Rockets in the News: Rocket Disaster Casts Doubt Over Indian Space Program

Yahoo News: Rocket Disaster Casts Doubt Over Indian Space Program
If the history of modern rocketry teaches anything, it's that sooner or later, stuff will blow up. When you pour thousands of gallons of combustible fuel into 15-story machines and then ignite the whole stack, the occasional explosion is simply going to be the cost of doing business. What you have to hope is that no one gets hurt, and if at all possible, no one's watching.

The spectacular Christmas-day explosion of India's new Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) - a gleaming 167-ft. (51m) tower of rocket - spared the country the deaths that sometimes accompany space disasters, but the public humiliation was another matter. Crowds swarmed the Satish Sahwan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh in anticipation of the launch and millions more watched live on TV as the GSLV's engines were lit at 4:04 PM. Forty-seven seconds later, engineers on the ground lost control of the vehicle. Sixteen seconds after that, they blew the haywire rocket up. A booster that was supposed to carry a critical telecommunications satellite into high-Earth orbit instead met its end just eight miles (13 km) over the Bay of Bengal. (See the top 50 space moments since Sputnik.)

More was lost in the GSLV disaster than a $39 million (1.75 billion rupee) rocket and its satellite payload. Also badly damaged was India's long-pursued rep as a major player in the commercial rocket game. This is not the first GSLV that has failed to fly; the booster has a record of four disasters in seven tries over the past 10 years - the most recent just last April.

"The GSLV has had only a 50% success rate," says Ajey Lele, space expert at the Institute of Defense and Security Analysis in New Delhi. "India has wanted to have the technology and the facility [to launch heavy payloads] on its own soil. Now that will not happen in the near future." But with China, Japan, the U.S. and other countries all chasing the same global business with their own fleet of rockets, the near future may be all the time the Indian program has. See pictures of five nations' space programs.

India has had a big - if unheralded - presence in the space community for a long time. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) - essentially India's NASA - was established in 1969 with the mission of focusing exclusively on launching communications and Earth observation satellites, programs that have immediate benefits for people on the ground and were seen as the only legitimate business a country as poor as India had in space.

ISRO did well with its limited portfolio, but things changed in 1999, when the country - puffed up after a series of successful nuclear tests the year before - decided to aim higher, planning for unmanned missions to the moon and manned missions into Earth orbit. In 2008, the Chandrayaan-1 lunar spacecraft made good on part of that promise, not only successfully orbiting the moon, but making a significant - indeed, landmark - discovery about the surprising quantity of water mixed in with the lunar soil. Meantime, the smaller predecessor of the GSLV was making a name for itself as a reliable commercial launcher, with a string of 16 successful launches against no failures. The GSLV was seen as the next logical step in a rapidly advancing program: a three-stage, heavy-lift rocket suitable for bigger payloads and crews. (See photos of the labor of space exploration.)

But the ambitious design of the rocket may be its undoing. The problem that led to the explosion occurred in the first stage - a giant liquid-fueled engine surrounded by four, strap-on solid fuel rockets. Strap-ons, as designers know, are a great way to add oomph to a booster; the more power you need, the more solids you attach. But multiple engines mean increased complexity - not to mention the need to coordinate the exact amount of thrust each motor is producing, the exact moment ignition takes place and the tricky acoustical business of controlling vibrations. The fact that it's that stage that failed this time was not surprising but it was disappointing, since in the April launch it worked perfectly; it was the second, simpler stage that failed that time. Another former ISRO chief called the nature of this most recent accident nothing short of "a national setback."

For the moment it's unclear whether it's a setback the space agency can recover from in time. Sorting out multiple glitches in multiple stages is a time-consuming business, and even one more failure could irreparably destroy the GSLV's image. Ultimately, the global market for heavy-lift flight could simply leave India behind. Uncertain too will be the scheduled 2015 launch of the Chandrayaan II, a joint Indian-Russian moon mission that's intended to carry both a lunar satellite and a rover and was slated to be launched on a GSLV. Even less certain is the launch of the first Indian astronauts - or vyomanauts - a mission that did not yet even have a target date and is less likely than ever to get one until the big booster proves itself.

India's economic and technological growth have been extraordinary over the past ten years, but as the U.S. and Russia learned over the previous fifty, there is nothing that challenges a country's scientific and industrial base like trying to take those first steps into space. The GSLV may yet recover, and vyomanauts may yet ride it to glory, but the path won't be easy. It never, ever is.

Partial Solar Eclipse on Jan 4th, 2011 - Visible from parts of Northern India

THE FIRST ECLIPSE of 2011

A partial solar eclipse will occur on January 4, 2011. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun. A partial solar eclipse occurs in the polar regions of the Earth when the center of the moon's shadow misses the earth.

The eclipse will be visible over most of Europe, the Arabian peninsula, North Africa and Western Asia.
IT WILL BE VISIBLE FROM PARTS OF NORTHERN INDIA.

Local Circumstances:
For details about local circumstances, visit the SPACE eclipse blog at http://solareclipsesindia.blogspot.com/

How to Observe:
For suggestions and tips by SPACE on how to observe a solar eclipse, visit here http://solareclipsesindia.blogspot.com/2010/12/how-to-view-solar-eclipse.html
For solar viewing goggles, telescopes etc visit the SPACE Arcade website:
www.spacearcade.in

Details and Map at NASA eclipse site here:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/OH/OH2011.html#SE2011Jan04P

QUADRANTIDS METEOR SHOWER on Jan4th, 2011

QUADRANTIDS METEOR SHOWER
 The Quadrantids are an above average shower, with up to 40 meteors per hour at their peak.
The shower usually peaks on January 3 & 4, but some meteors can be visible from January 1 - 5. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Look for meteors radiating from the constellation Bootes.

The source of the Quadrantid meteor shower was unknown until Dec. 2003 when Peter Jenniskens of the NASA Ames Research Center found evidence that Quadrantid meteoroids come from 2003 EH1, an "asteroid" that is probably a piece of a comet that broke apart some 500 years ago. Earth intersects the orbit of 2003 EH1 at a perpendicular angle, which means we quickly move through any debris. That's why the shower is so brief.
Details here:
http://meteorshowersonline.com/quadrantids.html

RESULTS of the "scientist of the day"

STEPL (Space Technology and Education Pvt. Ltd.) conducted an experiment for school children as part of the Winter Solstice Day celebrations at Jantar Mantar on 22nd Dec by SPACE.

The competition titled 'Scientist of the Day' involved measuring the shadow of a long stick over a period of time and using the shortest shadow to find the Circumference of the Earth. This uses the concept that the sun rays shine directly overhead on the Tropic of Capricorn (the latitude line at 23.5° south, passing through Brazil, South Africa, and Australia) on the day of Winter Solstice. Younger students participated in a competition "Measuring the Sun Angle" which was a smaller part of the original one.

About 150 students from 21 schools from Delhi NCR participated in this competition, including schools such as The Airforce School, Subroto Park; DPS Sonepat; Ryan International School, Rohini; Step by Step, Noida; Apeejay School, Saket, etc. The students sat in groups amidst the green lawns surrounded by the ancient monuments and measured away for a couple of hours. It was a great experience for the teachers and students to be involved in such a project.

All the groups did a great job and attended to the measurements with attention and diligence. I am proud to announce the winners of these two competitions:

In Senior Section Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj won the first prize where as team 8 and team 7 from Ryan International School, Rohini got second and third prize respectively.

In Junior Section team 5 from The Air Force School, Subrato Park won the first prize where as team 15 and team 16 from Step By Step Greater Noida stood second and third prize respectively.

Earth will be at Perihelion on Jan 4th, 2011 (00:30 IST)

Earth will be at Perihelion on Jan 4th, 2011
 
You may know that we don’t have a circular orbit around the Sun. It is elliptical, that means at one point we are closest, and at another we are at the furthest point away. On January 3rd at 19:00 UT or January 4^th at 00:30 IST, Earth will be at its closest point from the Sun on its' elliptical orbit around the Earth, which is known as Perihelion.
The Earth-Sun distance at that time is 147,093,590 km, which is about 5 million km closer than its farthest point in early July. However, this effect is much less significant than the effects due to the axial tilt of the Earth. Our seasons are determined primarily by the tilt of the Earth and not by how close or far the Earth is to the Sun.

To read in detail about Earth at Perihelion, find the attached document at the Google Calendar listing for this event here:https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1IXUie0Takfd07MxIuvCzg3l-TgJ7_qcaRN4YKO2sVWY&hl=en

SPACE celebrated Winter Solstice at Jantar Mantar, Dec 22, 2010

SPACE celebrated Winter Solstice with public outreach and with a large group of school students at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi
22nd December was the shortest day of the winter, i.e. the Winter Solstice when the Earth's axis in the Northern Hemisphere was tilted furthest away from the sun. After this day, the day lengths slowly increase again. This day is celebrated over the world in different cultures, the most famous celebrations being at Stonehenge. SPACE observed this day in Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.

SPACE conducted public outreach at Jantar Mantar. Thankfully, although Winter Solstice indicates the peak of winter unofficially, it turned out to be a glorious sunny day. A lot of tourists and general wanderers walked through and were happy to find out what the ancient 'Jantar's (Yantras- meaning Machines) or structures were actually used for and how they were used to measure locations and time using the sun's shadow or by observing celestial objects.SPACE conducted tours of the various instruments and explained their workings.

STEPL (Space Technology and Education Pvt. Ltd.), i.e. the education wing of SPACE conducted an experiment for school children. The competition titled 'Scientist of the Day' involved measuring the shadow of a long stick over a period of time and using the shortest shadow to find the Circumference of the Earth. This uses the concept that the sun rays shine directly overhead on the Tropic of Capricorn (the latitude line at 23.5° south, passing through Brazil, South Africa, and Australia) on the day of Winter Solstice. About 200 students from 15 schools from Delhi NCR participated in this competition, including schools such as The Airforce School, Subroto Park; DPS Sonepat; Ryan International School, Rohini; Step by Step, Noida; Apeejay School, Saket, etc. The students sat in groups amidst the green lawns surrounded by the ancient monuments and measured away for a couple of hours. It was a great experience for the teachers and students to be involved in such a project.
Experimental material such as Telescopes, Binoculars and Astrokits were provided by SPACE Arcade www.spacearcade.in.

SPACE wil celebrate Winter Solstice at Jantar Mantar, 22nd Dec

       SPACE will celebrate Winter Solstice at Jantar Mantar
                                 22nd Dec, 11:00am - 3:00 pm 

SPACE will celebrate Winter Solstice with Public Outreach at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi.

• Learn about all the Jantar Mantar instruments and see how they are used.
• STEPL will conduct competitions on 'Measuring the Sun Angle' (Primary students) and 'Measuring the Circumference of the Earth' (Middle and Senior school students)

A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is most inclined toward or away from the Sun, causing the Sun's apparent position in the sky to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme.

On the day of Winter Solstice, North Pole tilts away from the Sun and South Pole tilts towards the Sun. The Winter Solstice occurs exactly when the earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'. So the Sun shines at lowest heights in Northern skies and at maximum heights at Southern skies. It results in the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere but at the same time it’s the longest day in Southern Hemisphere. So for people in Southern Hemisphere it’s a Summer Solstice.

Winter Solstice indicates winter at its peak. After this, the length of the day starts increasing and it reaches a point where day and night becomes equal in length at Vernal or Spring Equinox. The day continues to grow longer till Summer Solstice, the longest day.

The Winter Solstice will take place at 23:38 UT on 21st Dec (5:08 am IST on 22nd Dec) . In New Delhi, sunrise on winter solstice day is at 7:10 am and sunset is at 5:29 pm making it a day which is about 10 hours in duration. 

On Dec 22nd, SPACE will conduct a Public Outreach  in collaboration with Nehru Planetarium at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. The students from various schools of Delhi will be performing activities tracking the shadow created by the sun using the Jai Prakash Yantra, and participating in competitions. 

More information can be found at our blog http://wintersolsticeindia.blogspot.com/.

For details on competitions visit www.stepl.org

For telescopes, binoculars and cameras visit  www.spacearcade.in

SPACE TEAM receives Kudos for Success in Great Indian Star Count Program

SPACE TEAM receives Kudos for Success in Great Indian Star Count Program:
SPACE recently concluded the Great Indian Star Count program (Oct 29th - Nov 12th) in collaboration with the Great Worldwide Star Count. This time SPACE turned in a record 1000 observations from all over India, which was 25% of the total number of about 4500 from over the world!

Our reports have also generated media attention, as it calls attention to the fact that light pollution has now increased by as much as 5% in cities such as Delhi compared to last year.

Such media attention and record number of observations have earned us recognition from the Director of the Globe at Night and Hands on Universe program who have sent their congratulations to SPACE and invited SPACE to join the Globe at Night program in March 2011. They have also requested C.B. Devgun to be a presenter at the IAU (International Astronomical Union) session on light pollution in July 2012 and talk about GISC and Project Dark Skies programs there.

Thanks to all of you who have worked hard to contribute results to this program. It is a privilege to be recognized by an international organization of this stature and be invited to join their programs, and thus receive support in our push to create awareness of light pollution.

Read some media clippings here on this program:http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4636275

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Delhiites-midnight-loss-97-stars-not-visible/Article1-623197.aspx

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/article854884.ece

Somnium, by Johannes Kepler

Somnium (Latin for "The Dream") is a fantasy written between 1620 and 1630, in Latin, by Johannes Kepler. In the narrative, a student of Tycho Brahe is transported to the Moon by occult forces. It presents a detailed imaginative description of how the earth might look when viewed from the moon, and is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy.

Somnium began as a student dissertation in which Kepler defended the Copernican doctrine of the motion of the Earth, suggesting that an observer on the Moon would find the planet's movements as clearly visible as the Moon's activity is to the Earth's inhabitants. Nearly 20 years later, Kepler added the dream framework, and after another decade, he drafted a series of explanatory notes reflecting upon his turbulent career and the stages of his intellectual development. The book was edited by his heirs, including Jacob Bartsch, after Kepler's death in 1630. It was published posthumously in 1634 by his son, Ludwig Kepler. Similarities with real life led to Kepler's own mother being arrested on charges of witchcraft.

The story is the tale of Duracotus, who was the son of an Icelandic witch named Fiolxhilda. During his youth she banished Duracotus to Denmark for five years. Upon his return, she decided to share some of her secrets with him. She explained that her instructor had been a demon who dwelt on the Moon. During a Solar Eclipse, the lunar demons were able to travel between the Earth and the Moon via a bridge of darkness. The son decided he wanted to make this journey, and so he was transported to the Moon by demons.

To ease his journey he was given a drowsing draught and moist sponges to hold under his nose. He was carried to the point of neutral gravity between the Earth and Moon, then allowed to drift down to the lunar surface. Thus the author understood some of the effects of gravity and the need for environmental protection above the atmosphere.

Modern Day
Fresh Aire V by the Mannheim Steamroller is a concept album based on the work.

The Power of the Church
Why did it take over 1600 years between the publication of A True Story and Somnium? Well, the church didn't like stories that postulated that there might be life on other planets. Nor did they like the fact that some people thought that the earth revolved around the sun, rather than the sun and other "wanderers" (aka planets) revolving around the Earth. It was therefore not particularly safe to publish such stories until the church lost a little bit (but only a little bit) of its grip on the mind of man.

Vera History, by Lukian/Lucian of Samosata

A 17th century fictional portrait of Lucian of Samosata.

Mankind has always dreamed of travelling to the Moon, and of travellers from outer space visiting Earth.

The first known story is Vera Historia ("True History" or "A True Story") written by a Syrian, Lukian/Lucian (in a variety of Greek dialects). It was written about AD 180, and describes a voyage to the moon by a ship, which is lifted to the surface of the moon with the aid of a giant whirlwind. [This story is therefore fantasy rather than science fiction, since the main characters do not reach outer space by any kind of mechanical means. Nevertheless, it shows mankind's fascination with space, and its generally accepted belief that there were inhabited worlds besides Earth.

This story is available for free on the Kindle (as is all Lucian's works) or at Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10430/pg10430.txt) as a text file.

Lucian of Samosata
Lucian of Samosata (Latin: Lucianus Samosatensis; c. A.D. 125 – after A.D. 180) was an Assyrian rhetorician, and satirist who wrote in the Greek language.

Few details of Lucian's life are known. He claimed to have been born in Samosata, in the former kingdom of Commagene, which had been absorbed by the Roman Empire and made part of the province of Syria.

In his works, Lucian refers to himself as a "Syrian", "Assyrian" and "barbarian", perhaps indicating "he was from the Semitic and not the imported Greek population" of Samosata.

Lucian almost certainly did not write all of the more than eighty works that have been attributed to him: declamations, essays both laudatory and sarcastic, satiric epigrams, and comic dialogues and symposia with a satirical cast, studded with quotations in alarming contexts and allusions set in an unusual light, designed to be surprising and provocative.

His name added luster to any entertaining and sarcastic essay: over 150 surviving manuscripts attest to his continued popularity. The first printed edition of a selection of his works was issued at Florence in 1499. His best known works are A True Story (a romance, not "true" at all, which he admits in his introduction to the story), Dialogues of the Gods and Dialogues of the Dead.

Lucian was trained as a rhetorician, a vocation where one pleads in court, composing pleas for others, and teaching the art of pleading. Lucian's practice was to travel about, giving amusing discourses and witty lectures improvised on the spot. He travelled through Ionia and mainland Greece, to Italy and even to Gaul, and became not only famous but also wealthy.

Works
Lucian was one of the first novelists in western civilization. In A True Story, a fictional narrative work written in prose, he parodied some fantastic tales told by Homer in the Odyssey and some feeble fantasies that were popular in his time. He anticipated modern fictional themes like voyages to the moon and Venus, extraterrestrial life and wars between planets, more than a millennium before Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. His novel is widely regarded as an early, if not the earliest science fiction work.

Lucian also wrote a satire called The Passing of Peregrinus, in which the lead character, Peregrinus Proteus, takes advantage of the generosity and gullibility of Christians. This is one of the earliest surviving pagan perceptions of Christianity. His Philopseudes ("Lover of Lies or Cheater") is a frame story which includes the original version of "The Sorcerer's Apprentice".

Language
Lucian wrote in the Attic dialect "with a facility almost equal to [that of] Plato." He was able to imitate Herodotus's [Greek historian] Ionic dialect so successfully in his work "The Syrian Goddess" that some scholars refuse to recognize him as the author.

The Plot of A True Story

In True History, Lucian and a company of adventuring heroes sailing westward through the Pillars of Hercules (the Strait of Gibraltar) are blown off course by a strong wind, and after 79 days come to an island. This island is home to a river of wine filled with fish, and bears a marker indicating that Heracles and Dionysos have traveled to this point, along with normal footprints and giant footprints.

Shortly after leaving the island, they are lifted up by a giant waterspout and deposited on the Moon on the eighth day. There they find themselves embroiled in a full-scale war between the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun over colonisation of the Morning Star, involving armies which boast such exotica as stalk-and-mushroom men, acorn-dogs ("dog-faced men fighting on winged acorns"), and cloud-centaurs. Unusually, the Sun, Moon, stars and planets are portrayed as locales, each with its unique geographic details and inhabitants. The War is finally won by the Sun's armies clouding the moon over. Details of the moon follows, there are no women, and children grow inside the calf of men.

After returning to the Earth, the adventurers become trapped in a giant whale; inside the 200-mile-long animal, there live many groups of people whom they rout in war. They also reach a sea of milk, an island of cheese and the isle of the blessed. There, he meets the heroes of the Trojan War, other mythical men and animals, and even Homer. They find Herodotus being eternally punished for the "lies" he published in his Histories.

After leaving the Island of the Blessed, they deliver a letter to Calypso given to them by Odysseus explaining that he wishes he had stayed with her so he could have lived eternally. They then discover a chasm in the Ocean, but eventually sail around it, discover a far-off continent and decide to explore it. The book ends rather abruptly by Lucian saying that their adventure there will be the subject of following books.

Fireballs in the Sky- Geminids Meteor Shower on dec 14th

Fireballs in the Sky -
Geminids Meteor Shower on Dec 14th

Avid star gazers can soon witness another sky theatre spectacle in the mesmerizing night skies - the Geminids Meteor Shower, peaking on 13^th/14^th Dec. This is one of the best meteor showers of the year and never disappoints observers. The peak of the shower this year falls just after the first quarter Moon. Moonset is within half an hour of local midnight across the globe for the maximum, while the Geminid radiant will be overhead around 02h local time.

The source of the Geminids shower is asteroid 3200 Phaethon. There's a cloud of dust trailing the asteroid and the Earth plows through it every year in mid-December. Bits of dust traveling  at 80,000 mph hit our atmosphere and turn into glowing meteors.The Geminids got its name because its radiant position, from which it appears to originate, lies in the constellation Gemini.

Observe and Photograph the Geminids:
SPACE has the following handouts and suggestions to ensure that each one of you can go out and observe this wonderful spectacle:


SPACE suggests that students, amateur astronomers and the public go out on Dec 14th morning to a dark site away from lights and observe this nightsky spectacle. Details about timing and observing suggestions can be found listed below. Meteor Showers provide a wonderful photographic opportunity. Details on techniques and suggestions by SPACE to employ for meteor photography can be found here:
http://meteorshowersindia.blogspot.com/2009/12/photographing-geminds.html
 
SPACE will webcast a workshop on 'Meteor Showers and the Geminids' on 14th Dec. Find details on this website closer to the date.

Record and Report:
This year we would like all observers to become Citizen Scientists and record their results and report it to IMO (International Meteor Organization). Details can be found in the attachment, as well as on the IMO website, listed below. Each citizen scientist who reports their observations will have the privilege to have their names and results listed on the IMO website.

Interested in Joining an Observation?
If you or a group from your school would be interested in joining a tour to beautiful Rishikesh or to nearby Sakras to observe and photograph these spectacular fireballs, then contact STEPL Astrotourism at rishabhj@stepl.org for further details.

SPACE Plans:
SPACE plans to send a scientific team to witness and record the Geminids Meteor Showers to a dark site away from Delhi. In 2009, SPACE observed and created a very successful report for the IMO. This can be found on the blog listed below. 
 

Geminids Details:

Maxima - Dec 14^th at 11h UT or 16:30 h IST

ZHR (Zenith Hourly Rate) - around 120.

The best time to watch the activity near the peak in India is on 13th December night/early morning on 14^th after moonset.

Relevant Websites:
SPACE suggestions on how to photograph Geminids Meteor Shower:
http://meteorshowersindia.blogspot.com/2009/12/photographing-geminds.html  
SPACE astrophotography of Geminids:
http://picasaweb.google.com/organisationspace/Geminids2009#

IMO website Observations reporting location:
http://www.imo.net/visual/major/observation 

Enjoy the last meteor shower of the Year.

Manifesto

This blog is dedicated to the history of rocket travel, from the dreams of the ancient to the present day. We'll present biographies of rocket scientists, biographies of actual rockets, and news of the past, present and future devoted to rocketry.

Children's Fortnight celebrations at Nehru Planetarium

Children's Fortnight celebrations at Nehru Planetarium
The Nehru planetarium has an annual Children’s Fortnight celebration in the later half of November (15th - 30th), commemorating Pt. Nehru’s birthday. Special shows will be held in the planetarium, and activities will be conducted.

A complete list of activities and the schedule can be seen here:
http://nehruplanetarium.org/taarewiki/pmwiki.php?n=Site.ChildrensFortnightNovember2010

SPACE will be collaborating in some of the activities held during this time.  Please join us. These include:

November 16th - Moon and Jupiter Carnival
Sky theater live show on Moon and Jupiter. Free entry. Timings : 12:30 PM to 1:30 PM. Activity limited to 250 participants.Evening skywatch with telescopes. Viewing Moon and Jupiter through a telescope. Sunset to 8 PM
November 20th - Sun festival
Open outdoor activity. Anyone can participate in viewing sun projection through telescopes and binoculars, and in conducting some measurements and observations. Timings : 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
November 23rd - Making and using sundials
Registered activity. Limited to 30 participants. In the activity area of the planetarium.
Timings: 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.
November 24th - Matka Planetarium
Registered activity. Limited to 30 participants. In the activity area of the planetarium.
Timings: 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM.

Updated List of observers registered for the GISC till now!!!!

Following observers as per our registration data records have taken a step ahead and registered for the GISC and WWSC. SPACE wishes them good skies!!!

Vipul Raheja                      IIIT Hyderabad

chander devgun                    SPACE

Dinesh Nisang                     Bhaskaracharya Astronomy Research Centre

aditi                             avm convent dholpur

A.S Huidrom                       The Assam Valley School

prafull                           Ahlcon Public School

Ambrish Rawat                     IIT Delhi

Devendra Singh Raghuvanshi        Marudhar Engineering College, Raisar

astha sharma                      IIT DELHI, DELHI

Shekhar Suman Singh               LPU

Mohit Gupta                       Indian Institute of Technology , Delhi

Krushan                           Navrachana School, Sama

ARPIT SHUKLA                      Navarachana  Higher Secondary School

MANANK SHASTRI                    NAVRACHANA SCHOOL

Jaidrath Zaveri                   Navrachana, Vadodara, Gujarat

AADESH SHAH                       NAVRACHANA SCHOOL

PALLAV JHAVERI                    NAVRACHANA SCHOOL

AJINKYA THAKARE                   NAVRACHANA SCHOOL

GEHASHRAY TOOR                    NAVRACHANA SCHOOL

Rahul Arora                       Step By Step A-10 Sector 132,Noida

babita kundalia                   hillwoods Academy preet vihar

Megha Arora                       DPS,VASANT KUNJ

Anamitra Saha                     Educator

Gayatri P                         Educator

Leesha Jyoti                      Scientific Officer

Rahul A                           Junior RP

aanchal sharma                    hillwoods academy,delhi

PRASAHASTI                        HILWOODS ACADEMY

Nipun                             Springdales

harman singh chawla               sprigdales school, pusa road, new delhi

Tushar Sharma                     Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Tech.

Priyanka Srivastava               SPACE

SAURABH GUPTA                     HILLWOODS ACADEMY,PREET VIHAR,DELHI

swastik                           msit,ip university.

akash                             maharaja surajmal

sanyam kundlia                    hillwoods academy

Amol Garg                         Sri Aurobindo College

Sneh Kesari                       STEPL

aanchal sharma                    hillwoods academy

manav rathi                       Maharaja Surajmal Istitute of Technoly

Jaishree                          SPACE

mila mitra                        SPACE

Prashant Bansal                   Punj lloyd ltd.

Ritish Verma                      hillwoods academy

srijan devgun                     national victor public school

Rohit Kumar AT&T

Pooja Kumar SPACE

satvik step by step school

Sahil Wadhwa Ryan International

Rahul Arora Step By Step,Noida,A-10 Sector 132

Arpit Srivastava BITS, Pilani - K.K. Birla Goa Campus

suvriti dhawan apeejay school sheikh sarai

amanjot singh ryan international rohini

Shivam Goyal The Doon School

akanksha singh step by step

Venkat Arun Springdales School,  Pusa Road

Anandhi Mani Shri Natesan Vidyasala MHSS

Pooja Kumar SPACE

Rohit Kumar AT&T

Jagriti Saxena STEPL

Pratyaksh Singhal Step By Step school, Noida

mukund step by step noida

Angad Singh Step By Step School

Udisha Madan Step By Step 

mehar gulati step by step world school, noida

ananya gupta step by step

ishaan mehta step by step

Shivesh Chatrath Step By Step

Sean Hunt Step By Step World School

Jahan Jolly Step By Step World School

urvi varmani step by step world school, noida

Meghna Talreja Step By Step World School Noida

Mahira Dasgupta Step by Step world school

kabeer singh babbr Steb by steb

sukhmani navin vacher Step By Step

Hansa Kantor step by step world school ,noida 

vansh bhutani step by step

siddharth singh thosar step by step world school noida 

Krishaang Verma Step by Step world school

Shivesh Chatrath Step By Step School

Jai Chopra Step By Step 

Rishabh Johri  Step By Step World School

Avantika Tandon  step by step world school ,noida 

viraj randev step by step

Viraj Bahri Step By Step World School

Rushil Kapoor Step by Step world school

Naina D. Lavakare Step By Step, Noida

T.Manish Hyderabad Public School

rushil kapoor step by Step school

Another feather in the SPACE cap! MBA discovery!!!

Another feather in the SPACE cap!

Vikrant Narang and Mila Mitra from SPACE have made a Main Belt Asteroid Discovery on Oct 29th, as part of the NEO Plus campaign. 
Details from Patrick Miller, Director as below:

----------------------------------------------------MBA Discovery!! -- IASC

Greetings from the International Astronomical Search Collaboration

Congratulations are in order.  V. Narang & M. Mitra from S.P.A.C.E. in India discovered 2010 UJ98.  This is a Main Belt asteroid discovery made on October 29th.

During the current campaigns, there have been three MBA discoveries...one each from Japan, United States, and India:

Object  Students        School  Location        Date
2010 UR2        Y. Yatsuyanagi  Shizuoka University     Japan   10/17/10
2010 UN8        C. Pannill      Meredith College        NC      10/27/10
2010 UJ98       V. Narang & M. Mitra    S.P.A.C.E.      India   10/29/10

Congratulations to all of you!!

Happy Hunting!!

Dr. Patrick Miller
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“Hidden Treasures” — a free competition by ESO

Click here to go to the site

Great Indian Star Count clipping

Moon in HDR by SPACE team

Comet Hartley clicked from new observation site of SPACE at Sakras

Comet Hartley clicked on Nov 2 night from new observation site of SPACE at Sakras

Click on image to see hi res

Close encounters of Hartely!!!!

NASA's Deep Impact (EPOXI) probe has just completed its 435 mile flyby of Comet Hartley 2's nucleus. The spacecraft has turned its high-gain antenna toward Earth and data are being transmitted to mission control at JPL. The first raw images have just arrived and, even without processing, they are spectacular....

The first close-up image of Hartley

For more images click here..

Inauguration of SPACE's new observation site

Winter skies are here!!!! SPACE schools have been gearing up for sessions during the nights in their SPACE clubs. SPACE has made another observation site available to its associated organisations at Sakras. First light !!! of the site is going to happen tomoro with the night observation sessions of the schools there.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=27.8536947&lon=76.9726342&z=18&l=0&m=b

Great Indian Star Count

letter from CM Gujrat for the Asteroid hunt Programme success!!!!

SPACE celebrated WSW2010 and WWLW 2010 in a special way!!!

SPACE celebrated WSW2010 and WWLW 2010 in a special way!!!