As sun blinks from amid clouds, scientists witness Zero Shadow Day

As young space enthusiasts gathered at the Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIAP) here on Friday to witness the Zero Shadow Day', they feared that the cloudy skies would cast a shadow on the rare celestial event.

Zero Shadow Day or No Shadow Day is a phenomenon during which the sun is positioned directly overhead causing no shadows to be formed on the earth's surface.

However, the clouds provided a 45-second window for the sun to blink at the nick of the moment before hiding, much to the delight of students and the scientific community.

The IIAP, Bengaluru had organised the event on its premises in Koramangala this afternoon. A large number of students had gathered to have a glimpse of Zero Shadow Day', which occurred exactly at 12:20 pm in the city.

For the past few days sun was shining bright but on Friday dark clouds hovered over the sky, threatening to mar the rare phenomenon.

Yet, with hopes that the phenomenon would occur, the scientific community made all the arrangements. Various equipment needed for demonstration were put on display under the open sky, which included a small pole placed 90 degrees horizontally.

Further, there were three plates on which IIAP' was written using dot matrix, placed parallelly on a table.

As the sun peeped through the clouds exactly at 12.20 pm, its rays filtered through the holes without any obstacle, and formed IIAP written on the table.

Astrophysicist Dr Niruj Mohan Ramanujam told the crowd that the unique celestial event transpires twice a year in Bengaluru. The same event can be witnessed all over South India on different dates.

Among those who witnessed the event were space curators and enthusiast like Narendra, who traveled to Bengaluru from far flung areas to enjoy scientific explorations.