Except for the total darkness that occurred at the time of the solar eclipse, there was little Puneites could experience of the event

Cloudy weather played spoilsport for total solar eclipse enthusiasts in the city yesterday. The disappointment hurt the sky gazers, especially because the solar eclipse, which astronomers say is the longest in the ongoing century, had been awaited for months.

Amateur astronomy club Khagol Mandal had initiated a solar-eclipse awareness drive in the buildup to the day of the eclipse. Workshops and lectures were conducted for enthusiasts camped at Dondaicha in the Dhule district a day before the celestial event was to occur.

Sarang Oak, member of the Khagol Mandal, sounded disappointed when MiD DAY called him at 6.22 am. "The skies are darkening, but the rains and clouds persist, so the total eclipse is not clearly visible. The darkness is amazing. We are enjoying it, but are also feel a little put down with the poor visibility," he said.

Disappointed
Others present at the spot likeu00a0 Dr Salil Dharmakar and Rohan Kale, a student expressed similar sentiments. Vikram Sinha, a BPO professional at Aundh, said, "I feel sad I was not able to witness this eclipse. After coming back at 4 am from work, I kept awake; but see what happened!"

Another amateur astronomers association, Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, had planned a free sky-watching programme for enthusiasts. Deepak Joshi, secretary of the Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, told MiD DAY, "We drove 500 km from Pune yesterday at 3.00 pm to reach Mahu, but could not see anything as it was raining.

"Our members in Kesarvadi at Nanarayanpeth did not see anything either. Even Puneites who travelled to Taregna at Bihar, near Patna, where Aryabhatta carried out his astronomical experiments more than 1,000 years ago, could not see the total eclipse because the sky was cloudy," said Joshi.

Getting up early
Many enthusiasts in Pune too got up early to watch the eclipse only to be disappointed. Binisha Jaiswal, a media professional from Fatima Nagar, said, "I forced myself to get up at 5.30 am. What a huge disappointment! I couldn't see a thing due to the clouds."

Arvind Paranjpye, the scientific officer of the public outreach programme of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics in Ganeshkhind could not be contacted as he is in China. Samir Dhurde, a scientific assistant at the centre was in Patna yesterday to view the eclipse.