Monday, December 31, 2012
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Introduction to Young Astronomers' Association - Sri Lanka
In the past few years, there have been various projects
undergoing in Sri Lanka to promote astronomy among the general society. There
have been many attempts to bring it up to the society and there are many
organizations and individuals who are keenly involved in this. But apart from
few organizations like Astronomy and Space Study Center (ASSC) and great individuals
like Prof. Kavan Ratnatunga, there has been no evidence of success.
In our point of view
annual night camps, overwhelming astronomy quizzes or even weekly lecture
series seem not to be enough to lift the interest for astronomy in Sri Lanka.
We saw that it is generally born when a student is in grade 6-10, when he/she
is a teenager with a young mind full of curiosity. It is most likely to wear
off during or after their ALs due to lack of opportunities for them to step
ahead in the field.
We, as a group of young astronomers wanted to make a
difference. We
saw that what we needed was not knowledge but passion. Thus since there were
already great organizations like ASSC out there providing the knowledge, we set
out with the intention of making people passionate. We wanted to give them
something different. We wanted to take part in this process, not with words
but rather with deeds.
So we started Young Astronomers’ Association. We never knew that it was a
name of a club that has
done so much in the past. We were surprised to hear that likes of Prof. Ray
Jayawardena, Mr. Nalaka Gunawardena had been past presidents of it! When we
contacted them, they were thrilled to hear about what we have started and we
were given their full consent and utmost support!
At the beginning we mentioned that we are here to make a difference. Sometimes
though people say so we hardly find anything that differ their work from what
has already been there. We hardly see any uniqueness. So we don’t want to
become like others with repeating it over and over again. In our case it is up
to you to decide whether it really is a difference!
Future Plans of Young Astronomers’ Association (YAA)
In YAA we mainly focus on promoting practical
side of Astronomy. For most Sri Lankans ‘practical
astronomy’ is looking at sky (through naked eye
or telescope), but not for us. We have two parallel
projects. One regarding Rocketry and other
regarding Observational Astronomy.
Rocketry
In regard of rocketry we have divided our scope
into three stages as follows where we are going to cover the basics and go
deeper into the subject.
1st stage- Water
Rockets:
Since it’s the most basic and fun part of
rocketry we decided to start with “water rockets”. Our targets are so
big, as we are hoping to end up making a world record! This project is again split
to two phases.
· Phase I – Making a multi stage water rocket
that reach minimum 1000ft.
*Estimated time duration – 6 to 8 months
· Phase II – Making multi stage / single stage
water rocket to reach minimum 2000ft. (World record being 2044ft)
*Estimated time duration – 6 to 8 months
After Phase I, we have planned to hold a workshop
about water rockets. After Phase II, parallel to the launch of our final water
rocket, we have planned to hold a water rocket competition as well!
2nd stage-
Rockets:
After reaching our targets with water, air and
plastic bottles we will move into other propellants and materials to achieve
greater heights. This also runs in two phases.
· Phase I – Reaching minimum 2000ft.
*Estimated time duration – 6 to 8 months
· Phase II – Reaching minimum 4000ft.
*Estimated time duration – 6 to 8 months
3rd stage- Pet
in a Rocket:
If our previous projects end successfully, we’ll
be taking a step ahead and take a big risk! We’ll be sending an animal inside rocket
to a minimum of 1000ft and will bring him back safely. Our focus in this
project will be recovery system. Estimated duration for this project is 12 to
14 months.
Through promoting above events we believe we can
develop huge enthusiasm about astronomy in Sri Lanka. After reaching our
targets we are planning to have a model rocket factory. But at the moment we are
only focusing on making 3 stages of our rocketry project a success.
Observation Astronomy
In this we will be prioritizing mainly the
analyzing phase. Our target is to make analyzing (images taken from space crafts,
Hubble Space Telescope, etc. and radio graphs and other things ) rather a hobby
for at least some students.
Apart from telescopes there are much more
equipments that can be used during an astronomical event (Ex: Meteor Counter,
Spectrometer etc.). We are planning to make these stuff on our own and promote
them during these events.
We are also planning to cover every astronomical
event in a public place not only with a Telescope but other important equipment
as well as described above. We believe we can increase the level of astronomy
through these efforts.
ශ්රී ලාංකේය තාරකා විද්යාව - කෙටියෙන්
ටොක් ටොක් ටොක්... "ගෙදර කවුද?"
"කවුරුත් නෑ"
"කමක් නෑ එහෙනං මං හවස් වෙලා එන්නංකෝ"
"කවුරුත් නෑ"
"කමක් නෑ එහෙනං මං හවස් වෙලා එන්නංකෝ"
Monday, December 3, 2012
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