Pro Am Meeting December 2011

A meeting supported by the Astronomical Society of India

11:00 AM - 11:40 AM - Planetary Astronomy by Prof. J. N. Goswami

11:40 AM - 12:30 PM - Stellar Astronomy - a co-ordinated sky theater experience with discussions by Rathnasree and B. S. Shylaja

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM - Galaxies and Beyond by Prof. Jasjeet Singh Bagla

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM - The Radio Universe and amateur possibilities by Avinash Deshpande, RRI and/or Joydeep Bagchi, IUCAA

11:00 AM - 11:40 AM - Asteroid and Lunar occultation studies in Indian amateur astronomy

11:40 AM - 1:00 PM - Regional amateur astronomy activities - a panel of active amateur astronomers from across the country

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• Chander Bhushan Devgun, SPACE

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9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Inauguration

An evening program of night time positional astronomy observations using the Jantar Mantar observatory instruments

Participants wishing to attend could register here.

• Prof. Jasjeet Singh Bagla, IISER, Mohali

• Arvind Paranjpaye, Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune and Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai

• Pritpal Kaur, Amateur Astronomers Association, New Delhi

26th of December

9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Inauguration (To be discussed : Tentative thoughts are to request Director, IUCAA to inaugurate the workshop, Prof. Shukre to chair, with remarks by Prof. Jasjeet Singh Bagla related to the spirit of these workshops)

11:00 AM - 11:30 AM - Stars : A multidisciplinary sky theater experience

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM - Stellar Astronomy - a co-ordinated sky theater lecture possible to do by Rathnasree and B. S. Shylaja - other inputs suggestions also welcome

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM - Planetary Astronomy by Prof. J. N. Goswami

Lunch

2:30 PM - 3:30 PM - Amateur astrophotography : Imaging planets and deep sky objects - by Ajay Talwar and Dr. Suresh Mohan with inputs by other skilled amateur astrophotographers.

3:30 PM - 4:50 PM - Hunting for Asteroids : Vishnu Reddy through skype session, Mila Mitra from SPACE and student asteroid hunters

Tea

5:00 PM - 5:30 PM - A sky theater discussion of positional astronomy using Jantar Mantar observatory instruments

(Tentative thoughts about an evening program of night time positional astronomy observations using the Jantar Mantar observatory instruments)

27th of December

9:30 AM - 10:30 AM - Galaxies and Beyond by Prof. Jasjeet Singh Bagla

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM - The Radio Universe and amateur possibilities by Avinash Deshpande, RRI and/or Joydeep Bagchi, IUCAA

Tea

12:00 - 1:00 PM - Regional amateur astronomy activities - a panel of active amateur astronomers from across the country

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM - Co-ordinated (Planetarian/Amateur astronomer/Student) observing/analysis projects - Panel discussion Arvind Paranjpye/B. S. Shylaja/N. Rathnasree/Debi Prasad Duari/Aniket Sule/

Lunch

3:00 PM - 3:40 PM - Exoplanet studies through amateur astrophotography - Anthony Ayomamitis, Greek Amateur astronomer (Skype Session)

3:40 PM - 4:20 PM - Comets

Tea

4:40 PM - 5:30 PM - Valedictory

• Occultation studies - Dr. B. S. Shylaja

• An amateur astronomers journey through the skies, with a moderate telescope - Amar Sharma

• The Radio Universe and the GMRT - Prof. Yashwant Gupta/Prof. D. J. Saikia

Tentative thoughts for the Delhi meeting - feedback is sought

• Subrahmanyan Chandrashekhar - Prof. Rajaram Nityananda

• Astronomy with small telescopes - Prof. S. K. Pandey

• Amateur Astrophotography - talks by Ajay Talwar, C. B. Devgun, Dr. Suresh Mohan and many other amateur astrophotographers who have done very good work.
• Asteroid occultations - Arvind Paranjpaye
• Some simple Science with amateur astrophotography - Anurag Garg - it would be good to get some more talks possible here.
• Transiting extra solar planets with amateur astrophotography - Anthony Ayiomamitis, Greek amateur astronomer

27th of December being a Tuesday, the sky theater would not be available so much and talks with more traditional format of presentation could be held on this date.

This day's discussions could be more geared towards encouraging specific observing/analysis projects that are feasible to be undertaken by small teams of amateur astronomers and Bsc/Msc/Btech students.

Participants could be asked to register here through a wiki page which will be finalised after comments from OC members.

• Some simple Science with amateur astrophotography - Anurag Garg
• Transiting extra solar planets with amateur astrophotography - Anthony Ayiomamitis, Greek amateur astronomer

Amateur Astronomy inputs

• The naked eye sky - Vishnu Rettinam
• An amateur astronomers journey through the skies with a moderate telescope - Amar Sharma
• Amateur Astrophotography I - Chander Bhushan Devgun
• Amateur Astrophotography II - Ajay Talwar

(Tentative thoughts for possible sessions)

• Supernovae - Prof. Alak Ray
• Galaxies and beyond - Prof. Jasjeet Singh Bagla

• Prof. C. S. Shukre, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore

Proposed dates for the meeting 26th and 27th of December

Proposed sessions - a Draft

26th of December being a Monday, with the planetarium closed for public, the sessions can be held in the sky theater of the planetarium, utilising the versatile display capabilities of the new planetarium machine. The talks could thus be sky oriented - by sky oriented - not necessarily amateur astronomy talks - but, professional astronomers speaking on many topics could utilise the possibility of giving their talks in an "Under the sky" format. Possible topics for these sessions could be introductory talks on many topics like:

• Stars and stellar evolution - Prof. C. S. Shukre
• Radio Pulsars - Prof. Joanna Rankin may be visiting India at this time.
• Gamma Ray Bursts - Prof. Patrick Das Gupta
• The X-Ray Universe - Prof. G. S. Agarwal
• Blackholes - Prof. Panchapakesan

and so on - many exciting visual possibilities will exist with almost any topic to make these sessions very exciting - being held "Under the stars".

Some of the professional astronomy talks could be preceded by an amateur astronomers' view of those specific kinds of celestial objects - some amateur astronomers have done very good amateur astrophotography work and through their astrophotographs getting them to be interested in the science of these objects will be much more possible.

27th of December being a Tuesday the sky theater would not be available so much and talks with more traditional format of presentation could be held on this date.

This day's discussions could be more geared towards encouraging specific observing/analysis projects that are feasible to be undertaken by small teams of amateur astronomers and MSc/Btech students.

The above are tentative thoughts and feedback/editing of the program by OC members is sought.

Some random walks in professional and amateur astronomy

Some professional and amateur random walks

Through professional and amateur random walks

Star trails against the Himalayan Chandra Telescope dome at Hanle, taken by amateur astronomer Ajay Talwar

Advisory Committee

• Prof. Rajaram Nityananda, TIFR, Hyderabad
• Prof. Tushar Prabhu, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
• Prof. Biman Nath, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore
• Prof. Jasjeet Singh Bagla, IISER Mohali
• Prof. N. Panchapakesan, Delhi University

Scientific Organising Committee

• Prof. C. S. Shukre, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore
• Dr. Aniket Sule, Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education, Mumbai
• Dr. N. Rathnasree, Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi
• Dr. Debi Prasad Duari, M.P. Birla Planetarium, Kolkata
• Arvind Paranjpaye, Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune

Local Organising Committee

• Dr. N. Rathnasree, Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi
• M. K. Jain, Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi
• O.P. Gupta, Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi
• Pritpal Kaur, Kalindi College, New Delhi
• Ajay Talwar, Amateur Astronomers Association, New Delhi

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6902/hct2camerapanorama4w.jpg Star trails against the Himalayan Chandra Telescope dome at Hanle, taken by amateur astronomer Ajay Talwar

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/6902/hct2camerapanorama4w.jpg

Through accessible Pro Am random walks

(:title Pro Am Meeting December 2011 :)

Pro Am Meeting December 2011

'Pro Am Meeting December 2011'