Tag Archives: Planetarium

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

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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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AASTRO Quiz competition accomplished to gain student mass

October 20, 2010 9:53 AM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

The quiz competition conducted by AASTRO on the centenary birth day of Dr. S. Chandrasekhar was rich in participation and knowledge. Around 80 students from various schools in Thiruvananthapuram participated actively in the contest. The program was formally inaugurated by Shri. Arul Jerald Prakash, Director of Kerala Science and Technology museum.The quiz was lead by Prof. Pappootty. Anand Justin from St. Mary's HSS, Thiruvananthapuram came first in the Higher Secondary level and Sreelakshmy V P from Govt. GHSS Cotton Hill came first in the High School level.

The quiz was followed by a lecture by Shri. D Krishna Warrier on Chandrasekhar's contribution to astrophysics and other related facts. Students, teachers, AASTRO members and many interested public participated in the program.

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Astronomy Quiz for students in connection with Chandrasekhar Centenary Programs

October 15, 2010 4:51 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

On the centenary birthday of Indian legend in the field of astrophysics,Dr.S. Chandrasekhar, AASTRO conducts an astronomy quiz competition for High School-Higher Secondary students. The competition will start at 1.30 pm at the seminar hall of Kerala State Science and Technology Museum, PMG.  From an institution, ten students can participate in the competition (5 from HS and 5 from HSS).

Dr.C.P. Aravindakshan will moderate the competition, which will commence at 1.30 p.m. Not more than 10 students can participate from a school. Each participant will have to pay Rs.25 as registration fee at the venue. The quiz is to commemorate the birth centenary of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, eminent Indian-born physicist and Nobel Laureate.Dr. Chandrasekhar is particularly remembered for his contributions to the study of evolution of stars in astrophysics.The quiz is  designed to give the students some new knowledge , rather than just testing their knowledge. The programme will be followed by an astronomy lecture by Prof. K. Pappootty,Director,State Institute of Encyclopedia Publications.  Students other than the participants, teachers and interested public from any field are also invited to this event.. They will get opportunity to interact with eminent people in the field.

For details, please contact Mr. Vaisakhan Thampi (9846608238) or Mr. Pradeep Attukal (9447525367)

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AASTRO Observed World Space week

October 12, 2010 7:45 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

As part of its World Space Week celebrations, AASTRO -Thiruvananthapuram chapter conducted a lecture series on 7th October for students and public. The program started at 3 pm at the seminar hall of Kerala State Science and Technology Museum, PMG, Thiruvananthapuram. The first lecture was presented by Dr. Thirtha Pratim Das, Scientist, VSSC about 'Discovery of H2O on Moon'. Dr. T. P. Das, with the aid of beautiful slides, lucidly presented the chronological development of the explorations that finally confirmed the presence of water on moon. The second lecture was presented by Prof. K. Pappootty, Director, State Institute of Encyclopedic Publications and President of AASTRO, about 'Astronomy and Astrology'. He briefly explained the difference between the purely scientific concepts of of Astronomy and the superstitious interpretations given to them. The lectures were followed by interactive sessions where the audience could clear their queries.

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Talk on Astrophotography

August 2, 2010 10:24 AM ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

As a part of its monthly public lecture series,AASTRO is going to conduct a presentation on 'Basic Techniques on Astrophotography' on August 4th , Wednesday at Kerala State Science and technology Museum, Thiruvananthapuram. The talk will be delivered by Shri.Ramachandran who is a member of Royal Astronomical Society and  an expert in this field. This is the 9th consecutive public talk AASTRO is arranging which participates academia, astronomy and science enthusiasts, students and public together. The talk will start by 5.30 in the evening and will be followed by a discussion and interactive session on the topic. Further details can be obtained from programme cordinator Shri.Vaishakhan Thampi Ph : +91-9846608238

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Trivandrum Chapter Meet on 13th May

May 10, 2010 2:56 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

AASTRO Thiruvananthapuram Chapter will have a meet on Thursday,13th may at Kerala State Science & Technology Museum and Priyadarshini Planetarium,PMG junction.AASTRO President Prof.K.Pappootty will preside the meeting and Planetarium director Shri.Arun Jerald Prakash and other eminent personalities will make their presence.upcoming and ongoing activities and programmes will be reviewed and plans for school & college activities will be shaped on the course.  AASTRO is planning to contribute for the Museum in vivid ways and this will be one of the mainstream agendas.All AASTRO members are requested to take part and more details are available with district point of contact Ph :+91-9846608238

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Teachers Workshop for Eclipse watch

January 19, 2010 12:04 PM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Thiruvananthapuram:AASTRO organised one day training for teachers from schools in and around city on January 11th in connection with Kazcha-2010,the eclipse watching mega event.Around 200 teachers from 100 schools partcipated in the workshop.Hon.Mayor Shri Jayan Babu inaugurated the workshop.AASTRO resource persons like Prof.K.Pappootty.Dr.C.P.Aravindakshan,Shri.KrishnaWarrier,Shri K.P.Sreenivasan conducted different sessions on various topics.Booklets were also distributed.

200 teachers participated in the workshop organised by AASTRO

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Lunar Eclipse watch on Dec.31st 2009

January 19, 2010 11:37 AM ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Thiruvananthapuram : AASTRO  arranged facilities for public for watching the last lunar eclipse on Dec.31st 2009 at Central Stadium.Large no.of  People,especially families, turned up with extreme enthusiasm for the upcoming solar eclipse and other activities on astronomy had a wonderful new year night.AASTRO  volunteers Dr.C.P.Aravindakshan,

Large no.of families and children turned for the Partial Lunar Eclipse watch organised by AASTRO on Dec.31st.

Large no.of families and children turned for the Partial Lunar Eclipse watch organised by AASTRO on Dec.31st.

V S Shyam, Pradeep Attukal,Vaisakhan Thampi,B Ramesh were some of them present for the programme.

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