Q1.
Using the computer version of Stellarium app, which is free, you may get information about the upcoming solar and lunar eclipses (if any) which may be visible from your location.
Answer
Stellarium is a free planetarium program for a computer. It draws the sky exactly as it will look from any place, on any date, at any time — so you can find out in advance which eclipses will be visible from your own town.
- Install the desktop version of Stellarium and open it.
- Set your location — type the name of your town, or enter its latitude and longitude.
- Set the date and time you want to check.
- Use the sky-and-viewing options to find the Sun or the Moon and run the clock forward. During a solar eclipse you will see the Moon's disc slide over the Sun; during a lunar eclipse you will see the Earth's shadow cross the Moon.
- Note down the date, the starting time, the greatest phase and whether it is total or partial for your location.
Why it is worth doing as a class: an eclipse visible from India may be only partial where you live and not visible at all a thousand kilometres away. Checking it in advance lets your school plan a proper, safe viewing session with eclipse goggles or a mirror projection.
The science behind it: the program is simply calculating the positions of the Sun, the Earth and the Moon. Indian astronomers did the same thing centuries ago, by hand — the Surya Siddhanta gives rules for predicting eclipses, written as rhythmic Sanskrit shlokas.