{"id":2385,"date":"2020-08-01T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-01T01:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/?p=2385"},"modified":"2024-12-12T08:52:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T08:52:48","slug":"the-shining-eyes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/?p=2385","title":{"rendered":"The Shining Eyes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Anand M N<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a school project on lunar observation that motivated me, an 11th<\/sup> standard boy, to serious star gazing. Till then, I used to see the twinkling stars, but not too keen about knowing them. That project gave me an opportunity to meet amateur astronomers and science enthusiasts outside my school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With continued motivation and encouragement from my parents, teachers and those amateurs, my interest became a passion and hobby. I became a regular face in local star parties and telescope making sessions. Slowly, I started assisting those sessions. Seven years later, after completing post-graduation in Electronics, I joined the Indian Institute of Astrophysics. I was so excited and thrilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that summer, I got my first opportunity to visit the Vainu Bappu Observatory with Dr. Parihar and Dr. Tarun Sharma. That was my first ever visit to an observatory and those were the most exciting days of my life. The trip was for the testing of Extinction Monitor developed by Dr.Tarun as a part of his M.Tech thesis work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We stayed at VBO nearly for a week and got a chance to visit the Vainu Bappu Telescope, then-largest telescope of India. The rising platform and seeing the big 90\u201d mirror of V.B.T was so exciting. Dr . Parihar explained the telescope operation and took us to the Echelle Spectrograph.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Vainu Bappu Telescope<\/em> (VBT<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Every day, he would take us for a walk to one of the telescopes and spend nearly an hour explaining the instruments and clarifying our doubts. On this trip, Dr. Parihar’s family was there with us too. They may not all come to the telescopes. So after the evening tea, we used to go for a walk outside the campus. We would return by sunset and keep the instruments ready for night observations. We had arranged the instruments on top of the administration building in such a way that we can see the Pole star for easy alignment. Once the instrument setup is done, we would rush for dinner. After dinner, our observation and testing would start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since we didn\u2019t have any polar scope in the instruments, alignment was difficult on the first day. We started with rough alignment seeing the pole star and improved it with drift alignment. Instrument testing would extend up to the early morning. The next day would only start by noon. Depending upon the time of our wake up, we would go for a telescope visit before or after lunch. Tarun would be analysing last night’s data in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day our evening walk was to a nearby village. It was a small Tamil village with a few families and a couple of shops for their basic needs. For bigger purchases and medical facilities, they would have to visit the nearest town, Alangayam. Now the village is developed and the population has also increased. The villagers had good relationships and respect for the observatory staff. I was the only south Indian in our team, so was the translator for all conversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He was so excited and said \u201cIt was so close. Even I could touch it\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

VBO has a good history of public outreach and every Saturday, the public can come and experience the night sky through a small telescope, installed in the lawn near the admin building. VBO staff will be explaining about the objects they see through the telescope, mainly planets and the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During our walk, we had some soft drinks and snacks from one of the shops. There we met an old man. He must have been around 70 years old. We asked him about the observatory and his experience of seeing the Moon through the telescope. He was so excited and said \u201cIt was so close. Even I could touch it\u201d. His eyes were shining like a star. It has been nearly 8 years since then. Still, I remember those shining eyes. That was one of the best experiences in my life, teaching me the importance of outreach programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, I became part of the IIA outreach team and visited a couple of schools and volunteered sky watching sessions at Koramangala campus. Now, I am at the Kodaikanal Solar Observatory. Yearly, thousands of visitors come to our museum. Schools and college students visit our observatory facilities too. I like to talk with small kids rather than the elders. They are curious and ask many innocent questions too.<\/p>\n\n\n

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(Image Credit: This image is sketched and gifted to KSO, IIA by Kamalesh)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

On 26th<\/sup> December 2019, there was an annular solar eclipse. I had sent eclipse glasses to my hometown as well. My cousin took a couple of those to her family. They are from an orthodox Brahmin family, who consider eclipses as bad symptoms and stay indoor reciting the mantras. But this time, seeing the kids looking at the eclipsed Sun, the 84 year old grandma, who was reluctant and asking the kids to get inside, came out and saw the eclipse for the first time ever in her life. That excited her and she stayed outside till the end of the eclipse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were some experiences too during the outreach programs which triggered my sense of responsibility as a member of the society I am living in. During one of the outreach meetings at Bhaskara Guest House, prior to a school visit near the institute, the discussion was on the lecture topic of the following day, Solar System. The discussion turned towards mythologies, which again led to Mars. Then, one of our team members, who was pursuing his PhD, was worried that the topic could turn out to be controversial. However, reason prevailed, as we realised that it was our primary responsibility to help clear superstitions about the negative beliefs surrounding Mars. I feel it is up to us to play a significant role through our programs to reach out to people and rid them of superstitions that might negatively impact their lives. If we will not do it, who else will?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the author<\/strong>
Anand<\/strong><\/strong> M N<\/strong> is a Junior Research Assistant at Kodaikanal Solar Observatory (IIA). He is interested in astrophotography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anand M N It was a school project on lunar observation that motivated me, an 11th standard boy, to serious star gazing. Till then, I used to see the twinkling stars, but not too keen about knowing them. That project gave me an opportunity to meet amateur astronomers and science enthusiasts outside my school. With…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[95],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2385"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2885,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2385\/revisions\/2885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.iiap.res.in\/collaborate\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}