Media Release

Udupi, Dec 27: Poornaprajna Amateur Astronomers Club of Poornaprajna College witnessed the annular solar eclipse in a grand manner. With 7 telescopes on ground 5 for public to view the eclipse with and one telescope connected to a LED screen, about 3,000 people gathered in the college premises to view the eclipse. People could watch the eclipse safely through the LED screen, pin hole projectors built by the students, solar filter goggles and many other apparatus.

PJ Bhat, deputy director of URSC (retd) and Niveditha, deputy director, HR policy and management, from ISRO were the chief guests. Students and public gathered to view the eclipse at 8 am and enjoyed the almost annular eclipse at 9.24 am. Along with the eclipse, students built several models and exhibition in physics and ISRO rocket models to celebrate the eclipse and to commemorate the birth centenary of Dr Vikram Sarabhai.

In addition, PJ bhat delivered a talk on ISROs achievements.

Several schools and colleges participated in all events and the programme was a grand success. Principal Dr Raghavendra A, founder co-ordinator Dr A P Bhat, current co-ordinator Atul Bhat, HOD physics Divya Vasanth Kumar and other members of department of Physics organized the programme and also released an Amateur Astronomer Manual with astronomical data of next five years.