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With Bahrain’s first solar eclipse during the Covid-19 pandemic on the horizon, young Yusuf Naser Alnaser is hoping to help his peers appreciate the far reaching implications of celestial events.
The 10-year-old astronomer, whose is the grandson of Dr Waheeb Alnaser, chairman of the Bahrain Astronomical Society, has long been fascinated with science and astronomy and has followed in his grandfather’s footsteps, observing and documenting eclipses so he can share his passion with his friends.
Yusuf told GulfWeekly: “Watching last year’s deep solar eclipse on December 26 was my first time observing an eclipse. When I heard from my school, parents and grandfather that this type of event has not been seen in Bahrain in more than 100 years, I decided to wake up really early and go to The Royal Academy of Police, otherwise I would have to wait until March 20, 2034, by which time, I would be 25!
“It was great to see the engagement from about 400 people, of different ages, education and job backgrounds, come together to witness the total solar eclipse. To remember the occasion, I created a book with the help of my parents and grandparents about the event.”
The fifth grader at Ahlia School put together a booklet, titled My First Deep Eclipse Gazing documenting his experience from the early morning wake-up call to reach the RAC by 6.20am to the cultural and religious significance of the eclipses in the region.
While the annular total solar eclipse last year was much more discernible since 95 per cent of the sun was hidden, this year’s annular solar eclipse will only be observable as a partial solar eclipse, and astronomers will have to forego gatherings and watch and photograph it from their own homes, in light of Covid-19 regulations.
This has not fazed Yusuf, who added: “During the lunar eclipse, even though everyone was at their own home, my friends and I took photos of the moon with our phones and shared them with each other to learn and compare. I talked to my grandfather about it too.
“Astronomy is the study of the universe and everything in it, including planets, stars, galaxies, comets, and black holes. It’s full of huge distances, gigantic sizes, and long periods of time. It is important and easily observable knowledge. We see the sunrise and sunset every day, and how the shadow length changes every day at noon, and how we set our prayer times on the daily sun movement.”
In particular, Yusuf enjoys the practical applications of astronomy, as he explained: “My dad is an assistant professor in architecture engineering and he knows about where to put windows to avoid heat from the sun. So he has to know the position of the sun (height and direction) in any given area.”
So far, Yusuf’s own astronomy kit includes solar eclipse lenses and a pair of binoculars, but he borrows his grandfather’s telescope from time to time to observe Mars, Venus and Mercury.
Yusuf’s star-gazing is generally followed by debriefing with his grandfather, who helps him build a deeper understanding of the phenomena he just witnessed.
According to Dr Waheeb, during the penumbral lunar eclipse on June 5, in addition to the slight change of colour that comes with a penumbral eclipse, Yusuf noticed in all the photographs he took, that the craters and “spots” on the face of the moon did not change no matter what, thereby stumbling upon the concept of tidal locking.
Tidal locking occurs when an astronomical body, like the moon, takes just as long to rotate around its axis as it does to revolve around its partner in this case, the earth.
Despite all this hands-on training and the support from his father Dr. Alnaser and mother Tara, Yusuf wants to keep astronomy a passion, instead of a profession.
He concluded: “Yes, I would love to explore other planets and that’s why it’s great to learn all this. But I want to be a computer programmer when I grow up.’
But for now, he is going to spend his free time trying to decode the secrets of the stars.
