"Our Universe" - a talk by Dr. Kishore Baruah, Dept. of Physics, Tezpur University

Posted by: Arindam Mani Das, Member, PRAG

On the 11th of September, PRAG organized a talk entitled " Our Universe " by Dr. Kishore Baruah (Pioneer Member, PRAG) of the Physics department at Tezpur University. The talk covered a lot of things from the history of the universe & astronomy to the "physics" of it. A few shots below...

As we've said before, we shall keep on organizing more events in the future and urge all interested people to participate in the events.

Revisiting PRAG with a Talk-cum-Interactive session on popular astronomy

Posted by: Arindam Mani Das, Member, PRAG

Yesterday, on the 4th of September 2011, we the people at PRAG, organized a talk-cum-interactive session in the Guwahati Planetarium premises. After a long period of inactivity, we felt it was high time to get back to our good old ways. Although we expected a better turnout, we were more than satisfied because the crowd consisted of some "interested" people. A few students from Maharishi Vidya Mandir turned up along with students of Assam Engineering College and B. Barooah College. A few members of PRAG were also present. The talk of the day was delivered by Shri U.N. Deka, Secretary PRAG, a noted amateur astronomer of the region.

As the sun went down, the students were allowed to have a magnified glimpse of the planet Saturn along with craters of the moon. They seemed quite excited.

We'll be organizing more of such talks and sessions along with some workshops. We'll keep you updated. :) Happy Times.

PRAG's 2010 Mars Opposition Programme

Posted By: Dipankar Pathak, Member, PRAG

On 26 January , 2010 dedicated members of PRAG took a wonderful picture of mars using a just a simple 4' refractor and a nikon L19 digicam without any aid of camera adapters, during the close encounter of planet mars when its distance from earth was 0.6644 AU. Enjoy the above picture and give us your thoughts regarding the picture... lots of pictures were also taken in the following days as well as on 30 January, 2010 i.e. on the day of its opposition to earth.

Basic Astronomy Educational Camp

Posted By: Arindam Mani Das, Member, PRAG


(Above & Below) pictures of sun showing sun-spots was taken using just a simple 4' refractor and a nikon L19 digicam!

Today (13/02/2010) we organized an Astronomy Educational Camp at Panbazar Girls' High School, Guwahati. It went pretty well. We also held an sun observation session to show sun-spots to the children. They seemed pretty excited...Take a look at some snaps...

(Above) Our Secretary U.N. Deka in a session...

(Above) Sri Babul Bora, Office-Secretary of PRAG and Curator, Guwahati Planetarium with children during the observation session...

Observing the Sun!

PRAG's 15 January, 2010 ASE Observation Programme

Posted By: U.N. Deka, Secretary, PRAG


(Above) A wonderful picture of the partial phase of 15 January, 2010 solar eclipse taken from Guwahati Planetarium by PRAG Members without any solar filters. Enjoy!

(Above) Sequence of the annular solar eclipse recorded by a PRAG member from Dhanuskodi, Tamil Nadu.

Observers:

Dr. A.K.Goswami, President,

Shri U.N.Deka, Secretary,

Shri S.Sarma, Joint. Secretary,

Shri D.Bora, Student Member,

Dipankar Pathak, Member

The Pragjyotish Amateur Astronomers' Association of Guwahati, Assam made observation in association with Tamilnadu Science Forum, Chennai.

 

Millennium's Longest Duration Annular Solar Eclipse on January 15, 2010

 

The last solar eclipse occurred on 15th January, 2010 and it was of the 'annular' type. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon does not cover the Sun completely and a thin annular ring of light is visible. The ring is known as 'Ring of Fire.' The shadow cast across the earth is known as 'antumbral shadow' for an annular solar eclipse. This eclipse was seen across Africa, the Indian Ocean, India, Sri lanka and South East Asia.

The antumbral lunar shadow commenced its journey from Africa, hovering upon Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia in the African continent. Then the path approached Indian Ocean. The eclipse reached its maximum duration of annularity, which was 11 minutes and 08 seconds over Maldives.

Sri Lanka & India (South India) simultaneously was the first Asian lands that are kissed by the eclipse. Then the central path continued through Bangladesh, Burma, and China giving observers and scientists a life time experience.

However a partial eclipse was also observed within the much broader path of the Moon's penumbral silhouette. The areas included Eastern Europe, most of Africa, Asia, and Indonesia.

The eclipse was millennium's longest duration annular eclipse. We were in Dhanuskodi (Rameswaram) very close to the central line of path of annularity and we got the annularity for 10 minutes 08 seconds over there. It was a lifetime experience.

The moon's shadow travelled more than 20,000 km across the earth, giving the earthlings a fine chance to witness a solar eclipse

Dr.A.K.Goswami, Dipankar Pathak (seen back), Shri Sanjib Sarma (partly seen) & Shri U.N.Deka of PAAA,Guwahati among others are seen in the picture above.

(Above) Eclipse enthusiasts viewing eclipse through telescope installed by us.

(Above) Shri Dipankar Bora, Dr.A.K.Goswami & Shri Sanjib Sarma in serious discussion.

(Above) Perfect annularity.

 (Above) Pinhole effect during annularity photographed at Maldives.

(Above) Nine elderly ladies from Pune came to observe the eclipse and joined us.

The General Secretary of TNSF, giving commentary.

(Above) We had lunch (Pongal) offered by Tamilnadu Science Forum, during the eclipse.

 (Above) Annularity snapped through leaves of coconut tree.

The Times of India in its Chennai edition of following day i.e. on 16^th January 2010 on its second page published a report of annular solar eclipse viewing. The news praised The Pragjyotish Amateur Astronomers' Association, Guwahati (Assam) for installing powerful telescopes to enable the public to see the Sun at the glorious moment.

The PAAA arranged two meets- one on 09.01.2010 & other on 23.01.2010 i.e. before & after the eclipse event at ONGC Gallery,Guwahati Planetarium with public & Press. Video recording of the annular eclipse had been done by us using handycam and it was shown on 23.01.2010 with still pictures.

The Pragjyotish Amateur Astronomers' Association, Guwahati is thankful to Guwahati Planetarium and Tamilnadu Science Forum for active support for the success of the trip.

PRAG's 31st December, 2009 PLE Observation Programme

Posted By: Arindam Mani Das, Member, PRAG



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Hello there, That's Dipankar (left ) and Me (right)

People were busy with the new year celebrations...but we thought of spicing it up with a lunar party. After getting over with dinner we set off to snap some pictures of the moon shadowed partially by the earth...

Babul Ch. Bora, Dipankar Pathak and myself Arindam Mani Das were there at the event and we did in fact enjoy quite a lot... braving the December chill... Take a look at the Pictures and videos...
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Hope you liked those....

For astronomy related programme updates in Guwahati please visit our orkut community titled "PRAG" and also you can send us your response at pragamateurs@gmail.com

***HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010***

---The PRAG Team---