In a Mood to Watch the Moon

In Hindu mythology, eclipses were explained as a celestial serpent swallowing the moon, plunging the world into darkness.

- Rakshitha Priya G

In Hindu mythology, eclipses were explained as a celestial serpent swallowing the moon, plunging the world into darkness. Various restrictions were imposed on people, especially women. Families were asked to stay indoors, avoid food, and resist looking up at the sky until the shadow had passed. Yet, on the night of September 7, Marina Beach broke this age-old caution. A crowd was waiting in a queue a few steps away from a gigantic telescope that stood on the sand, waiting for their turn to gaze at the glowing moon.

The celestial body needed no telescope that evening. It loomed larger than usual, its surface marked with visible craters that even the naked eye could pick out.