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Starry-eyed residents dazzled by solar eclipse
Shadow games: A solar eclipse darkens the Jakarta sky at 4:45 p
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Shadow games: A solar eclipse darkens the Jakarta sky at 4:45 p.m. on Sunday. The annual eclipse was visible in an area that covered the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia. JP/ARIEF SUHARDIMAN
A rare solar eclipse on Monday afternoon attracted the attention of many Indonesians, especially in Sumatra and Java islands.
About 500 people from Bandung and other cities flocked to the Bosscha Observatory in Lembang, south of Bandung, to witness the natural phenomenon that unfurled at 3:20 p.m.
Staff at the observatory, managed by the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), had to close the doors to hordes of other eclipse enthusiasts due to overcapacity.
Dewi Lembayung, a resident of Cikarang, West Java, said she had called the observatory on Sunday to get information about Monday’s event. She came with her husband and 9-year-old son, and had to queue for 30 minutes before getting a chance to view the eclipse through a portable solar telescope.
“We were a bit pessimistic about seeing it, what with the clouds. But we finally saw the eclipse. It’s really amazing,” she said.
Eli Rengganis, a 48-year-old elementary school teacher from Babakan Tarogong, Bandung, said she had only seen a solar eclipse once, through a reflection in a bucket of water when she was a child. She said she felt lucky to be able to watch the eclipse at Bosscha, but sad because her students could not join her.
“It’s so beautiful. It’s more beautiful to see through the telescope than in the bucket,” she laughed.
About 100 ultraviolet-absorbing Mylar filter glasses were quickly snapped up at the Bosscha souvenir shop for Rp 25,000 (US$2.25) each.
Expecting a high level of interest, the Bosscha management had prepared two solar telescopes. A 1.5-meter-long Unitron telescope was used by astronomers and university students to observe the eclipse, take pictures and stream images to the Bosscha database, available at bosscha.itb.ac.id.
Mahasena Putra of ITB’s Astronomy Research Division said astronomers had also observed the eclipse elsewhere in the country, including in Lampung’s Kota Agung, Banten’s Anyer Lighthouse and Carita, and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (Lapan) in Bandung.
The last solar eclipse visible from Indonesia occurred in 1998. There will be another solar eclipse and four lunar eclipses this year. The next solar eclipse will occur on July 22, visible from India, Nepal, Bhutan and China.
Cloudy skies did little to discourage either the Bosscha visitors or experts from Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia and China who observed the eclipse from Bandarlampung.
Bosscha’s Hakim L. Malasan recorded the eclipse starting at 3:19 p.m. and concluding at 4:38 p.m.
“We managed to record the process of the eclipse perfectly. Observations were also made in other places in Lampung, such as Bukit Camang, Bandarjaya and Kotabumi,” he said.
Karzaman, a researcher from the Malaysian National Space Agency, said he came to Lampung with three colleagues to observe the eclipse because the area was the most exposed to the phenomenon.
“It’s also in preparation for the total solar eclipse on July 22,” he added.
However, there was little sign of enthusiasm about the eclipse among Bandarlampung residents, only calls from mosques for Muslims to perform prayers in the face of
the eclipse.
