Ask an Astronomer

Topic: Ask an Astronomer – Comets – The Majestic Visitors ; Speaker: Shashikiran Ganesh ; Time: Aug 14, 2021 05:00 PM (IST)

Mars – Venus – Moon Conjunction 12-13th July 2021

The planets Venus and Mars are moving closer to each other as seen in the western sky just after sunset. Their closest approach is on 13th July. The moon also gets close to them on 12th July. These are all naked-eye events and we invite everyone to see it for themselves. We have made a […]

Great Conjunction 2020

List of stream links from India and abroad. India (18:00 IST) IIA-Hanle: Dorje Angchuk and Chriphin Karthick Khagol Mandal, Mumbai: Abhay Deshpande Nehru Planetarium, Delhi : Rathnashree ASI Public Outreach Jyotirvidya Parisanstha, Pune. JN Planetarium, Bengaluru Germany (21:00 IST) – Live observations with explanations from the public observatory Munich: – Livestream from LWL-Planetarium Münster featuring […]

Samanta Chandrasekhar Challenge

A Crosstaff for a Conjunction A call for the Samanta Chandrasekhar Challenge By now, many may have heard about the upcoming Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, on the 21st of December 2020. A very useful article in this connection, by Arvind Paranjpye, Director, Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai, is here https://skytonight.wordpress.com/2020/11/30/the-great-conjunction-21-dec-2020/. He discusses in detail, about […]

Comet NEOWISE 2020 Photography Contest Winners

Names Prize Title Dorje Angchuk First Prize The Neowise Comet and the Newest Union Territory Anurag Wasnik Second Prize A Distant Visitor Karthik Jayashankar Second Prize Neowise Enticing Panchachuli Sathya Narayana Sridhar Third Prize Harbinger of life Rohith K A Third Prize The Lonely Wanderer Dorje Angchuk Special Mention Comet Neowise sojourn over Himalayan Chandra Telescope […]

Comet NEOWISE 2020 Photography Contest

ASI-POEC celebrated the visit of the Comet NEOWISE in July-August 2020 with a number of outreach activities throughout India. As a part of this, a themed Astro-Photography Competition was organised to draw people to the beauty of the breathtaking comet as well as the night sky and astronomy and the joy of capturing it in […]

Comet NEOWISE 2020 Credit : Philippe Jacquot

Comet NEOWISE C/2020 F3

  This visitor to our neighbourhood is currently making the news, as it offers breathtaking views now in the dawn evening skies across the Northern Hemisphere. Called C/2020 F3 in the astronomical circles, it is a non-periodic comet which was the third discovered in late March 2020 by the space telescope instrument NEOWISE (hence the […]

Astrosat Picture of the Month #021

The AstroSat Picture of the Month for July 2019 is the Far UltraViolet image of the open cluster M67, showing its hotter younger stars. The BSS-White Dwarf pais, WOCS1007, is circled in red. (Picture Credits: N. Sindhu and collaborators)    “AstroSat Picture of the Month” is an initiative of the Public Outreach and Education Committee of […]

Astrosat Picture of the Month #020

The AstroSat Picture of the Month for June 2019 is the far-ultraviolet image of the Dwarf Galaxy IC2574, using ASTROSAT. The far-ultraviolet traces young massive stars in the galaxy. (Picture Credits: Chayan Mondal and collaborators)    “AstroSat Picture of the Month” is an initiative of the Public Outreach and Education Committee of the Astronomical Society of […]

Astrosat Picture of the Month #019

The AstroSat Picture of the Month for May 2019 is the near-ultraviolet image of the Jellyfish Galaxy JO201, using ASTROSAT. This image shows young stars formed in the disk of the galaxy. The cross marks the active galactic nucleus (AGN) at the centre of the galaxy. The cavity-like structure around the central AGN is due […]