Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Aug 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006iauss...5e..14s&link_type=abstract
Astronomy for the Developing World, 26th meeting of the IAU, Special Session 5, 21-22 August, 2006 in Prague, Czech Republic, SP
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
In India, Astronomy research institutions are few and far spaced as compared to the population density. Further, the public outreach activities of research institutes cannot cover most of the academic institutes in their area as they way out-number public outreach resource potential of any institute. The organisations of amateur astronomy enthusiasts do come handy in this scenario. We here present a case study of "Khagol Mandal", an a voluntary organisation primarily based in Mumbai, India's economic capital. In 20 years since its inception in 1985-86, Khagol Mandal has given more than 1000 public outreach programmes in various schools, undergraduate colleges, famous city hangouts, apart from their regular overnight programmes in Vangani, a sleepy village on the outskirts of the city. Study tours on special occasions like TSE'95 and TSE'99 as well as regular study tours to meteor crater at Lonar, Maharashtra facilitate their volunteers with glimpses of real research work in astronomy. These have inspired a number of students to take professional astronomy careers. With a volunteer force, probably largest in India or even South Asia, Khagol Mandal is well poised to take advantage of the newest tools like the Virtual Observatory and make the use of existing goodwill to take these tools to the layman. With little guidance from senior researchers, organisations like these can provide a solution to ever increasing need of man power for secondary data analysis.
Deshpande Akshay
Joglekar Hrishikesh
Joshi Santosh
Soman Y.
Süle Aniket
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