Mumbai prepares for Global Astronomy Month 2014

"Astronomers Without Borders, based in the US, organises Global Astronomy Month in April every year to bring together enthusiasts from across the globe and share new ideas and opportunites. This year's schedule boasts over 20 events. There's a photography contest (last year's winning photos were widely broadcast by National Geographic, Sky and Telescope, Huffington Post, NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day and others), a poetry contest, a special asteroid search campaign–students get to make original discoveries, a Global Star Party, a Cosmic Concert by an Italian pianist and even a live audio-visual transmission performance between the earth and the moon–radio signals will be used to send images to the moon and these signals will bounce off the moon and return to earth to be picked up by the Dwingeloo Radio Telescope. Moon-bounced images will be presented in real time. For the detailed schedule visit: www.astronomerswithoutborders.org.

Astronomy on the sidewalk
If you plan to stroll on the sidewalks of Nariman Point, Worli Seaface, Shivaji Park, Dadar, Carter Road in Mumbai or a few locations in Thane, you can do much more than just walking. Keeping with the spirit of Global Astronomy Month several amateur astronomers, who have built their telescopes at Nehru Planetarium, plan to lend them to passers-by to view the treasures of the sky from 7 pm to 9 pm. Detailed information and updates are available on their Facebook Page: Sidewalk Astronomy Mumbai.

Evening Sky Show
On all the weekends of April, you can have a heavenly time with celestial bodies. Nehru Planetarium plans to run free sky observation sessions, between 7 pm and 8.30 pm, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday; you can expect to see the moon, Jupiter and more, interact with astronomy buffs and query with the planetarium's staff too."(http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-mumbai-prepares-for-global-astronomy-month-2014-1975368)



"In April 2013, when ISON was about 4au from Sun, I was quite surprised to receive an invitation to attend a Consultation Workshop on ISON Comet, to be held at the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education,Mumbai (HBCSE). The convenor organisations of the workshop were All India Peoples Science Network (AISPN), HBCSE, Vigyan Prasar, and Navnirmiti. At the consultation workshop I met about two dozen persons from various institutes and individuals from all over India, professional astrophysicists, amateur astronomers, science educators, science educators, science popularisers, communication designers and artists. It was quite a diverse gathering. We deliberated for two days and a night.

In the meeting, it was decided that the arrival of the Comet ISON provided a very good opportunity to launch a massive campaign. The excitement in tracking the comet, and the opportunity it provides for several science activities by children in the learning-by-doing mode, as well as the long-term potential of such an effort to develop an interest in them in watching objects in the night-sky. The apparition of ISON could well become a vehicle on which science could be taken to the far flung corners of India.

It was decided to produce resource material in printed and digital forms that would be publicly available on a web portal, and plan a cascading series of training workshops for resource persons, in order to reach a large number of children nation-wide in each district. It was also decided to form a co-ordination committee, and constitute an advisory panel.

India is a large country, and with an even larger population. Slowly the numbers involved sank in my mind. The amount of effort needed to reach the number of children in each district of India would be astronomical. Thankfully, I was given the relatively easy task of technical support."(http://astronomerswithoutborders.org/gam-2014-blog/item/a-science-campaign-in-india.html?highlight=WyJtdW1iYWkiXQ==)