Huge crowds await a total solar eclipse in North America. Clouds may spoil the view
Mesquite (US) (AP/PTI): Millions of spectators along a narrow corridor stretching from Mexico to the US to Canada eagerly awaited Monday's celestial sensation — a total eclipse of the sun — even as forecasters called for clouds.
The best weather was expected at the tail end of the eclipse in Vermont and Maine, as well as New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
It promised to be North America's biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path and the lure of more than four minutes of midday darkness in Texas and other choice spots. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting.
“Cloud cover is one of the trickier things to forecast,” National Weather Service meteorologist Alexa Maines explained at Cleveland's Great Lakes Science Center on Sunday. “At the very least, it won't snow.”
The cliff-hanging uncertainty added to the drama. Rain or shine, "it's just about sharing the experience with other people,” said Chris Lomas from Gotham, England, who was staying at a sold-out trailer resort outside Dallas, the biggest city in totality's path.
For Monday's full eclipse, the moon was due to slip right in front of the sun, entirely blocking it. The resulting twilight, with only the sun's outer atmosphere or corona visible, would be long enough for birds and other animals to fall silent, and for planets, stars and maybe even a comet to pop out.
The out-of-sync darkness lasts up to 4 minutes, 28 seconds. That's almost twice as long as it was during the U.S. coast-to-coast eclipse seven years ago because the moon is closer to Earth. It will be another 21 years before the U.S. sees another total solar eclipse on this scale.
Extending five hours from the first bite out of the sun to the last, Monday's eclipse begins in the Pacific and makes landfall at Mazatlan, Mexico, before moving into Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and 12 other U.S. states in the Midwest, Middle Atlantic and New England, and then Canada. Last stop: Newfoundland, with the eclipse ending in the North Atlantic.
It will take just 1 hour, 40 minutes for the moon's shadow to race more than 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers) across the continent.
Eye protection is needed with proper eclipse glasses and filters to look at the sun, except when it ducks completely out of sight during an eclipse.
The path of totality — approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide — encompasses several major cities this time, including Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York and Montreal. An estimated 44 million people live within the track, with a couple hundred million more within 200 miles (320 kilometers). Add in all the eclipse chasers, amateur astronomers, scientists and just plain curious, and it's no wonder the hotels and flights are sold out and the roads jammed.
Experts from NASA and scores of universities are posted along the route, poised to launch research rockets and weather balloons, and conduct experiments. The International Space Station's seven astronauts also will be on the lookout, 270 miles (435 kilometers) up.
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PM Modi wants to take away reservation, says Rahul Gandhi at Telangana rally
Hyderabad (PTI): Mounting his attack on the BJP, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was against reservations and wanted to take away quotas from the people.
Addressing an election rally at Nirmal under Adilabad (ST) Lok Sabha constituency in Telangana, he claimed that the ongoing general elections is taking place between two ideologies in which Congress is trying to safeguard the Constitution, while the BJP-RSS combine wants to end it and people's rights.
"Narendra Modi ji is against reservation. He wants to take away reservations from you. The biggest issue before the country is increasing reservation from 50 per cent," he added.
The Congress has in its manifesto promised that if the party forms the government at the Centre, it will breach the 50 per cent limit and increase the quotas beyond 50 per cent, he said.
BJP leaders also want reservations to end, he claimed.
Alleging that Modi privatised the public sector, Gandhi said the contract system implemented by the BJP-led government amounts to removing reservations.
"We will remove contract systems in government offices and the public sector. Permanent jobs would be available, not temporary jobs," he said.
"Narendra Modi has never said in his speeches till today that he will remove the 50 per cent barrier of reservations," Gandhi said.
He claimed that BJP leaders have told the countrymen that if their party wins elections, they will change and finish the Constitution.
"If the Constitution is finished, reservation will end," he said.
The BJP wants backward classes, dalits, adivasis remain backward, he alleged.
PM Modi waived off loans to the tune of Rs 16 lakh crore of about 22-25 people. "Rs 16 lakh crore means MNREGA money of 24 years, Narendra Modi ji gave to 22 people," he claimed.
The 22 rich people have money equivalent to what 70 crore Indians have. "The Congress is going to change this," he said.
Observing that the Congress government in Telangana implements poll promises like free travel for women in state-run buses, Gandhi said his party, if it comes to power at the Centre, would implement similar 'guarantees' across the country.
He said a list of poor families in the country would be taken up and Rs one lakh per annum would be deposited in the bank account of a woman from every family.
Noting that more than 90 per cent of the population comprises backward classes, adivasis, minorities and the poor in the general category, the Congress leader said they don't have a place in any organisation in the country.
The caste census proposed by the Congress would change the politics of the country because such poor and 90 per cent of people would come to know about their population and share, he said.
"We will make a survey of every organisation in the country. We will find out how much money the backward classes, dalits, adivasis and the poor have. After the caste census, there will be new politics in Telangana and in the country," he said.
The Constitution should be safeguarded and reservations should be increased, Gandhi said.
The incumbent government of the rich should be dislodged from power and the government of the poor, farmers, dalits and others should be installed, he added.
