Astronomy Club, IIT Madras

12th January,
 
The much anticipated trip had gone haywire exactly a week before, owing to the crowd expected at Rameswaram due to the auspicious new moon of the 'tai' month. Thanks to Prasanna and Vinay, who had gone to the place the weekend prior and planned it meticulously, the venue got shifted to Vivekananda Mani Mandapam, Pamban. The stay had been confirmed at a local hotel in Ramanathapuram aka Ramnad. We got a neat itinerary, a detailed description of the places and the schedule.
 
14th January,
 

Hi,

This signup form is for us to get a headcount of the number of people are interested in coming along with us to Rameswaram to view the solar eclipse on 15 January 2010.

There had been heavy rains in GMRT for the last few days. This caused the sky and the atmosphere to clear up, and along with a almost "new moon", resulting in wonderful seeing conditions. The sky was simply brilliant, and we(me & Prasanna) estimate it to be the best sky conditions in which we've observed. We could easily see till about 5 degrees off the horizon, in all directions. Also along with us, were Ashwin(NITT) and Srinath(NITW).

As was planned earlier, a small session for viewing the partial solar eclipse was held on the terrace of the Physics Department.

On the evening of 17th January, some of us decided to do some astrophotography.

The equipment:

• Prasanna's Canon EOS 350D with 75mm - 300mm Zoom Lens
• My Canon EOS 400D with 18 - 55 Zoom Lens
• Ramakrishna's Olympus DSLR (can't recall the details)
• Dr. Umesh's Canon 40D with 75 - 300 zoom lens
• The institute's Celestron 8" f/5 Advanced GT
• Prasanna's tripod

Astronomy Club will be viewing the Solar Eclipse from the Physics Department Terrace on 26th Jan.
All are welcome.

After getting to know about the -7 magnitude flare (Courtesy: Heavens Above), we decided to get together and witness the bright flash of reflected sunlight. For most of us, this was our first Iridium Flare.

Some of us are planning to go to Yelagiri, the (pretty famous) Hill Station near Vaniyambadi, to observe the night sky. The tentative schedule is the following: We leave on the morning of Saturday, 28th February and come back by evening / night on Sunday, 1st March.

The second theory session of the semester was held on 9th January, 09 at HSB 317. Akarsh, Akshay and Siva discussed the "Fundamentals of Telescopes" and the related theory.

Astronomy Club, IITM conducted an observing session for the campusites to mark the beginning of activities for the International Year of Astronomy 2009. The session was held at the terrace of the Physics Department starting before the end of twilight on Saturday (3rd Jan 2009) and ending at dawn on Sunday.

The session was publicized by way of posters put up in all hostels and some departments. The total participation exceeded 200 and the participants included students, professors, and their families.