Mumbai has a celestial experience

While most collegians bunk lectures to watch movies, a group of six boys from Vidyabhavan Junior College, Mulund, took a few hours off to visit the Nehru Planetarium on Saturday.

While most collegians bunk lectures to watch movies, a group of six boys from Vidyabhavan Junior College, Mulund, took a few hours off to visit the Nehru Planetarium on Saturday.

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"We heard that the planetarium had shows so we decided to come here," said Rajdeep Khade, 17. "It has been a fun, different way to spend the day together. On other days, all we do is hang out at gardens or restaurants."

Almost 2,000 people came to watch the shows that were screened free of charge at the planetarium, which depicted the planets, stars and different aspects of the universe.

"We kept our television sets off the whole day and decided to come here instead," said Vaishali Patil who brought her eight-year-old twins, Nilaya and Niraja, to see the shows.

For children and parents alike, the planetarium had made arrangements for different activities, held in between shows. A large telescope was set up on a staircase outside the main building, from which visitors could peep through to see an unusual phenomenon. "I got to see the moon in daylight, and it was a beautiful white," exclaimed four-year-old Mahadh Shivakumar. Another crowd-pleaser was the close-up of the sun and sunspots, which could be seen through the telescope.

"The response has been really great. We got a lot of oohs and aahs from the people, who could see different heavenly bodies in such a unique way for the first time," said Arvind Paranjpye, director of the planetarium.