February 01, 2009

IYA 2009 Astronomy outreach event at Tumkur

IYA 2009 Astronomy outreach events is at a feverish pitch for ABAA &(Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers ). ABAA had organized Outreach program for Tumkur Science center at Kaalidaasa Junior college Tumkur. Tumkur science center is one of most active science club in Tumkur district.

Nagaraj discussing with Tumkur Science center representative.

Me(Naveen), Nagraj and Anand from ABAA had volunteered for the event. We were told that there would be around 300 school students from various schools of Tumkur. School had two telescopes an 8 inch Dob and 6 inch reflector which were built with the assistance of ABAA in one of the ATM workshops. Event started bit late around 7:30 pm in the evening as we reached bit late, all thanks to Bangalore-Tumkur road construction which made out KSRTC but to crawl.

After a warm welcome and quick Tea we were taken to the college terrace where we were supposed to show through the telescopes. we were surprised to see such a huge crowed and they were waiting patiently for us to show the sky.

Nagaraj talking about planets

As it was very difficult to handle such a large crowd with only two telescopes we had to rework on our strategies. We divided the group into 2 so that for one group we engaged them with a talk about Introduction to Night sky while 2nd group were observing throught the telescope.

Naveen talking about Astronomy

We started out with a introduction on IYA 2009 event and the significance about the Outreach program that we were conduction. We gave a brief introduction about Amateur Astronomy and what does amateur astronomers do followed by introduction to constellations.

School children listening to the talk attentively.





IYA 2009 Objectives like "She is an Astronomer", "Astronomy for All" and "Young Astronomers" were also addressed in the event.



Anand had keep one set of students around 100 of them busy with his Q & A sessions and rest for the group were busy viewing through telescope. As the limiting magnitude of the sky at the college was low, the most viewed objects were Moon and venus. School children were patient and waited for there turn to come. It was a fantastic and most successful event. We really thank & appreciate Tumkur Science center and Kaalidasa college for calling us to conduct the event.

5 comments:

  1. Great Naveen, really fantastic job in bringing the sky close to people, hope to see more and all the best for all the future projects...

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  2. This reminds me of Swadesh Movie, Esp the last pic where the lady is viewing the telescope :)
    Gr88 job Guys!This is a awesome work by you guys! Keep it up!
    Good luck with more such pgms

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  3. Naveena, you made a trip from earth to universe for tumkur ammetures, great, this indicates that galelio have taken birth for the second time , but this time in india. post me some important information about esp(extra sensory perseption), Aliens and paranormal creatures outside this earth.. awaiting for your web links, till then , ROCK ONN...!!

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  4. @ Ravi
    Bringing Astronomy close to the common man is one of the Goal of IYA and we are achieving it on every outreach event.

    @Rekha
    Although I haven't seen Swadesh Movie, but it feels great that we where able to step into the shoe of King Khan in Real life. Thank you Rekha for your motivation.

    @Kiran
    Yes Galileo has certainly taken rebirth for us and this time the celebrations for his inventions will be celebrated by us with much pomp and show.Hope you will also be a part of that event.
    ROCK ONN YEA WAQT KAA ISHAARAA...
    ROCK ONN YEA SAMAY NA AYEAGEE DO BAARAA....

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  5. Very nice Naveen. Let's hope more and more will enjoy looking at the skies in the days ahead.

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