Dr B S Shailaja of the Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, High grounds, Bangalore gave BAS members a talk on the scientific aspects of amatuer astronomy on Sunday, 3rd of June 2007.
The members present included Hemant, Amar, Abhay, Dr Balaji and myself. The brief discussion started at around 5PM and lasted more than an hour. Dr Shailaja started off, emphasising on the importance of astrometry and the consequential contribution potential amateurs harbour in this regard.
Dr Shailaja went on to explain the essence of timing occultations and related contextual observations in this regard and the systematic maintenence of the same. She not only recommended coordinating with other amateur groups in India in this regard, but also to establish multiple observing teams within the city itself to come up with disparate observational data, the analysis of which may prove interesting.
The session concluded shortly after. We're grateful to Dr Shailaja for the informative session