Date:18/06/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/06/18/stories/2007061804190100.htm

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Special sky-watch at Jantar Mantar

Staff Reporter

READY FOR THE EVENT: Jantar Mantar in New Delhi where a special sky-watch of Lunar occultation of Venus will be held on Monday

NEW DELHI:

Nehru Planetarium has got permission from Archaeological Survey of India to conduct a public sky-watch at Jantar Mantar here on Monday for viewing the celestial event "Lunar Occultation of Venus".

Lunar occultation happens when a celestial body appears to have moved behind the moon.

The sky-watch will start at 5 p.m. with Sun observations using Ram Yantra. People will be able to appreciate the possible accuracies that the giant masonry instruments can achieve, as well as appreciate movements of the Moon and planets in the sky against the relatively unchanging background of stars.

Telescopes will be set-up within the Jantar Mantar complex to view Venus, Saturn and Jupiter. There will also be demonstrations and live interactions on observing the Sun. An interesting activity will be measuring of the angular separation between Moon and Venus, from sunset until the actual event, using Jai Prakas, a bowl-shaped instrument. Visitors will be helped out to make these measurements and compare their results with theoretical values.

The finale will be the actual occultation at 9-30 p.m. If there is consistent haze and clouds, it will be difficult to capture it from Delhi. If the horizon is clear, it will be captured by the 11-inch computerised telescope of Vigyan Prasar. Visitors can view the event through live multimedia projection attached to this telescope.

According to Nehru Planetarium Director N. Rathnasree, the event is visible from most parts of India, other than some locations in the East and Southeast. "Even from these locations, Moon and Venus would appear quite close to each other. This is a view that does not require any precautions, unlike viewing the Sun. Anyone with a digital camera that is equipped with a good optical zoom, would be able to obtain good images of the Moon-Venus pair just before the occultation. Standing to the east of the historical monument, one would obtain wonderful images of the event against the architectural heritage of our country," added Dr. Rathnasree.