The biggest celebration of astronomy ever to happen on the planet Earth - The International Year of Astronomy - 2009 (IYA2009) is going on. Its a complete year dedicated to Astronomy! The aim of this global celebration - IYA2009 - is to make everyone realise the impact of astronomy and other fundamental sciences on our daily lives, and understand how scientific knowledge can contribute to a more equitable and peaceful society.
 
‘100 Hours of Astronomy (100HA)’ is one of the cornerstone project of IYA2009 - It is a worldwide event with a wide range of public outreach activities including observing events and more taking place during a 100-hour period all over the globe from 2nd-5th April 2009.  One of the key goals of 100HA is to have as many people as possible look through a telescope as Galileo did for the first time 400 years ago.

SPACE has organized 100 Hours of Astronomy at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi from 2nd to 5th April 2009. More than 2000 people were involved in astronomy through this project/event.

Day 1: 2nd April, 2009 100 hours of astronomy had a great start at the Jantar Mantar, New Delhi starting at the sunrise. Both aspects of amateur astronomy were covered, showing the observatory to public and explaining its significance and also taking the observational data during the day to enrich the understanding about this masonic observatory which stands tall in the heart of Delhi
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Curious visitors of Jantar Mantar got to know about the scientific heritage, which was very unusual for them as Jantar Mantar looks kike a maze to them.

Day 2: 3rd April, 2009 The day began with measurement of Sun's Declination from the Niyat Chakra of the Misra Yantra instrument, the technique was also explained to an audience of 7 people watching the web cast from around the world. Our webcast audience kept asking us questions over the chat. One woman from US said that she come to India more than decade ago and wanted to learn about the Jantar Mantar, and now she was happy.

This webcast was followed by Dr. Rathnasree, director Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi together with Mr. Vikrant Narang. Scientific Officer, SPACE giving a tour of all the instruments over the webcast. We've been trying to webcast our activities from Jantar Mantar since last many years, finally it was achieved.

We also performed calibration of the Samrat Yantra instruments by marking the Local Solar Time lines for every minute on a flex sheet, stretched over the horizontal portion of its dial. We hope to achieve an accuracy of about 10 seconds in reading the LST with these markings. Samrat Yantra was designed to give an accuracy of 2 seconds originally, but that is really challenging because of the penumbra problem.

Sidewalk astronomy continued throughout the day with our educators showing people safe ways to view Sun through the solar viewing glasses and a projected image of the Sun through a telescope. People were also told about the July 22nd TSE passing from India. In the evening, a huge number of people gathered to see the craters of the moon and Saturn, lots of questions were asked by people and the young children really enjoyed the sight. A bright (-2.4) mag ISS pass was the highlight of this sidewalk astronomy. (Total number of people who were shown the sun: 300, Total number of people who were shown Moon and Saturn: 250)

In the evening, we screened the classic video 'Powers of 10' for an audience of over 100 people which covers the smallest structures of the universe (sub atomic particles) to some of the largest (galactic super clusters) in 40 orders of magnitude. It was an incredible journey which left the audience amazed by making them realize first the insignificance of our size in the universe and at the same time realizing how tiny are the particles that make us up.

This was followed by the screening of around the Live webcast of 'Around the World in 80 Telescopes'

Day 3: 4th April, 2009 was the most exciting day in SPACE 100 hours celebrations so far; in spite of a hectic previous day, our team arrived at Jantar Mantar by 9:00 AM. Being
Saturday, we were expecting a huge crowd. Many schools students and teachers (some of them being members of SPACE) from Amity International School, Saket, KR Mangalam World School, Greater Kailash - II; Birla Vidya Niketan, Pushpa Vihar; Delhi Public School, Ghaziabad; Gurunanak Public School, Pitam Pura; Tagore International School, East of Kailash and Indian School joined in the 100HA celebrations.

April 4th was also celebrated as the 3rd International Side Walk Astronomy Night (ISAN).

We have placed two 5” Newtonian Reflectors near Mc Donalds at Inner Circle, Cannaught Place – Delhi’s one of the most well known market places and an 8” at the Jantar Mantar manned by Subir, Scientific Officer, SPACE.

Soon curious onlookers realizing that the show was free, started lining up behind the telescopes, at one point the line reached about 20 meters in length behind one of these scopes. Lots of questions were asked about Saturns Rings and Moons Craters. The lines only finished an hour after completely after the shops had all closed down by 10:30 PM. A total of more than 2250 people got their first glimpse of Moon and Saturn – a sight first seen by Galileo 400 years back.

Three cheers for 100HA-truly an event 400 years in the making.

To the sky, which enthralls!!!

For More Details visit our website: http://www.gespl.org/iya/iya.html

NATIONAL SCIENCE DAY


The first ever Celestial Magic Show brought to you by S.P.A.C.E. & Nehru Planetarium on National Science Day

On the occasion of the National Science Day which is celebrated every year on the 28th of Feb, SPACE in association with Nehru Planetarium, Delhi organized a Space Fair featuring a Celestial Magic Show, a unique magic show with an astronomy theme. In addition there were many other activities that got students of all ages, their parents and teachers actively involved. Each activity covered a unique concept of astronomy and brought out the fun of science.

S.P.A.C.E. reached yet another milestone in science popularization on National Science day by presenting the first ever Celestial Magic Show [A magic show based on Astronomy]. This innovative method, conceptualized by Sachin Bahmba, General Secretary, SPACE and executed by Isamudin, a renowned magician, was the highlight of the SPACE fair. For the first time, this medium was used to popularize Astronomy.

“The magic show was a very nice way of befriending children and luring them to science” said Dr N Rathnasree, Director, Nehru Planetarium. In addition she appreciated the effort of all volunteers and the festive look that the planetarium wore on the occasion of this Space Fair.

The magic show drew thunderous applause from children and their parents every time a magic trick interwoven with an astronomy concept was unveiled before their eyes. Given the emphatic response for the Celestial Magic Show, it has been planned that this unique and innovative show will travel the world under the banner of SPACE.

In addition to the Celestial Magic Show, there were various other equally innovative and interesting activities planned for the Space Fair. These included

“I am Galileo” an activity to assemble a telescope similar to what Galileo used 400 years ago

“International Time Line” an activity to understand the change of dates on our planet

“Live Sundial” and “Time Machine” a demonstration to tell the time by standing in the sun and looking at your shadow

“Dancing Planets” an activity to replicate the tilts of different planets

“Drive Your Own Planets” an activity to understand the shape of the orbits of different planets

“Eggnaut Landing on Mars” a fun filled activity to land an egg on the surface of Mars by padding it

“Make Your Pinhole Camera and Spectroscope” a model making competition for kids and parents to make a simple pinhole camera from scrap material

“Ring Side view of the Sun” a never before seen view of our very own Sun through a special H-alpha telescope

All these activities had very enthusiastic participation from kids of all ages including their parents and teachers. There were many prizes to be won which included Space cards and other Astronomy aides. Information about how to view the Total Solar Eclipse occurring on 22nd July and the safe methods of viewing it were also available. More than 500 participants attended and celebrated the event. Some of the schools that participated in the event were Salwan Public School, Rajinder Nagar, Bal Bharti Public School, Noida, Dharm Public School, Gr Noida, Our Lady of Fatima, Gurgaon etc.

In the end, the event was a great success and everyone from the organizers to the participants thoroughly enjoyed the day and had a lot of fun while learning so much about our Universe at the same time!!

For More Information http://www.gespl.org/nsd/nsd.html