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Parts of Turkey, Central Asia, Africa and South America will witness total solar eclipse on Wednesday and a team of Indian astronmers and school students will carry out a series of experiments as the new moon covers the sun in a rare celestial spectacle.
As the new moon moves directly between the sun and earth on Wednesday afternoon, a group of Indian astronomers from Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators will monitor the phenomenon and the affects it has on the surroundings closely in the ancient beach town of Antalya.
The 80-member team of astronomers and school children, led by SPACE president Chander Bhushan Devgun, will conduct a series of experiments -- from taking photographs of corona, the wispy-thin and incredibly hot outer atmosphere of the sun, which is seen only during totality to measuring the exact latitude and longitude of the place of observation of the event.
The moon's shadow will fall on the eastern tip of Brazil, speed eastward across the Atlantic, through northern Africa, across the Mediterranean, and into Turkey. In Antalya, the eclipse will begin 12:37 pm (1537 IST) and the sun would be covered completely at 1:54 pm (1654 IST).
Totality will last for 3 minutes and 11 seconds. Students from schools across the country, who qualified an online test to be a part of Heliodyssey - 2006 at Antalya, too, would be part of the experiments.
In a unique study, a student would be blindfolded an hour before the eclipse begins and his eyes would be uncovered only when the sun is covered completely by the moon's shadow.
The student is expected to see the brightest corona as his eyesight would be by that time used to of the darkness. The student would immediately draw a sketch of what he has seen, which would later be compared with the experience of other members.
The astromers and students are on a week-long tour of Istanbul and Antalya which is organised by SPACE and G D Goenka World School.
A solar eclipse happens when the moon crosses the face of the sun. The total eclipse starts at sunrise at the tip of Brazil, crosses the Atlantic in the morning, the Sahara Desert at midday, Turkey in the afternoon, and ends at sunset in Central Asia.
The total solar eclipse affects the biological clock of animals, as has been observed in the past. During totality, the daytime animals become quiet and prepare for sleep, while at the same time the nocturnal animals get ready to come out.