Usually residents would avoid dark alleys but on Wednesday evening the pitch-dark green verge in FE Block was buzzing with activity. There were senior citizens, office goers and lots of kids. And all their eyes were on the sky. 

Salt Lake FE Block Residents’ Association and Paschim Banga Vigyan Mancha had organised for residents to come watch the superblue blood moon through a telescope.

The location of the green verge was such that trees and houses blocked the moon from sight initially. So Milan Gain, secretariat member of the Mancha, began teaching the residents to recognise constellations. 

“There’s Orion, known in India as Kalpurush,” he said, pointing his green laser beam at the stars. As he started inviting kids to look through his telescope, a few started asking where they could buy their own. Fancy Market, he said. 
A few residents, who had just walked in, said the moon was already visible from the much larger FE Park. “We chose not to gather at FE Park as there are too many lights there. Our session would not possible there,” said Basab Basak, secretary of the block association. “In fact we asked our councillor to switch off lights at this green verge for tonight too.”

The camaraderie was amazing. If one resident volunteered to lift up younger kids so they could peer through the telescope, another used his cellphone’s torch to create a shadow on his hand and explain the celestial phenomenon they would be witnessing that night. 

“I’ve seen the moon many times as part of my school’s astronomy club but never has it been so big and red,” said Suhani Kapoor, a Class VII student of The New Town School. “I want to become an astronaut when I grow up too.”

Dipali Seth had come with her daughter and grandson. “I am very interested in seeing the moon but my legs are paining,” said the lady who sat on a rickshaw while her kin queued up behind the telelscope. “I’ll be happy if they can see it.”

Candy and tea was distributed among residents too, to dispel superstitions that it is unsafe to eat during an eclipse.