teledyn, 2 months ago

@sundogplanets could they observe using a pin hole camera?

Ohsin, 2 months ago

@sundogplanets Yep and it is getting worse owing to popular Gurus peddling pseudoscience and superstitions. During Solar eclipse many people choose to stay indoors and don't consume food!

Indian rationalists have long struggled against it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20240211012138/https://thewire.in/education/yash-pal-science-communication-doordarshan

Apparently in Delhi's siege during 1857 mutiny against Raj some soldiers gave up fighting during solar eclipse of 18 September considering it bad omen..

@RationalWiki

#SolarEclipse #Superstition #Hinduism #YashPal #Rationalism

Excerpt from WIlliam Dalrymple's 'The Last Mughal' "In the middle of the following morning, 18 September, the sun was completely eclipsed for five minutes. The city darkened ominously for nearly three hours, before the light slowly returned. The British soldiers were unnerved by the event since no one had warned them to expect it. But for the Hindus it was an event of far greater significance. Even today in India, some high-caste Hindus will not go outside during an eclipse, and for twenty-four hours either side of the moment of eclipse Hindu temples are all locked and barred. In the syncretic atmosphere of Mughal Delhi, and especially in the Mughal court where Hindus were employed as astrologers, the eclipse was an event of terrifying significance: it was the ultimate ill omen, a signal of extreme divine displeasure..."

ppatel, 2 months ago

@sundogplanets This is correct. Eclipses are considered to bring bad luck because the moon and the sun are both deities in the pantheon.

INDIANSNIPER24, 2 months ago

@sundogplanets well there are many aspects to it. It's half superstition and half true. You know one should not directly look at eclipse. Well there are some people (corrupt) who do some things (not all). Added extra stuff. And as time passes many unnecessary stuff added to rituals. These kind of things happened in my friends and family circle.

StrangeNoises, 2 months ago

@sundogplanets i presume the key word there is “some”. In the TV series Wonders of the Solar System, episode 1, there's an extended sequence where they film what appears to be the July 22 2009 total eclipse in Varanasi, India, and it seems to have been a gigantic occasion for everyone to turn out and see it, including (it being Varanasi and all) tons of priests, holy men and other pilgrims. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_July_22,_2009

Buthowhighishigh, 2 months ago

@sundogplanets seems like the perfect example for why religion should be banned from schools, myths and folktales getting in the way of actual education sounds like a dystopian trope it’s so over done at this point

enmodo, 2 months ago

@sundogplanets maybe their credit could be to write an essay on why they consider them so bad. Like reading the Bible it can lead to interesting results.