The Sun rise program

Over the days leading upto Jan 15th, newspapers, TV channels and Abhi has left little unsaid about the annular solar eclipse; the longest annular solar eclipse of the millennium, the longest until the year 3043... 11min and a few seconds. To Abhi goes all the credit for my journey all the way to Rameswaram (and beyond) to catch the eclipse.

We eclipse chasers* had a mean machine to travel all the way from Bangalore to Dhanushkodi; It's called the Punto. Also, thanks to the roads in TN, we managed very good average speed, ripping at 120-140kmph often. I had as much fun taking the private van to travel about 10km in the sand and shallow waters in the ruins of Dhanushkodi.. 10km in 40min at Rs 700!!!

We reached Dhanushkodi and set up our telescope and camera in just about minutes. We managed to catch the solar eclipse from the time of first contact till the annular ring was formed (it took more than 2 hrs). A trip definitely worth the experience.

Oh, I forgot to mention the Pamban bridge, It is quite a sight at dawn!

Photos courtesy: Abhi

14.01.2010-16.10.2010.
Bangalore-Madurai-Rameshwaram-Dhanushkodi and back.
1285km.. 21hrs drive time.
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* AbhiP, Abhi, Vj, Ram and I