Planned Activities
If enough number of schools from different
geographical locations show
interest (and even otherwise) - we could plan to have combined activities
related to the Transit - other measuremnets for a full appreciation of SOlar
System orbits, Earth etc.
We could have activities from different schools
and colleges - of the
following kind -
1. Analemma activity - at the simplest level,
using gnomons - or more
sophisticated methods if students have the required equipment - one year of
activity - starting anytime.
2. Recreating Earth radius measurements - with
error analysis. (ANy time
before June) - this may not be too easy, unless we find suitable twin
locations.
3. Venus Elongation measurements - March - APril - With error analysis
4. Sunspot observations and trying to measure the
rotation rate of the Sun -
locating the sunpsots in terms of SUn's lattitude and longitude.
5. Finally, Transit observations.
I
will mail in more detail about these, but, I would like to wait till more
schools and college students join in.
More suggestions are welcome.
- Rathnasree
It would be nice to add to the
list the measurement of the angular
size of Venus using a historical method. We can then calibrate our
skills with that of Horrocks.
Nirupama Raghavan
Though analemma activities and Sunspot
observations can be started
immediately, if we start the actual activities by March, we should be
OK. March will be time of exams though. Does anyone know if X and XII
students will be free by about 20th of March?
We need to concentrate on
giving information to student groups for the
Analemma activities, Maximum elongation of Venus activities and also some
practice with locating sunspots on the Sun. I hope I will be a little
organised with my notes for all of these within the coming two weeks. Help
will be greatly appreciated.
Rathnasree
We have been working in
schools in and around delhi for last 2 years
and have around 40 clubs with us. Maybe we both can work together for
this analemma thing as it will require a lot of manpower to manage
and supervise the readings.
Chander Devgun
CB, Thanks. Please do
encourage students from your schools to join the group - what we need is for
students and teachers to individually join the group - we can then give
all the necessary help through the group - if you wish you could also have
direct sessions with them following that.
Rathnasree
Dr. Bhudia’s suggestion was to make angular measurements of the Solar radius using two poles aligned towards the Sun.
historic. how about reversing the problem - to what accuracy you can
find the latitude and longitude of your place. If you are not using a GPS then
these valuse are difficult to get.
Arvind Paranjpye