Tag Archives: Aastro

Want to build your own telescope? Attend this session..

May 29, 2011 2:29 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

AASTRO Thiruvananthapuram will have its next monthly public lecture session on 2nd June 2011, 5.30 pm at Kerala State Science and Technology Museum and Planetarium, PMG, Thiruvananthapuram. The session will be handled by Mr K P Prabhakaran, who is an expert in home-made telescopes. He will present a demonstration and sky watching session with the aid of his own telescope. There is a common belief that a good quality telescope is a highly expensive one and not everyone can access it. Mr. Prabhakaran wish to convey the point that a good telescope is reachable to anyone without much expense.

Any interested person is welcome to the session. For details, feel free to call +91 9846608238

Posted in: AASTRO, District Chapter News, Events, Featured ⋅ Tagged: , , ,

AASTRO May Session On Stellarium

May 10, 2011 12:27 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

 

 

The monthly public lecture session of May 2011 was held on 5th May, 5.30 pm at our usual venue of Priyadarshini Planetarium, PMG, Thiruvananthapuram. This time it was a presentation and demonstration on how to utilize Stellarium software for an effective sky watching. The session was handled by Mr.Vaisakhan Thampi and he pointed out  the key features of the software and the ways in which they can be utilized effectively. Students, teachers and other interested public were present.

Stellarium is an open source software, which can be downloaded installed, modified and redistributed by anyone. It renders a realistic sky visible from any part of the world at any instant of time, showing more than 600000 stars, respective constellation lines in 12 different cultures, their labels and even constellation art. It incorporates planets and their satellites with a very good zoom capacity. One can download Stellarium from here and its absolutely free !!

Vaishakhan Thampi/ AASTRO

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AASTRO outreach flavoured kid’s vacation camp @ Thiruvananthapuram

May 1, 2011 5:11 PM ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Around 90 kids were there with us when they enjoyed combining patches of clear night sky with patterns from the Stellarium software at Thiruvananthapuram last week.Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan organised a vacation camp for students called Maampazhakkaalam 2011' .Last Thursday night,AASTRO people took them for a session exploring wonders of the night sky and digest a little astronomy.At the Planetarium open air theatre,Pappootty mash introduced basic astronomy to kids.Concepts of raashi, janmanaal etc were explained.Students were curious about all those and the excitement summited when they had a session on Stellarium.Shri.Vaisakhan Thampi and Shri.Kiran Mohan made a presentation comparing the available clear night sky with Stellarium.

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Discussion on Model of the Universe-How it is…

May 1, 2011 12:59 AM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅
In our April meet up,Mr. B. Saharsh shared his ideas about a new model of universe,how the boundary of universe can be and so on.An effective discussion concluded that our present knowledge may not be sufficient to understand the actual structure of universe.AASTRO members,teachers, students and astronomy enthusiasts participated actively.
AASTRO will conduct monthly public talks on every first Thursday.The topic will range from astrophotography to history of astronomy.These lectures are open to public and delivered by subject experts and enthusiasts in different disciplines.so far we organised more than 15 talks
Posted in: AASTRO, Cosmology, District Chapter News, Events, Extra Galactic, Featured ⋅ Tagged: , ,

Vishu – The Astronomical New Year

April 16, 2011 3:52 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

First of all, Happy Vishu to all....Lets talk some astronomy on this eve.... We all know that from Earth, Sun would appear to revolve around us. The ancient people believed Sun actually is revolving around Earth in a circular orbit. To locate sun in its orbit, they divided the 'solar orbit' around Earth, called the ecliptic, into twelve equal parts. To identify these parts in sky, they joined some of the stars in that portion of sky to make out a picture. Then they named each part according to the picture they made out in that portion. These twelve parts of sky on the sun's path around earth are called the twelve Raashi's(രാശികള്‍), named Medam, Idavam, Midhunam etc. The strip of sky around Earth that comprises of these twelve raashis is called the Zodiac(രാശിചക്രം). See the picture below:

 

 

As Sun takes 365 days to make a complete revolution, it is trivial to see that it spends around 30 days (365 days/12) in a particular Raashi. Our Malayalam calendar is based on this concept. That is, our Medamaasam(മേടമാസം) is that period of the year during which Sun is in Medam raashi. The day on which Sun moves from one raashi to another is called Sankraanthi(സംക്രാന്തി).
Vishu is astronomically the Medasankraanthi(മേട സംക്രാന്തി), that is, the day on which Sun enters Medam raashi. Historically, Medam 1 is the beginning of Malayalam calendar. But most of us consider Chingam 1 as New Year which is the beginning of Kollavarsham(കൊല്ലവര്‍ഷം). This is believed to be started by the King of Kollam (Venad Udaya Marthanda Varma) who thought Chingam, the season of harvest, can be the beginning of a new year. Chingam has no astronomical significance. More on this topic can be found here , an interesting blogg by Vaishakhan Thampi,AASTRO office bearer and a research fellow in Physics  from NIIST,Trivandrum
D S V Thampi/AASTRO

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This is how AASTRO debunked the ‘Super Moon Hoax’

March 21, 2011 10:06 AM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

There were widely spread rumors and  fear among the people over chances of natural disasters and occurrence of unusual phenomenon because of  'Super Moon effect'  these days.Speculations have moved the goalposts to within 1 or 2 weeks of a supermoon to suggest a causal relationship with specific natural disasters such as the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. Such a widening of the effect window is unjustified since the Moon was further from the Earth than average, making a super moon effect impossible.

A supermoon is bigger and brighter than an ordinary full moon. The reason: the moon’s orbit around the Earth is elliptical, not round. And so when the elliptical path passes closest to Earth a full moon becomes 14 per cent wider and 30 per cent brighter than an average full moon. Not since 1992 has the moon passed as close to Earth as happened on Saturday night.

 

The supermoon of March 19, 2011 (right) compared to a more average moon of December 20, 2010 (left)

 

AASTRO Kerala took effective efforts  and organised activities at various levels to debunk this controversy.AASTRO Kozhikkode chapter organised classes and demonstration sessions thorough out the district.hundereds of people gathered to take in their fill of the ‘supermoon' that rose on Saturday night sky.Observations were arranged in places like Eranjikkal, Mananchira, Thondayadu, Mukkam, Balussery, Nadakkavu, Perambra,Madappally,Kuttikkaattoor,Kundamangalam and so on.Programmes were organised in different educational institutions too.

Through out the state,AASTRO organised moon watching sessions to strike out the 'hoax'.On cyberspace,AASTRO posted many articles and links over internet to make the science behind super moon clear.One of them can be found here : http://aastro.org/2011/03/super-moon/

Some studies have reported a weak correlation between lunar activity and shallow, very low intensity earthquakes. However, no evidence has been found of any correlation with major earthquakes.The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami is the only earthquake of 8.0 magnitude or greater to have occurred within 2 weeks of the 14 extreme supermoons from 1900 to the present date,suggesting that the claim of a supermoon effect on the incidence of large-scale earthquakes is unjustified.

v s/AASTRO

 

 

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PLANET ROUND UP_MARCH 2011

March 4, 2011 3:57 AM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

MARS: Mars is lost in the solar glare!

URANUS: Very low in West. The planet will be on conjunction on 21st March.

JUPITER: Getting low in the Western sky and will be paired with Mercury from March 12 to March 20.

SATURN: Rises around 9:30 pm at the month’s beginning and well placed in the sky at the time of midnight. The planet will show 19 arc seconds wide disc during March.

 

VENUS: The brightest planet will be just 1 degree from the Moon on the morning of 1st March.It will be nicely paired with the Crescent Moon on the morning of 1stMarch and will be just 10’ apart from Neptune on the morning of 27th March.

NEPTUNE: Will emerge from the eastern morning sky by March 8. It will be very close to brilliant Venus on 27th March.

MERCURY: Will climb up in the Western evening sky around 8-9 March. The inner-most planet will be just 21’ from Uranus on the evening of 9th March but very low near the Western horizon. The planet will be paired with Jupiter during mid-March and will be at Greatest Elongation on 23rd March.

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AASTRO Wayanad is all set for its Anniversary Mega Event

March 2, 2011 6:08 AM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

AASTRO Wayanad will celebrate its first anniversary with a whole day event on Saturday,5th March at W.M.O Arts & Science College,Muttil. A one day workshop on Astronomy is arranged where Prof.K.Pappootty,AASTRO President will be the chief guest and many other distinguished guests and resource persons will lead vivid sessions. The programme is jointly organised by the Department of Physics and AASTRO Wayanad Chapter.The college is completing its 15th year of existence too.

The workshop includes lectures on various topics ,presentations, introduction to astronomy softwares  and a star watching session.

Programme

Saturday,5th March 2011

Venue : Dept.of Physics,WMO College,Muttil,Wayanad

9.30 : Registration

10.00 : Inaugural Session

10.30 -11.45 : Talk on  'Isaac Newton’s contributions to Astronomy'

Speaker : Shri.D.S.Vaisakhan Thampi,NIIST(CSIR), Thiruvananthapuram

11.50-1.00 pm: Presentation : 'Milestones in the history of Astronomy'

Speaker : Shri.K.P.Aliyas,AASTRO Wayanad

1.00 - 1.45 :  Lunch break

2.00 - 4.00 : Lecture on 'Universe;Its Origin and Evolution'

Speaker : Prof.K.Pappootty, President, AASTRO Kerala

4.00 - 4.30 : Tea break

4.30 - 6.30: 'Sky mapping Techniques'

Speaker : Shri.Gopakumar, AASTRO Wayanad

6.30-7.30: Presentation on 'Sky mapping softwares'

Speaker : Shri.K.T.Sreevalsan, KSSP

7.30-8.30: Star watching Session

Wayanad Chapter is one of the most active district fractions of AASTRO.They had regular monthly gatherings, study classes on subjects like history of astronomy, solar system, particle physics, sky mapping etc so far.The members conduct astronomy classes, sky mapping programmes wherever they are invited.A report on its activities also will be presented.

The Department of physics in WMO College was established along with the inception of the college in 1995 offering graduate programme. In 2002 it was upgraded as a post graduate department . Now they are pioneering successfully with many of their off springs getting migrated to several National institutes and Research laboratories.Principal,Head of the Department and other college authorities will take part in the function.

Astronomy enthusiasts, students, school teachers and others are invited for the programme. One can register their name prior to the event too. Details are available with AASTRO Wayanad team.Contact nos: 9446176826;9447797115;9447546217

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Lecture on Extra Solar Planets

February 11, 2011 4:49 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Prof. K.Pappootty,Director to Institute of Encyclopaedia Publications and preident to AASTRO Kerala was the featured speaker at Science and Technology Museum,Thiruvananthapuram for the public talk organised by AASTRO on Feb 3rd.This lecture was a part of its monthly public lecture series.

He went through planet formation hypotheses, methods to detect planets around other stars and the present status of explorations on extrasolar planets.AASTRO members,students and public were present for the talk.

The monthly lectures on first thursday evening of every month are free and open to the public.For more updates one can contact the organisers.Ph : 9846608238.Events will be informed in this website too.

Posted in: AASTRO, Astronomy News, District Chapter News, Events, Featured, Solar System ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,

PLANETARY ROUND-UP THIS MONTH

January 30, 2011 4:01 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

MARS:Planet Mars is on conjunction on 4th February.

NEPTUNE:Neptune will be very low in the Western sky at the time of month’s start. Neptune is on conjunction on February 17th.

JUPITER & URANUS : Both Jupiter and Uranus are low in the Western Evening sky. 4 days old Waxing Crescent Moon will stand within 8 degrees of Jupiter on 7th evening. The distance between the two planets will keep increasing during the month.

SATURN: Planet Saturn Will rise before midnight by the beginning of the month. On 7th February at the time of midnight, Saturn will form a perfect triangle with the two 8th magnitude stars.

v s/AASTRO

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