New Delhi   

A marathon of heavenly bodies

Madhur Tankha

NEW DELHI: Nehru Planetarium along with Amateur Astronomers' Association, Delhi, and Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE) is organising a "Solar System Marathon" here on June 2.

Through various telescopes and other observation aids, the participants can observe the solar system bodies on the night of June 2 at the summer workshop that will be held on the sprawling Teen Murti lawns here. The observation sessions will be interspersed with multimedia presentations, activities, competitions and interactions. Recent developments in solar system explorations will be comprehensively discussed.

Easily visible

Speaking about the significance of June 2, Nehru Planetarium Director N. Rathnasree says it is that time of the year when all the planets and a few other solar system objects can easily be seen in one night.

"Vesta, the dwarf planet, is at its brightest in 18 years. It is one of the rare times when it reaches enough brightness that it can be see with the naked eyes. The elusive Mercury is at maximum distance from the Sun (maximum elongation) on June 2 and is visible for a long time in the evening. It's the best time to catch this fast moving messenger of gods. Venus is very close to being at maximum elongation and will also be visible for a long time in the evening sky," she says, adding that Jupiter will be the largest and brightest for this year on June 5.

Stating that the Solar System Marathon will have safe observations of the Sun through telescopes, senior amateur astronomer Ajay Talwar says all the planets, some dwarf planets and asteroids can also be viewed.

"The participants will also walk the famous solar walk and make their own pinhole cameras and angle making instruments for quantitative measurements of the positions of stars. Some fun activities will also be part of the overnight marathon like smell a planet, weigh a planet, making a saptarishi clock and moon antakshari," he adds.

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