Himalayan Science Festival 2023 Pokhara

Pokhara Astronomical Society is glad to present our activities for the visitors of Himalayan Science Festival 2023 held on 14-15 June 2023 in Pokhara.

Lunar Habitat Challenge 2022

Lunar Habitat Challenge is a unique design challenge inspired by the SpaceU program at the Johnson Space Center, NASA, Houston.

This event is designed by Beyond Apogee,  and conducted on 1-3 Feb, 2023, at the B.P. Koirala Planetarium, Observatory and Science museum, Kirtipur.

The event was organized by Beyond Apogee in collaboration with the B.P. Koirala Planetarium, Observatory and Science Museum. The Pokhara Astronomical Society was the astronomy support partner for the event. 

 

The first PAS Astronomy Camp 2022

The first Astronomy Camp 2022 jointly organized by Pokhara Astronomical Society (PAS) and Gandaki Province Academy of Science and Technology (GPAST) was held at Regional Agricultural Research Center in Kaski, Lumley, from Kartik 2 to 4, 2079 (October 19-21, 2022). 14 schools participated in this education camp with at least one government school from each district of Gandaki province. This camp was organized to train and strengthen the practical knowledge of astronomy and space science to the school students and teachers.

The first day of the camp was discussed in terms of basic astronomy. In the discussion, Sujan Dahal, Angel Basyal and Raj Kumar Pradhan presented the hypotheses of the solar system's structure, the origin of the black hole, and the structure of the Milky Way galaxy as well as the HR-diagram respectively. To make the discussion more interactive, the participants interacted with the astronomer Dr. Sudeep Neupane in a virtual zoom meeting. On the same day, celestial bodies such as Jupiter and its Jovian moons, Saturn and its elegant rings, stars, constellations such as Capricorn, Aquarius and Sagittarius were observed with the aid of laser lights and astronomical telescopes. The session was conducted by Sabin Gautam, Project Coordinator of the Pokhara Astronomical Society.

On the second day of the science camp, program coordinator Nishan Lamichhane taught the participating students and teachers about the location, speed and proper time of observation of celestial bodies using Stellarium software. There was also a discussion about how to view the partial solar eclipse on the 8th of Kartik this year. The topic of why and how to create the importance of robots in today's science and technology era was presented to the participating students and teachers by Sudip Vikram Adhikari, CEO of Beyond Apogee, along with team  members Alish Dhakal, Pravin Timilsina and Sujan Dahal. All the participants were  guided to assemble the SajiloBot robotics kits themselves. They learnt coding and
giving commands to robots to make it move and do various tasks.

Mahesh Thakuri, chairperson of the Pokhara Astronomical Society, conducted a session in which astronomical kits such as the Star Wheel, Clinometer, Star Clock, Sun Dial, and Solar Motion were made. Thakuri taught students and teachers how to make and use it properly. These participants were also taught to observe astronomical objects by using these kits. Apart from this, the students were also given the opportunity to observe Mars, Orion Nebula and Andromeda Galaxy, which is about 2.5 million light years away from us. On the last day of the camp, the students gave excellent presentations on the different topics of astronomy and space science like solar system, black holes,comets, astrochemistry, asteroids, and the life cycle of stars etc. Their levels of knowledge were openly admired; In that program, Raj Kumar Dhakal and Raj Kumar Pradhan suggested the good aspects and shortcomings of the students during their presentation. In the same way, training was provided to science teachers on the simple way to assemble and use the telescopes brought by different schools to the camp. Students studying from class 7 to 10 were present in the camp where the number of male and female students were equal.

Gurukul Vidya Sadan Secondary School provided special support to make this astronomy camp a huge success. Accent Educational Institute and Ultimate  Education Center were the sponsors of this program. Other organizing partners were Science Teachers’ Association Nepal - Gandaki Province, Beyond Apogee, Mech Engineering and The Telescope club. This three days residential astronomy camp was concluded by Dr. Dhaka Ram Bhandari, executive director of GPAST. He requested all the teachers to use their learning from this camp to their classrooms. He also thanked all the participants and organizers of this program and informed that GPAST will organize this kind of educational program in the coming future.

 

 

 

 

Webinar on Dark Matter and Particle Accelerator

PAS organized  the webinar program with Dr. Rakshay khatiwada  about the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment (ADMX). She is postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Washington working on Axion Dark Mater Experiment (ADMX). She present the  short overview of  experiment along with recent finding. In 2017 ADMX achieved sensitivity to the very compelling DFSZ axion, a decade-long goal of axion experimenters and put new limits covering axion in the mass range of 2.66 to 2.81 μeV.

  
Later on we also talk with Mr. Rakesh Chandra Prajapati about  particle accelerator, and beam dynamics. First part of his presentation  focus on beam instrumentation  and  the second part discuss the engineering  and technology aspect of the particle accelerator, on beam instrumentation and diagnostics.

30 participants from different high schools and universities attended the webinar in Pokhara Public Library, Mahendrapool, Pokhara. 

Star, Galaxy, and The Universe a Public Talk Program

To promote and establish astronomy culture in our society we organized public talk program on June 14 during the Second Kathmandu Astrophysics School-2108 (KAS18), with organizing committee of KAS18. Three speaker Dr.Michele Trenti (University of Melbourne), Dr. Mustafa Amin (Rice University) and Dr. Manisha Shrestha (University of Denver) present  a brief journey through astronomical wonders, starting from a close look at what are stars and what are their key properties, continuing to discuss galaxies (made of tens to thousands billions of stars) and finally the Universe as a whole (with the visible portion having more than hundred billion galaxies). They introduce these concepts at a level accessible for the general public without requiring  prerequisite knowledge, and there will be time for questions and answers. A written translation from English to Nepali will be provided, and one of the speakers is fluent in Nepali.     

Photo; Manisha Shrestha talk about the life of Star 

Photo: Participation on Public Talk 

Photo: Dr. Michele Trenti addressing about the observational astronomy  

Global Astronomy Month-2018 "Look upwards to unravel the mystery"

In every year we celebrate the global astronomy month to bring interested people together to promote and encourage the  participation in different astronomy related program. This year Central Department of Physics (CDP) organized AstroFest Nepal 2018 at  Kirtipur on April 22, 2018 on the occasion of Global Astronomy Month (GAM).The event was jointly supported by B.P. Koirala Memorial Planetarium, Observatory and Science Museum Development Board, Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO), Pokhara Astronomical Society (PAS) and Beyond Apogee.  

During the event Dr Binil Aryal (Head of Central Department of Physics) present the present research trend on Astrophysics and suggest the students to build up some sorts of skill to grab the opportunity in international level. The program is followed by the talk session by Dr.Udaya Raj Khanal on the topic of cosmology and astronomy gave new insight to the world of astronomy. later on Mr. Suresh Bhattarai from (NASO), Mr.Sabin Gautam  (PAS), and Mr. Sudip V.Adhikari (Beyond Apogee) present their plan, activities to promote Astronomy and Space science Astivities in Nepal. To inspire the students towards astronomy we also have Poster presentation,Poem competition and Astro-photo exhibition event at a mean time.  

Group photo After the Program 

After 5:00 PM we have organized the observation session  in which participant  got chance to observe the Moon and Venus. 

     

Pokhara Astronomical Society (PAS) conducted the Yuris Night celebration at the Department of Physics Prithvi Narayan Campus Pokhara Dr. Krishna Prasad Bhandari Associate Professor at Institute of Engineering, Western Region Campus is presenting on “GNSS and its application” and Mr. Suman Gautam Chairman of PAS present on the topic of “ IAU Astronomy Programs and Outreach in Nepal. Mr. Sabin Gautam program Coordinator PAS is presenting on the “Importance of celebration of Yuris Night Program” . Mr Parashuram Poudel Head of Department of Physics and Dr. kapil Adhikari Co-ordinator from Phyiscs Research Initiatives (PRI) were participated in the program and deliver the speech on the programs adapted and conducted by Pokhara Astronomical Society (PAS).