Hyderabad observes Zero Shadow Day

Hyderabad : Mesmerising scenes were unfolded on Tuesday at 12.12 pm when the city witnessed a remarkable celestial event called Zero Shadow Day’ when vertical objects appeared to cast no shadow for a brief period of time as the sun’s shadow directly fell on the object.

To witness this memorable moment many enthusiasts gathered at Birla Planetarium and several locals took to social media to share pictures clicked during Zero Shadow Day.

“I placed a bottle on the ground to see whether the shadow reflect on the ground or not. For a period, no shadow reflected and it was amazed to see it” tweeted, Ramesh.

“It is a really interesting phenomenon to observe. I closely watched the experiment conducted at Birla Planetarium,” said Rohini, a class 9 student.

Hari Babu, Birla Planetarium technical officer, said “Many students from various city schools participated in the event. We explained them about the phenomenon and then they practically experienced it for themselves. Later, we educated them about other celestial events and the ways to watch them.”

Explaining about zero shadow day, the technical officer said this phenomenon occurs when the Sun is directly overhead, causing the objects to be aligned with the sunlight and not creating any shadows on the ground. This happens just for a minute and twice a year. The next occurrence will be on August 3. It is not a rare occurrence, it is actually a regular event that happens twice a year in areas near the equator.

“Ever since the news of Zero Shadow Day went viral in Bengaluru last month, kids had a misunderstanding that shadows of all objects will disappear for a while. Whereas during the live experiment it was demonstrated that shadows only of vertical object disappears when the Sun is exactly above the object.

Whereas shadows of other objects are still visible. For example, person standing with an entire body straight doesn’t cause a shadow. Whereas if the same person stretches his hand while standing, the shadow of his hand will be visible, said Raghunandan Kumar, director, Planetary Society of India.