Telescope making workshop tomorrow

Nikhil Sharma,an amateur astronomer with Akashmitra for the last seven years,said,”The enthusiasm among students and even working professionals in the city for astronomy is immense. It’s a very serious hobby for many. Quite a few of the students who have registered so far already have observed a few meteor showers and some have even made their own Newtonian telescopes in the earlier workshops. They keep coming back to us for various events,even though they may not be regularly attending the Akashmitra meetings every week.”

The workshop that will be guided by other amateur astronomers from Akashmitra is open for people above the age of 10,(or students from Std V onwards). Akashmitra Association is an association of those interested in observing the astronomical phenomenon scientifically and popularizing astronomy.

The group meets every Thursday 6.30pm at the National Institute Of Ophthalmology,off Ghole Road,near Phule Museum.

The HST that was sent to the outer space in 1990s by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and has since then generated tremendous interest among astronomers of all kinds.

The images taken by HST are extremely sharp as they are long range exposure images and are taken with HST’s orbit lying outside the earth’s atmosphere thus allowing no background light.

Through this workshop Akashmitra will explain the working of the HST through the models that will be made by the participants themselves.

This is the fifth year of the telescope making workshop being organised by Akashmitra.