Astronomy Course/Workshop– May and June 2009

Ruchi and Poorvi often discussed joining an Astronomy course...I wasn’t really interested so never got excited and didn’t really encourage them. But then on a busy day at work I got a call from Ruchi. She had just spoken to Mr Rao from ABAA and there was this 6 weekend beginners program which was fast getting sold out. I was just telling her that I may not be able to attend all the classes but she was like...neither will I, but its only Rs 200/-

I agreed and don’t regret it one bit. I so looked forward to the classes and when I visited Delhi in the middle I planned to come back on Sunday in time for my class!

It was a bit theoretical but Mr Rao, the course coordinator’s passion for Astronomy used to flow in the lectures. Apart from that he is so knowledgeable and would often speak about Philosophy and quote from the Upanishads and Vedas making the lectures all the more interesting.

When in the first lecture he said that Astronomy tends to make you more philosophical, I couldn’t understand how...but a couple of lectures later I started thinking that I should read something on the Upanishads and Vedas.

In between this course The Bangalore Astronomical Society conducted a 2 full day workshop on Asteroids, Comets and Meteorites with Vishnu Reddy. Obviously we decided to attend that too!

It was very good and more focused on finding new Asteroids, Comets and Meteorites. However, that is not where my interest is really, coz I don’t really want to search for new stuff, but just enjoy the beauty of what is already there.

But still the lectures were very interesting. He actually had access to those really huge telescopes 34” ones sitting in some remote place in USA which he accessed from here remotely and showed us some of the objects…quite impressive.

On Sundays we could stay back to look at the sky but May/June are not very great months for sky watching in Bangalore. But October is supposed to be beautiful and ABAA members meet every Sunday at the planetarium and get out their telescopes. And that is where you are going to find me on Sunday evenings in October!!!