Bal Bharati Public School, Noida Sec-21, Night Sky Observation At Camp Mustang

On 28^th November 2011, Zlife Education organized a night sky observation session, one of 11 sessions of the astronomy clubs for Bal Bharati Public School, Sec 21 Noida.

We departed from school at around 1700 hrs on 28^th with 25 out of 27 club members and three respected school faculties. We reached camp mustang at around 1930hrs where kids were shown to their respective tents and were given an introduction about the camp, where they will be spending next 10 hours pursuing the night sky observation.

For starter kids had some rest following it was snack time when kids enjoyed the cookies and tea/coffee. At around 2030hrs, kids were divided into two groups, one of which went for the solar walk quiz and the other went to the observational area to view Jupiter and its moons with a 6’’ reflector type equatorial mount telescope. 

At around 2130 hours dinner was served with a variety of starters including salads followed by main course dishes like paneer, aaloo gobhi and dal finally topping up the appetite with a nice desert, kheer. 

After a break, at around 2230 hrs, kids were introduced to the night sky objects and methods to view the sky effectively in the orientation session, where kids learned the basic concepts like zenith, meridian, horizon, ecliptic etc and a depth understanding of reading the sky map, i.e. the planisphere. The session went for an hour and a half followed by a fifteen minute break. 

At around 0030hrs on 29^th, kids were taken out to the observational area to develop a practical understanding of the theoretical sky knowledge gained in the orientation session, for next 2 hours kids saw and understand the concept of constellations and viewed pleides star cluster and orion nebula through a telescope.

 By the end of the class, students understood the concept of star clusters, nebulae and constellations. At around 0245hrs, a health drink was served to the kids following a 15 minute break. Sketch what you saw competition, was played by the kids at 0315hrs in which they had to draw the image of the sky objects, they saw in the sky. 

After this, kids were let off to their camps to rest for an hour, while the arena was setting up for the medal distribution. Kids were wide awake and freshened up by 0530hours when the medals were distributed to the respective teams on the basis of their performance in the competitions. 

We departed the camp at 0700 hrs and reached the school at around 0930 hrs. Where and when the night sky session was concluded.

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