As it turned out, nature favoured the less resourceful and the best view of the celestial show was provided not to the materially equipped scientist but to the illiterate, the ignorant and the cynic who dared to watch with naked eyes or through the ill-advised coloured paper and dark glasses.

It is believed that in Gujarat itself three lakh glasses were distributed by various agencies. As many as 4,000 such `safe solar eclipse viewers' manufactured by Manthan Educational Products Systems and sold by the Vikram Sarabhai Institute for Rs 8 each to eclipse enthusiasts in the city turned out a bit too safe. Thanks to the thick cover of dark and foreboding monsoon clouds, they did not allow penetration of any light and frustrated seasoned and amateur scientists, school kids included, had to ultimately whip them off, opting for `dangerous and ill-advised' viewing.

B R Sitaram of the Vikram Sarabhai Institute admitted the glasses had not served the purpose they were designed for. ``The idea of any filter is to cut light and if the light intensity was low, one could not see anything,'' he said. Associate professor U C Joshi from ISRO said he had resorted to welding glasses to see the eclipse from Dhrangadhra, where he was camping with his team. Though Sitaram said he was disappointed by the non-starter, he explained, however, that it was always better to be safe than sorry. ``We could say it was an excess of safety but had there been sunlight, anyone who had not used glasses would have had to suffer serious injury,'' he said.

He added that the glasses were used by school children and others in places like Anand and Nadiad when the sun did appear from behind the cloud cover filter for the glasses had been imported from the United States and was made of a special aluminium containing an alloy called Mylar. Priced between Rs 8 to Rs 15, they were freely available at cooperative stores and stationery shops.

Meanwhile, citizens have been advised not to let the fickle sun dishearten them and, instead, keep the glasses till November. Till then it will be analysed if the same can be used for watching the next celestial phenomenon -- the solar spots.

Another spectacle
People are being advised to retain their `solar specs', at least till November when scientists expect the next round of celestial magic. Experiments are being conducted to determine if the solar filters and specially imported Mylar film can be used for viewing the dancing sun spots, expected to appear on the galaxy's largest star during the year-end. ``These are dark moving spots that will become visible on the surface of the sun around November. These spots determine low temperature areas on the sun's surface and have an 11-year cycle of visibility. Maximum visibility will be at the end of the year 2000,'' explains B R Sitaram.