Clouds obstruct eclipse experiments

8220;A golden opportunity was lost,8221; said Professor P Devadas, who led a six-member astronomers8217; team to Surendranagar in Gujarat, which was in the totality track.

A member of the Astronomical Society of India, British Astronomical Association and the Planetary Society of the United States of America, Prof Devadas was all set to photograph the whole series of events including the tenuous ionized atmosphere of the sun.

8220;We had planned to study the characteristics of coronal streamers, the extent of their spread in the equatorial and polar regions of the sun at this time of greater sunspot activity. Everything was set to observe the intensity variations in the coronal structure, chromospheric features the red hydrogen atmosphere of the sun and solar flares gas eruptions from the photosphere,8221; Prof Devadas told The Indian Express on his return from Gujarat.

The various study groups which went to the totality belt had a similar experience. In Baroda, the clouds allowed visibility of the eclipse for only a few minutes. What all the scientists witnessed was a sudden dip in temperature at some places and darkening of the atmosphere, as birds flew back to their nests in confusion.

Meanwhile, a study conducted by the King Institute, Guindy, proved wrong the notion that water bodies get contaminated during a solar eclipse as the eclipse was found to have no effect on the water samples tested.