Triple eclipse not an indicator of catastrophe: Expert

Dismissing myths that triple eclipse was a harbinger of catastrophe, a top official of the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bangalore on Wednesday said such a celestial phenomenon was nothing new and had occurred on nearly 12 occasions in the recent decades.

Dismissing myths that triple eclipse was a harbinger of catastrophe, a top official of the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bangalore on Wednesday said such a celestial phenomenon was nothing new and had occurred on nearly 12 occasions in the recent decades.

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“Three eclipses occurring continuously is not rare at all. In last few years, there have been several examples of lunar eclipse occurring between two solar eclipses and vice versa. There is nothing unusual about it. It is not right to relate the two,” planetarium Joint Director Prof C S Shukre said.

He was addressing a press conference on the arrangements being made at the planetarium for viewing the triple eclipse, starting with the solar eclipse on July 22.

There were two triple eclipses in 1989 and one each in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009, but nothing happened said Dr B S Shylaja, Senior Scientific Offier, Bangalore Association for Science Education at the planetarium.

“Pulling random statistics and connecting them to an event cannot support the catastrophe theory”, he said. “The world witnessed a catostrophe when dinosaurs were wiped out from the world, was an eclipse occuring then?” he asked.

Triple eclipses occurred even before the human race began. “Catastrophes can occur anytime. Eclipses are no indicators”, he said dismissing theories floated by some groups that sought to point out that World Wars and Kurukshetra battle in ancient mythology took place following a season of triple eclipses.