Blood Moon: Cloudy weather disappoints Bengalureans

Bengaluru: It was expected to be a celestial spectacle of the century. But for most Bengalureans, the blood moon eclipse sighting did not happen on Friday night because of a thick cloud cover.

By 9.30 pm on Friday, the roads had emptied out as many Bengalureans, worried about the inauspicious eclipse, had stayed indoors. But there were many others who were up on their roofs to watch the Blood Moon between 11.30 pm on Friday and 3.30 am on Saturday.

“I had placed my camera with a tripod on my rooftop and was waiting to capture the Blood Moon Eclipse till 2.30 am. But I was really disappointed because of the cloudy weather and light rain. Most of my friends visited Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium and they could watch the eclipse,” said Abhilash R., a resident of Vijayanagar.    

At Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium (JNP), the officials had planned to accommodate around thousand visitors. Pramod G. Galgali, Joint Director, JNP, said, “We had expected around 1,000 visitors and arranged for three binoculars and two telescopes, as the eclipse was at midnight and it could also be watched from the naked eye. 

But around 11.45 pm, we had around 2,000 visitors. We managed to accommodate most of them, with our advanced equipment. People were quite satisfied with watching the eclipse for some time. The moon which appeared red was the major attraction for the people. We have also recorded the small bit of eclipse and are planning to arrange a special screening in the next few days.