said Sachin Bamba, owner, SPACE,
organiser of the flight. Priced at a whopping 70,000 rupees, a seat in the plane
might have caused a dent on the eclipse chaser's pockets, but the excitement of
witnessing the grand celestial event of the century surely overshadowed the money
factor. "It was really good. You are never going to see it ever. Just a black
spot and it is totally beyond words," said Shreya, youngest eclipse chaser on
the plane who went with her mother. What made the flight all the more special
was the fact that next such event will take place 105 years later, in 2114. "If
there is rebirth then again I will witness it in my next birth," said Asha Bamba,
an eclipse chaser. The
turnout on the flight, though not much, was still something to go by, and that
too in a country where an eclipse is associated with lots of myriad superstitions
and is considered inauspicious. The eclipse flight and the enthusiasm it generated,
sent out a strong message to the people across India to shed their apprehensions
and fears and enjoy an eclipse as another natural phenomenon, at par with rains
or hailstorm. "All those who stayed at home today for whatever reasons, superstition
or whatever, I think they have missed out a big thing and it's a shame. They should
come out and watch the eclipse whether at this height or from earth and they should
leave behind all their notions about what is bad about an eclipse. There is nothing
bad about an eclipse. Once you see it, you'll be hooked on to it for life," said
Mahesh, another eclipse chaser. The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century
was visible along a roughly 250 km-wide corridor, according to the U.S. space
agency NASA, as it travelled half the globe and passed through the world's two
most populous nations, India and China. The eclipse then swept through Bangladesh,
Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and over the crowded cities along China's Yangtze River,
before heading to the Pacific. The eclipse lasted up to a maximum of 6 minutes,
39 seconds over the Pacific Ocean, according to NASA. -July
22, 2009 Go
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