Bangalore: Busting the myth that triple eclipse is a harbinger of catastrophe, a top official of the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium in Bangalore said such a celestial phenomenon was nothing new and had occurred on nearly 12 occasions in the recent decades.
"Three eclipses occurring continuously is not rare at all. In last few years, there have been several examples of lunar eclipse occurring between two solar eclipses and vice versa. There is nothing unusual about it. It is not right to relate the two, "planetarium Joint Director Prof C S Shukre said.
He was addressing a press conference on the arrangements being made at the planetarium for viewing the triple eclipse, starting with the solar eclipse on July 22.
There were two triple eclipses in 1989 and one each in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009, but nothing happened said Senior Scientific Officer Dr B S Shylaja.
"Pulling random statistics and connecting them to an event cannot support the catastrophe theory," he said.
Triple eclipses occurred even before the human race began. "Catastrophes can occur anytime. Eclipses are no indicators," he said.