Bangalore Astronomical Society was invited for Conducting a workshop on “Galileoscope - Telescope Making” at SEDS India National Conference 2009 held on 28th Feb 2009 at VIT University, Vellore.
The event was planned about a month and half ago, with lots of discussing on the agenda and the event plan, finally we confirmed our participation. During our discussion we estimated about 45 students to be registered, but as the registrations were open for Galileoscope workshop with in a short period there were over 60 registered participants. About two weeks later we were surprised to see over 120 people registered, hitting maximum participants for any event during SINC 09.
Myself ( Naveen LN) with other BAS volunteer members Vivek Y, Vishwakeerthy, Achyut and Alex set our journey to Vellore. We planned for our activity such that each one would handle independently a group of students during the observation. I was completely concentrating on my presentation and demonstrations. This was the first time where BAS was representing at a national level conference and outside Karnataka.
We reached VIT University at the lunch time, SINC 09 volunteers gave us a warm welcome and we proceeded towards for lunch. This was my second visit to VIT and I was surprised to see the difference in the last 10 year this organization has made.
Later we were taken to the guest house. I should appreciate the hospitality of the volunteers every thing was very well organized and done. Weather! its better I don’t comment on that, hot! While we spent some time discussing about my presentation, little did we know about the surprises coming up.
As we approached the conference hall, we were told the registrations had crossed 150 mark. I was mentally getting prepared to face that huge crowd. Vishwa, Vivek, Alex and Achyut starting setting up the telescopes, we had two telescopes for display and demonstration (Newtonian reflector and refractors).
The host once again gave a warm welcome to us and introduced BAS and its activities to all participants. As I put up my presentation on the projector, I could notice the participants leaning forward with interest. I started of my presentation and I was at my second surprise, every participant in the hall had seen and used a telescope. That made my topic a bit tougher, and has to be double sure on what I was talking about.
Introduction to telescopes, their history, types, working and finally grinding and assembling the telescopes were covered in my presentation. About 20 min were spent for answering the question of the participants, (a feedback from the participant said all questions were appropriately answered and they were happy) Couple of participants turned up after the presentation to share their feedback and also getting motivated for building their first telescope. Isn’t that what BAS wants… getting more people to astronomy.
With a short break I started off with my second presentation for the day. “Astrophotography, an art of collecting faint light” I used the astrophotos by the members of BAS and explained different methods. Fixed tripod, tracking, prime focus and more were discussed. Many question again and it was a very interactive session. Next we broke for the observation session and demonstration of Astrophotography on the roof top. Venus, Moon, Orion Nebula, Saturn and few star clusters were shown. Few participants used their camera and tried fixed tripod astrophotography.
We were given a memento after the event, lots of students talking to us and sharing their feeling and asking questions was common, in spite of declaring the end of the workshop. Our Instant BAS volunteer badges out did than what we expected. Thanks to Alex and Achyut for their timely creative thought.
The third surprise was the participation certificate featuring Bangalore Astronomical Society and its logo next to giant organizations like ISRO, Moon Society, SEDS India, Ham Radio and VIT. First BAS logo on a non-BAS organized event, distributed to participating from various places of India.
BAS logo and its collaboration were displayed on the big banners at various places of the campus; each banner attracted and surprised us. It was a pleasure to see our BAS Logo everywhere.
Sunday we took a look at the various building and activities of the VIT University. It’s a very well maintained and wonderful campus. Thanks to volunteer Vinodh for taking us across the campus and explaining us various things. Library was a very well maintained. Walker path with shade all over the campus, Canteen, food, lecture halls, auditorium and laboratories, hospitality, welcome were all good.
In all BAS made its presence felt at such a great program. Thanks to BAS volunteers Vishwakeerthy, Vivek, Alex and Achyut for doing their best during the outreach and overall helping me in giving a best presentation. I thank Vishnu Reddy for his time and help to prepare the quiz questions. Ravindra of ABAA for his support and guidance. All BAS Members and especially Satya for providing valuable inputs during the planning phase of this workshop,Finally BAS would like to thank SEDS-India, VIT University event organizers, Abhimitra,Snehal, Vidit, Sumit, Vinodh and others for considering BAS worth and potential candidates for such a grand workshop.
This marks yet another milestone achieved for BAS.
More photos shared at http://picasaweb.google.co.in/naveen.nanjundappa/SINC09Vellore#
Event co-ordinator : Naveen Nanjundappa.
We love night more than day, she is so lovely!