Ahmedabad:
For Abhay Kothari and his son Kathan, the longest solar eclipse of the 21st century to take place early on Wednesday on July 22nd, is a mini-mission.
Both, alumni of the National Institute of Design run Manthan, an NGO that creates tools to make science popular. This time, it's the kits - 25,000 of them, distributed across the country through the government agency Vigyan Prasar.
''We have designed some basics on hand activities for the solar eclipse and promoting them, like making a pin-hole camera, safe-viewing methods, and also small filters which should be used for viewing,'' said Abhay Kothari, Founder, Manthan.
''Never look at the sun with binoculars or through telescope. It should be viewed at through projects. It's important to do it under supervision,'' put forth Kathan Kothari, a member of Manthan.
For the D-Day, they have also designed special activities for school children at Rajpipla.
''We are basically into developing activities related to solar eclipse as well as astronomy with respect to the event,'' said Kathan.
Their idea is to take science out of classrooms and textbooks into everyday lives.
And the solar eclipse gives the Kotharis just that chance.