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This Year’s Rakhi festival has got something special in store for you. Some full Moons are genuinely smaller than others and this coming 24th August full Moon is quite small. Why? The Moon's orbit is an ellipse with one side 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other.

In the language of astronomy, the two extremes are called "apogee" (far away) and "perigee" (nearby). On August 24th, the Moon becomes full within 12 hours after reaching apogee, making it look smaller than other full Moons we are going to see in 2010. No need to worry about it, it’s a visual treat if you are interested in how moon change size day by day, hour by hour!!

Major Discovery!

Main Belt Asteroid Discovered on Aug. 10th, 2010. as part of All India Asteroid Search Campaign conducted by SPACE in collaboration with IASC (International Asteroid Search Collaboration)!

Congratulations to SPACE Club students A. Singh and S. Wadhwa . A.Singh & S.Wadhwa from Ryan International School, Rohini discovered the Main Belt asteroid 2010 PO24 The discovery was made on August 6th. This is the first asteroid discovery by any school participating in the All-India Asteroid Search Campaign. Congratulations.

2010 PO24 is a rare Mars-crossing asteroid. Its average distance from the Sun is 2.34 AU but it gets as close as 1.66 AU. Mars is at an average distance of 1.52 AU but varies between 1.38 AU to 1.67 AU from the Sun.

Link to:
http://organisationspace.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-main-belt-asteroid-discovered.html

Once again Congratulation to A.Singh & S.Wadhwa...Outstanding Job!!

Keeping Looking

P. Jhaveri, A. Shah, & M. Shastri from SPACE Nodal Center, Navrachana School, Vadodara have also made a Virtual Impactor Observation in the same program

Link to:
http://organisationspace.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-vio-virtual-impactor-observation.html

Perseids Meteor Shower Night of August 12th, 2010

The Perseids meteor shower, one of the most reliable and spectacular ones of the year will be coming up soon, on the night of August 12th/early morning August 13th.

Perseids meteor shower usually have ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) of around 100-120 meteors, which will mean about 1 every 2 minutes and they will appear to originate from (radiant) the constellation Perseus.

The thin, crescent moon will be out of the way early, setting the stage for a potentially spectacular show. For best viewing, look to the northeast after midnight.The monsoon clouds however, may spoil the show.

Timings of peak:

August 12, 18h30m UT (Aug 13, 0h00m IST) to August 13, 07h00m UT (12h30m UT)

For more details Click here

Sunspot 1089 has grown so large, it can now be seen without the aid of a specialized solar telescope. BUt wait.... Although sunspot 1089 is large enough to see with the naked eye, looking for it is not recommended. Even when sunlight is dimmed by clouds and haze, you can still suffer permanent eye damage by staring too long at the unfiltered sun.

http://spaceweather.com/

We are glad to inform you that SPACE is organizing ISS EarthKAM event from 14th to 16th July. It is an international educational outreach program sponsored by NASA in which middle school students get an opportunity to take pictures of our Earth from a digital camera on board the International Space Station.

This program is open four times in a year and SPACE is the only organization that has brought it to Indian schools. We have done this event 4 times earlier also, first time it was done in the office premises only with almost 20 participants. Next three times, we did it in few schools. This time we are doing it in 10 schools for the first time. 10 students, one coordinator and principal of these schools will be participating in the event. Our education team will be going to these 10 schools and guide the participant to take the pictures.

All through the month of June 2010, almost every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, will be lectures and demonstrations at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, organised by the Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. These lectures and can be accessed by anyone through online registration from any location of their choice. CB Devgun (President, SPACE) and Vikrant Narang (Scientific Officer, SPACE) will be giving presentations at this seminar series along with many noted speakers. Details for the 1st 3 talks that include their listings well, is as below:

	Friday, 4th June 2010
Topic : Positional astronomy and inspiring sky events Time : 11:30 AM Speaker : Dr. N. Rathnasree, Nehru Planetarium, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

	Monday, 7th June 2010
Topic : Two "small" pieces of glass Time :11:30 AM Speaker : C. B. Devgun, S.P.A.C.E.

	Wednesday, 9th June 2010
Topic : The nitti-gritties of using amateur telescopes Time :11:30 AM Speaker : Vikrant Narang, S.P.A.C.E., Astronomica

Please check for information on other talks on this series and details on how to access these webcasts and presentations here: http://nehruplanetarium.org/taarewiki/pmwiki.php?n=Site.June2010 Right now it is not completely clear how to log in and where to see this although a Youtube link is listed. I will send more details as known. Meanwhile, the 1st talk of this series by Dr. Rathnashree starts at 11:30 today.

Hello Everyone,

This is to remind you all that live webcast of Astronomica for 07.06.10 will start at 11:30 Hrs.

The speaker is C.B. Devgun and the title of his presentation is "Two Small Pieces of Glass".

...... 'and how to turn them into your own personal instrument to look at the limitless sky, the universe and wonder how it all came about' CB, as he is affectionately called, will be on premises at the Teem Murti Bhavan in front of the webcam to talk to you and answer your queries via the chat module.

The link to view the webcast is here:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/summer-astronomy-lectures

The show will be 'on air' at about 11:30 Hrs.

to chat using the chat module on the right side you will need a Login ID and password for UStream. The login ID can be had very simply. Just type something below the chat window and you will be asked to login. Signing up for a new ID takes less than a minute.

Be aware that the webcast is deffered by about 10 to 15 seconds, when you ask a question, it takes double the time to answer via video, so have patience. As such quality of the webcasts depends on the speed of your internet connection as well as that of source, you could have a better experience by shutting all other internet hogging jobs, like mail, chat, messengers etc. It would also help tremendously if you sit in a dark room!

Looking forward to seeing you all in the webcast.

Greetings!!

Suvriti Dhawan
Megha Arora
Prafull
Bhavneet

SPACE is happy to inform you that you have been selected to participate in Phase II (July 1st - Aug 17th) of the prestigious ‘All India Asteroid Search Campaign’ (AIASC) on the basis of your application!

As you know, this is part of an international real time science initiative by "SPACE" and "International Astronomical Search Collaboration" . This will give you an exciting opportunity to be at the forefront of research at an international level, and be involved in real time data analysis and science. Selected Astronomicans will be given exclusive access to datasets and can analyze the data with the specialized software provided during training to find and identify asteroids! Discoveries, confirmations and observations of NEOs are reported on the website.

In phase I, our schools have already made 2 NEO confirmations and 35 NEO observations till date.

You are requested to attend the workshop on June 30th in Delhi and RSVP to us if attending.. Please write to us at aiasc2010@space-india.org if you have any queries. Welcome to the Asteroid Hunt!

IMPORTANT: Please bring along a laptop, and an internet connectivity card, if possible, as this workshop will conduct a hands-on demonstration of the software. A payment of Rs. 500 (cash) will be collected at the workshop.

Date and Location: We will get back to you soon

What will be provided:
A CD with software ‘Astrometrica’, practice data sets and relevant hand-outs

All INDIA ASTEROID SEARCH CAMPAIGN

Duration – July 1st to Aug 17th – Phase II

Details:

1. The website http://iasc.hsutx.edu/index.htm (Link - All India Asteroid Search Campaign) will load data (1 or 2 image sets) every few days exclusively for each Group

2.Each team will get a login id and password – login, access and download that data.

3.Use Astrometrica to analyse this data as per training.

4.Send in the MPC report of each image set analysed and also send a copy of each report to SPACE.

5.Successful observations will be listed on http://iasc.hsutx.edu/index_files/Page786.htm and also updated on http://organisationspace.blogspot.com/.

We hope to address most of your questions at the workshop. If you have any queries about the workshop and the program, please feel free to ask the contacts listed below. Also, please give us your correct email address which you check often, as all mails regarding the program, data etc will be sent to that mail so it is urgent that you check it often.

Good News - Phase I has already been running from May 1st with 15 schools and has been highly successful so far, with 2 successful NEO confirmations and 35 NEO observations by our schools to date: http://iasc.hsutx.edu/index_files/Page786.htm

We are looking forward to your joining us in this wonderful opportunity to find asteroids, and along the way get the opportunity to participate in real time science and learn astronomy data analysis techniques. Good luck with Hunting Asteroids!

June 21st will mark the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and is called the summer solstice. It is the longest day for people living in the northern hemisphere. In 2010, the solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere on June 21, at 11:28 UT, i.e. at 16:58 IST.

At the June solstice, Earth is positioned in its orbit so that the North Pole is leaning 23-and-a-half degrees toward the sun. As seen from Earth, the sun is directly overhead at noon 23-and-a-half degrees north of the equator, at an imaginary line encircling the globe known as the Tropic of Cancer. The sun's rays are directly overhead along the Tropic of Cancer (the latitude line at 23.5° north, passing through Mexico, Saharan Africa, and India). This is as far north as the sun ever gets. This results in the longest day of the year. For example in New Delhi, sunrise on summer solstice day in 2010 will be at 5:24 am and sunset will be at 7:22 pm making it a day which is almost 14 hours duration.

Summer Solstice Event conducted by SPACE:

To celebrate the summer solstice, SPACE will be performing public outreach at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on Monday, 21st June. Educators from SPACE will be measuring the sun angle and the sun’s declination using the Ram Yantra and the Jai Prakash Yantra instruments. They will also explain the various instruments at Jantar Mantar to the public. All media and public are invited to attend this event.

Details:

Summer Solstice: June 21, at 11:28 UT, i.e. at 16:58 IST

Event: SPACE will conduct Public Outreach and Activities

Location: Jantar Mantar, New Delhi

Date and Time: Monday, 21st June, 2010 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM

INTERACTION WITH ASTRONAUT JOAN HIGGINBOTHAM
at
Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi,
on the 6th of July
at 11:00 AM.

Nehru Planetarium is hosting an interaction with Astronaut Joan Higginbotham on July 6th, Tuesday, 1100AM onwards in coordination with us at SPACE. School students will get an opportunity to talk to her about her experiences in space.

EVENT DETAILS:

Reporting time : 10:30 AM

Tea : 10:30 -11:00 AM

Lecture and interaction : 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM

About the Astronaut:

Joan Higginbotham was the third Afro American woman in space. She was in a space mission with Sunita Williams and was a close friend of Kalpana Chawla. She flew aboard Space Shuttle Discovery mission STS-116 as a mission specialist. Joan has logged over 308 hours in space having completed her first mission with the crew of STS-116 where her primary task was to operate the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS).

kindly confirm your presence by 5th july before 6'o clock at 9212669913.

Contact info@space-india.org for details.