For the scientific community which had travelled to Patna to watch the solar eclipse, the trip ended up in disappointment with clouds playing the spoilsport. Not only did they miss the chance of a lifetime to witness one of the most spectacular celestial events, they also lost a chance to conduct important experiments.

Sanjib Sen, the director of the Positional Astronomy Centre in Kolkata, said: “We missed out on an important experiment. It was so cloudy that we missed the most of it,” said Sen, who was there to conduct an experiment to study the emission spectrum during the total eclipse period.

“Our biggest mistake was to go to Patna. But this year, with 65 per cent rainfall deficit, none of us could have expected this kind of an outcome. We thought Patna was the safest zone. It was a mistake that we did not spread out and instead gathered in one city,” said Sen. The institute’s scientists had even visited Taregana, but with the crowds assembled there, they decided to shift to Patna and observe it from atop a medical college.

“This was the longest eclipse and we could have gathered a lot of material during its 4:21 minutes,” Sen added. The next eclipse that will be seen from India will take place in 2034 — too far in the future for them to consider it.

Officials from MP Birla Planetarium, who were there to take photographs of the peak point of the eclipse, too were disappointed with their chosen location in Patna.

... contd.