Digital Swaraj Fellowship: Revisiting the Journey of DEF’s Flagship Programme
Digitization has made every aspect of society far more exciting. With access to more information, even an activity like sky watching can be enjoyed with greater zeal as it helps to relate better and wonder more.
The joy of skywatching is never limited to young children. A sense of humility and wonder sets in effortlessly when one looks up into the vast expanse spotting the stars, constellations and planets. In a world where clear night skies are hard to find because of light pollution, spending the whole night understanding astronomy is a great treat. Even more exciting is the fact that digital mediums help in gaining more knowledge about the cosmic world. Nearly sixty eight night sky watching enthusiasts gathered around DEF warehouse in Royapudupakkam, Pondicherry to enjoy this treat on 10th June.
Students from schools and colleges, teachers from government schools and people of all age groups from various backgrounds spent the night gazing at the sky. The session started at seven in the evening and continued until six in the morning.
Prof R Madivanane (Associate Professor in Physics department of Bharathidasan Arts and Science College, Puducherry) presented about astronomy.
The presentation included Software used to identify celestial objects like constellations and the various types, stars along with their distance, names, temperature, and Zodiac signs. He also spoke about the relationship between macro cosmos and micro cosmos by explaining about the connection between astrology and astronomy.
Post dinner the presentation continued where people got an idea of finding directions, identifying planets and their location using the software. Few stars and venus were identified during the session.
Participants were deeply involved with the session and curiously asked a lot of questions about the night sky until the clouds cleared. Once the sky was clear, they were all eager to practically relate with the information gathered and identified some stars and constellations. In the early morning hours, the moon, Jupiter and Saturn were also viewed using the telescope.
Everyone enjoyed the session thoroughly and made the best use of the digital world to relate with the real world.
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