The Hindu : Making use of the grand old Jantar mantar

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Making use of the grand old Jantar mantar

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 27. It is time to celebrate our astronomical heritage and use the grand old Jantar Mantar here for the purpose it has been built for - instead of using it as a venue for political protests.

On March 29, Mercury and Venus will be at their maximum angular distance or elongation from the Sun - a time when it becomes more possible to view the elusive planet Mercury. "Preliminary measurements of elongations and other celestial co-ordinates of the sun, planets and stars using the Ram Yantra have shown that such measurements can be made with very good accuracies by anyone visiting the Jantar Mantar,'' says the Nehru Planetarium Director, N. Rathnasree.

And so, the staff of Nehru Planetarium will be interacting with visitors to Jantar Mantar from 11 a.m. onward on this day - explaining the usage of these instruments. At sunset - measurements for Venus elongation will be made with the Ram Yantra - and measurements of the co-ordinates of planets and bright stars will be continued till 9 p.m., during which period the visiting public will be trained to make these measurements on their own - which can immediately be checked for accuracy!

There will also be a rare planetary alignment when all the five naked eye planets will be visible in an East-West belt for convenient viewing. The brightest and easiest to locate will be Venus - putting up a dazzling display in the western skies following sunset. In fact, this has been a very prominent object in the western skies for the last few months.

Three other naked eye planets have also been visible for the last several weeks - Mars a little above Venus as one moves west to Zenith - now no longer as bright as it had been during August 2003. Going higher, Saturn towards the Zenith and moving eastwards - bright Jupiter. Towards late March, Mercury joins these planets a little below Venus in the western skies.

Measurement of this angle from the Sun for the Planet Venus is an important ingredient of data required for students - to be used in combination with timings of the Transit of Venus that will be observable on June 8, 2004, for conversion into the Earth-Sun distance.

"The excitement at the moment, is that this maximum elongation can be measured using historical instruments like the Ram Yantra and JayaPrakash Yantra at the Jantar Mantar Observatories,'' says Dr. Rathnasree.

In fact, this was probably the purpose behind Jaisingh raising such a magnificent edifice - that reading celestial co-ordinates should be an easy matter to the common man.

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