ARIES

This New Year I would like to share some of the best astronomical memories.

The first visit to ARIES (Aryabhatta Instititue of Obervational Sciences) in September 2016 will always be memorable. I had never imagined the place to be so serene and filled with loads of beautiful flowers and trees covered with lavish green mosses, and lichens.

The most beautiful experience was when I saw Professor Hum Chand who is a Scientist at ARIES working alone in front of a computer with soft background music. His room was filled with loads of files and papers. It was the first time I saw the Lab of a scientist.

It was also a thrilling experience for me and my sister to see the 104cm Sampurnanand Telescope, a 40 year old telescope at ARIES. 

The dome of 104cm Telescope at ARIES : aries.res.in

There are other telescopes at ARIES like the 130 cm telescope at Devasthal and the newly installed 3.6 m Optical Telescope which is the largest optical telescope in Asia.

The 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope : aries.res.in

And actually it was not the first time that I met Professor Chand. Two years ago in 2014, I attended his talk “Wonders of our Universe” in the seminar held in our college.

A small model of the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT) in the Seminar

HoD Physics Professor  L.P.Verma, who organised this grand seminar is giving the talk on Solar Flares which was also the topic of  his research work during his PhD.

After him Professor Brijesh kumar who is also a scientist at ARIES told us about the new 3.6m Devasthal Optical Telescope being installed. I also remember asking him a question which more-or-less was, “When the new telescope will be fully installed what you will see first”.

 And he answered that we do not see things but observe them and according to the project proposals, scientists will be observing lots of things like binary stars, planets beyond our solar system etc.

Next day one of the talks in seminar was given by another scientist of ARIES Professor Yogesh Joshi. He talked about “Looking for Planets beyond Solar System”

It was a really amazing experience to listen to so many scientists and professors. I also made a report and wrote about almost every speaker and their talks.

The same year I built a small Galilean telescope. The most amazing experience was when we saw more stars in the Pleiades star cluster and In the Orion constellation than could be seen with naked eye. I could also see the craters on the moon which to normal eye appears just a white orb in the sky.

My younger sister observing the last Supermoon of 2017. 

I was fortunate to visit ARIES the second time in March 2017 with mommy and my younger sister. This time I met other scientists and PhD students. And I was able to talk to Professor Biman who is a scientist there.

And I hope in future I will meet more scientists and people working in the field of Astronomical Sciences.