February 09, 2009

Astronomy outreach event for School Vivekananda.

All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in our own mind. swamy vivekananda.

When volunteers donate their time, equipment and resources and share it with others. ABAA volunteers know that the only thing better than a night under the stars with a telescope is sharing the observing experience with others. One of our main missions is to share the wonders of the night sky and support science education. To accomplish this goal we volunteer our time, telescopes and other resources to groups that are interested in learning more about astronomy.

Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers conducted an Astronomy outreach program on 6th February for School Vivekananda in Sahakaranagar Bangalore North. There was a huge turnout for the event which was estimated around 700 school kids and their parents. This outreach program was one of the series of outreach programs which will be conducted in and around Bangalore by Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers for IYA 2009
The event started by an introductory talk given by Jayanth and his son Rahul who is also one of the active young members of our association. Rahul’s topic was stellar evolution which kindled much interest.


Jayanth and Rahul talking about Introduction to astronomy and Setllar evolution.

Next talk and slide show was delivered by Nagaraj. His talk was about solar system and man made probes to the planets in our solar system. School Vivekananda had made all arrangements for the LCD projector and the screen. Colorful slides for Mars, Jupiter, Saturn etc., captured the interest and imagination of the school children who thoroughly enjoyed each and every slide with a WOW!!. There were around 300 students present in the huge auditorium and this was the first time that we had conducted the events with such large numbers.




Late evening after dark our activity shifted to the school ground, all the school kids were grouped and made to sit according to their classWe had set up 4 telescopes of different aperture
Naveen’s 6 inch open dob with 25 mm eye and Arun’s 4 inch were focused to moon as dobsonian has a low profile this was mainly dedicated to kindergarden children. Jayanth’s 8 inch and Anil’s telescopes were focused to Venus .



Naveen showing Moon through 6" Dob.

School kids were very happy to see through the telescopes and seeing the details of moon astonished each one of them. Many were found coming back again and again in the Queue to see the moon.





As the evening passed by the onlookers and bystanders got curious and came in to see what’s going? A separate queue was created and Arun’s telescope was dedicated for parents and for the general public who wanted to see through a telescope. So the event turned out to be sidewalk astronomy event along with Astronomy outreach for school.


Parents and onlookers queuing up to have a peep through the telescope
A couple of local Sahakaranagar residence who live near the field dropped in to check out what’s was the event about and we ended up showing the local residence as well.
Lot of curiosity was instilled in the minds of young and old, as usual there were lots of Q & A sessions and discussions happened throughout the telescope-viewing event.

We packed up around 9:30 PM in the night as some of the members had to go to other part of the city in Bangalore South. This event that ABAA had conducted for IYA 2009 got a good response and was hugely successful, for which ABAA members are proud of.

We thank the school principle Ms Amitha Shireesh for making all the arrangements for the event and for giving us the opportunity to conduct this event.

ABAA members who made the event successful.
Geeta, Jayanth, Rahul, Naveen, Nagaraj, Arun, Anil & Akshay.

5 comments:

  1. Its really refreshing to see and read about the activity. Kudos to the team who made it successful.

    This kind of activity will go a long way in bringing awareness in Astronomy. Good show and well documented.

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  2. Great Naveen. Kudos to all ABAA members who made this happen. That must have been one of the biggest crowds we have had in our programs.

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  3. missed it mate.....

    any such events, can you post the details to Sahakarnagar Email Group at this link

    http://groups.google.com/group/sahakarnagar

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  4. i study in that school.....
    It was a nice event

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  5. NaVeEn RoCkZ Ǽ

    Thanks for the comment.
    Nice to know that you study in Vivekananda school and you enjoyed the event.

    ReplyDelete