Introduction

The total solar eclipse of October 24, 1995, whose central line cut across the subcontinent of India, was only the second total solar eclipse visible from India in this century. The previous total eclipse visible from India occurred on February 16, 1980. At that time the print media filed widely varying reports on what the effect of seeing the eclipse would be, without much coordinated input from astronomers. With the new confused advice reinforcing old fears, almost the entire population literally hid indoors, fearing the worst. Many Indian astronomers silently resolved to themselves then, that public education must be taken up with the same level of seriousness as research programmes during the next eclipse.

The Background

The total solar eclipse of October 24,1995 was visible along some of the most populated parts of India and took place during a season of generally clear skies. Elsewhere in the country the eclipse would be partial. So nation-wide, our class was a mere 900 million strong!

Even in the last decade of this century, astronomy education in India is very sparsely serviced below the post graduate level. Several new planetaria have been built around the country since 1980. Clearly they would play a role in public education. So our 900 million strong class could be apportioned between them as far as public education was concerned. But the school, undergraduate and amateur sectors continue to suffer from lack of focussed attention. Here, however, the numbers involved would be much smaller. The Nehru Planetarium decided to use this opportunity to design activities not only for the general public, but also for specific groups of school students, undergraduates and amateurs.