AASTRO Thiruvananthapuram had its regular monthly lecture of May on 3rd, Thursday at its usual venue, Science and Technology Museum. The session based on the Transit of Venus was lead by Shri. Krishna Warrier. He gave a detailed picture of the various transit phenomena occuring on sky. He also mentioned the various historical aspects of the Transit of venus, an example being the measurement of Astronomical Unit. The lecture was followed by an active discussion where other members shared some of their experiences and anecdotes about the transit phenomena. Later, the ways in which coming TOV 2012 can be celebrated were discussed.
Tag Archives: Kerala
“A Rare Astronomical Event: Transit of Venus”_AASTRO Thiruvananthapuram had its monthly public talk
Session on Extra planetary objects in solar system
The monthly session of AASTRO Thiruvananthapuram was conducted on 5th January at its usual venue and time. This time it was a talk lead by Dr. Ajith Prasad from M G College on 'Extraplanetary objects in the solar system'. Usually the word 'solar system' brings to our mind the sun and the eight planets around it. We often forget the other members of sun's family such as dwarf planets, asteroids, comets, jupiter trojans, oort clouds etc.
AASTRO 2012 Feb Public Lecture
Dr. Ajith Prasad gave a brief outline of such objects. There followed a discusion on the topic where teachers, students and other interested people in the subject participated. After the session, there was a short observation session on the mercy of the available sky.
Vishu – The Astronomical New Year
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 , 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’
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
PLANET ROUND UP_MARCH 2011
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.
ASTRONOMY EVENTS FOR MARCH 2011
March 5: New Moon
March 5/6: A day for the Messier Marathon. Locate all the Messier Objects in one night!
March 7: A very thin Waxing Crescent Moon (6% illuminated) is 8.5 degrees NE of Jupiter, very low in the West Just after Sunset
March 11: A six days old Waxing Crescent Moon is just 4.5 degrees SE of Pleiades at the time of evening
March 13: First Quarter Moon
March 15: See Mercury and Jupiter just 2 degrees apart! The pair is very low in the West around 7:30pm
March 17: The Moon within 6 degrees of Regulus
March 19: Full Moon
March 20: See The Moon paired with Saturn in the East around 8:30pm. They are nearly 7.5 degrees apart.
March 21: Uranus Conjunction
March 21: See The Moon 5.5 degrees E-SE of Spica in the East before mid-night
March 23: Mercury Greatest Eastern Elongation
March 25: The Moon within 6.5 degrees of Antares before dawn
March 26: Last Quarter Moon
March 27: Use telescopes to reveal tiny Neptune (mag 
just 10’ from brilliant Venus in the Eastern sky before dawn!
March 31: A Waning Crescent Moon (11% illuminated) is just 5.5 degrees from Venus at the time of dawn
ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS FOR DECEMBER 2010
Dec 1: The Moon is about 10.5 degrees W-SW of Saturn in the East before dawn
Dec 1: Mercury Greatest Elongation
Dec 2: The Moon is just 3.5 degrees West of Spica in the East before dawn
Dec 3: The Moon is 8 degrees SE of Venus in the East before dawn
Dec 5: New Moon
Dec 7: A very thin Waxing Crescent Moon is just 2 degrees NE of Mercury very low in the West-Southwest just after sunset
Dec 13: First Quarter Moon
Dec 13: The Moon is 7 degrees NW of Jupiter
Dec 13-14: A peak time for the Geminids. Geminid meteor maximums commonly reach 50 or more meteors per hour.
Dec 17: Jupiter Eastern Quadrature
Dec 18: A Waxing Gibbous Moon is within 6.5 degrees from M45
Dec 19: Uranus Eastern Quadrature
Dec 20: Mercury Inferior Conjunction
Dec 21: Full Moon
Dec 26: The Moon is 6.5 degrees SE of Regulus
Dec 27: Pluto Conjunction
Dec 28: Last Quarter Moon
Dec 29: The Moon forms a triangle with Spica and Saturn in the East before dawn. Saturn is nearly 8 degrees and Spica is nearly 7 degrees away from the Moon.