INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 10 MAY 2010

(C) ASTRONOMY CLUB, TECHNOCRACY, IIT DELHI. PAGE 1

The club can proudly speak of its presence in the online world. Though a separate website for the same is still in the pipeline, the club has found 237 fans on its facebook page. Also, both the google group and the facebook pages are actively updated with discussions or information about the latest activities and events in the astronomical world. Moreover, Nitin, one of our freshies has been kind enough to let us use his user

home space to act as a local repository for free softwares and e-books for the club. Moreover,

discussions on the group range from the recent Lyrid Meteor Showed Peak on 22nd April, 2010 to the Galazy Zoo to astronomical events for a month... It goes on and on, and the club can be proud to have an active community of

students who make sure that one thing or the other is coming up, every now and then...

We are looking...As we move into the

new academic session, it’s time for the freshies to step up and take the baton, as they enter their sophomore year. It’s the time of the year when the old subsides to make way for the new. It’s the time we start looking for motivated people who can dr ive the c lub into i t s complete maturity, while keep ing i t s founding principles intact. If you feel you are up to the challenge, f ee l more than f ree to contact any of the core members any(?) time of the day.:

Anant Jain: 98 717 240 72Abhishek Su. : 99 909 097 60

Abhisek Sh: 99 902 454 12This is a small effort to

introduce you, the reader, to the activities of the Astronomy Club, at IIT Delhi in the first semester of its very existence. It’s been an exciting semester overall, though most of our activities weren’t e ven l y spaced out , ma in l y because of the nature of the semester itself here at IIT Delhi. There’s lots more coming up for

the next semester, starting this July. Till then, you can enjoy reading about our activities this semester, join the club or just follow us on %. To be a member of the club, fill the google form at bit.ly/astroclubiitd You shall automatically receive an invite for the google group and updates for new sessions. Enjoy :)

ONLINE PRESENCE - THE GOOGLE GROUP AND THE FACEBOOK PAGE

technocracy.ideas2ignite.com/astronomy-club

A brief review of our activities: Jan-Mar 2010

Astronomy Club

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 10 MAY 2010

(C) ASTRONOMY CLUB, TECHNOCRACY, IIT DELHI. PAGE 2

A BRIEF SUMMARY...

Anant Jain talking about his M101 project: Session 0

We started off on the January 29th this year, with out first se s s ion co ver ing a ba s ic in t roduct ion to the c lub - introducing a structure for the Technocracy Special Interest Groups , in t roduc ing what ‘astronomy’ we could play with, what ‘astronomy’ we could work upon se r ious l y. It wa s an introduction to how much fun we could have and how much fun some of us had already had in this field. It was a short and sweet session, lasting an hour (precise;) This was followed by another session, by one of the guys who thinks he has good presentation skills, which alas is so not true (work over it !!) Anyways, people seemed to enjoy learning about the basic concepts of Astronomy - what’s ecliptic, what’s RA, what’s Dec - stuff essential to know before even stepping out to watch the heavens even with a naked eye. This was followed by a sess ion by one of the best amateur astronomers in Delhi as of now, Raghu from the AAAD (Amateur Ast ronomy Association, Delhi) He procured 2 te le scopes f rom Nehr u Planetarium, and showed the attendees some awesome stuff - including the Orion Nebula, some planets, and even a messier or two. This session was also a part of the Tryst, as a workshop.

CHRONOLOGICALLY...Here’s a session-by-session

review of what we did as part of the Astronomy Club

Session 0 ( ~100 attendees)

Jan 29 : The need , the proposed activities - theory and observation sessions, excursions, projects were discussed. Plus, Surana , Sharan and Anant introduced their past work in the field.

Session 1 ( ~60 attendees)

Feb 17: Some basic concepts - Magnitudes, Bayer Letter System, Messiers, NGC Catalogues, the celestial sphere, alt-az, RA-Dec, Var iab le s ta r s , super no va remnants,clusters, nebulae were introduced to the group by Anant. Also, Nitin helped in in t roduc ing some of the constellations and asterisms (and some cool stories behind them) through Stellarium.

Session 2 ( ~60+ attendees)

March 13: Raghu started off with pointing the scopes to the awesome Orion Nebule, right up near the zenith. Being hugely attended, he was shot with a lot of questions and queries about astronomy, which he patiently answered while walking the people though the sky.

Session 3 (never took place !)

We had planned a session on May the 7th, right after majors, when ever ybody is free and jollying around. More so because the skies were expected to be c lear. Bur a l a s , due to the awesome weather we have these days, it’s all so non-May and non-Delhi - it’s cloudy up there. So we had to drop the idea and wrap up the club’s activities for the semester.

Core TeamABHISHEK SHARAN

EP Junior year. The wi ses t in the group, this guys makes sure that the google group

stays alive :)NITIN JAIN

CS Fresh ie . The smartest one in the group. Double gold medallist

at IOAA. Surely our source of knowledge (and wisdom)ABHISHEK SURANA

Elec Eng g Sophomore. Undoubtedly the most enthusiastic

one, this guy keeps the social community alive with his FB updates.

and fina"y,ANANT JAIN

Elec Eng g Sophomore. The guy who simply knew he had to go

ahead with the club after his IOAA. No matter what.

Sankalp Dayal, Nishant Ranka and Sushant Maheshwari - your contribution can’t even be put into words. Be our guiding light. Always.

Want to make a telescope?

Prof. Ranganathan is looking for people interested in optics and mechanical designing of a telescope. Let us know. We’ll put you in touch with him :)