Patna, July 13: Researchers and tourists from various parts of India and abroad will gather at a Bihar village associated with Aryabhatta to watch the total solar eclipse next week.

Experts said Taregna village, 25km south of Patna, would be the best place in India to watch the rare celestial event on July 22 morning, along with Surat in Gujarat.

Amitabh Ghosh, the director of the planetarium here, said many foreign scientists would be coming to Taregna to watch the total eclipse. Chief minister Nitish Kumar too is expected to stop for the night at the village with senior officials.

“We have already received five bookings from visitors from Germany, France and Italy who are landing here on July 21 to watch the eclipse the following day,” the manager of Patna’s five-star Maurya hotel, B.D. Singh, said.

According to Nasa, the total solar eclipse would be visible from a narrow corridor stretching from India to the Pacific Ocean. It will be the first total solar eclipse this century to be visible from India, which must wait another 25 years for the next one.

Experts said the total solar eclipse — to be visible also from places like Darjeeling, Bhopal, Indore and Varanasi — would last three minutes and 48 seconds at Taregna, starting a little after sunrise. Its longest duration will be six minutes and 38 seconds over a part of the Pacific Ocean, making it the longest total solar eclipse this century.

A partial solar eclipse will be visible from many other parts of the country, including Calcutta where the eclipse will be 91 per cent.

Sixth-century astronomer-mathematician Aryabhatta is said to have camped at Taregna and nearby Khagaul to carry out his studies on celestial bodies. Both names have astronomical associations, Taregna coming from tare (stars) and Khagaul from khagshastra (astronomy).

The Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum, a branch of the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (Space), has arranged a non-stop, three-hour “eclipse flight” from Delhi to Gaya — also within the total eclipse corridor —and back on July 22. The idea is to prevent monsoon clouds from playing spoilsport.

Its officials said the JetLite 737-700 will fly over Gaya so its passengers, who will include scientists, can watch the eclipse from the sky above the cloud level.

The Patna planetarium and the Red Cross Society are arranging to distribute special glasses to protect eclipse watchers’ eyes from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.

“In co-ordination with the district administration, we are making arrangements to ensure the visitors can comfortably and safely watch the eclipse,” Ghosh said.

The district administration is busy repairing the Patna-Taregna and Gaya-Taregna roads. Planetarium and tourism department officials said the government wanted to stimulate curiosity among people, especially students, about the astronomical event.

“We want to encourage people to watch the rare event to enrich their knowledge about celestial bodies,” Ghosh said. “People should not be carried away by what astrologers and tantriks say about the eclipse.”