6 Days of Darkness during December 16-22, 2014 is another Internet Hoax!

As people are frightened by the hoax on six days of blackout during December 16-22, 2014, we are writing this blog to assure all the people that there will be no such dark week as claimed by the site www.huzlers.com.Huzlers.com which posted the news before which went viral via twitter and facebook! PLEASE NOTE THAT  this site claims to be a combination of real shocking news and satirical entertainment to keep its visitors in a state of disbelief. And the news about the blackout is surely became successful to keep people in the state of disbelief!!!

PLEASE BE SURE THAT THERE WILL BE NO WORLDWIDE BLACKOUT AS CLAIMED BY THE SITE!!! IT'S JUST AN ANOTHER INTERNET HOAX!!! ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE INFORMATION YOU GET FROM THE INTERNET IN ORDER TO GET REAL INFORMATION TO AVOID HOAX IN FUTURE!

Here's is the post that we stared our official facebook page this evening:

"केही दिनदेखि चर्चामा आइरहेको डिसेम्बर १६ देखि २२ सम्म पुरै विश्व अन्दकार हुने समाचार भ्रामक रहेको जानकारी गराउन चाहन्छौ ! नेपाली online मिडियाहरुले यस्तो संबेदनशील समाचारको सुष्म अध्ययन नगरी हचुवाको भरमा आम नेपाली जनतामा समाचार प्रसारण गरेकोमा हामी केहि दुखी भएका छौं ! खगोल, खगोल भौतिक बिज्ञान तथा अन्तरिक्ष बिज्ञान सम्बन्धि जानकारी को लागि हाम्रो ब्लग: http://astronomy-nepal.blogspot.com/ हेर्न नभुल्नु होला ! साथै यस सम्बन्धि कुनै पनि किसिमको जानकारी चाहिएमा हामीलाई सम्पर्क गर्नु होला!धन्यवाद !"

How did this hoax emerge?

The Sun of active these says and we have been observing greater sunspot at the sun's surface these days. Here's what we captured from Pokhara were you can see the spot which is of the size of Planet Jupiter! Normally the solar cycle is of 11 years and sun and generally becomes active around the edge of the ends. 

Photo 1: Sunspot which is of the size of Jupiter as captured from the beautiful city, Pokhara by Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) to give an idea of how such is these days to the public. [Credit: Manisha Dwa ]

During the high activities in the sun, if some mass is ejected, it is called Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) which is of variation and may cause some damage to the spacecrafts and satellite that are orbiting our planet earth. If CME is so dense/hard, then it can be reach to our atmosphere and may inter in our power grid which may damage your electronics.

If you are interested in solar physics, please watch this video produced by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center:

THERE IS NO SPACE DEBRIS REPORTED THAT WILL BLOCK THE SUN FROM US WHICH WILL CREATE THE BLACKOUT AS WE ARE HEARING after the hoax getting viral!

As many of the nepali online media just copied and share this hoax without looking at the panic that it may produced in the society, hundreds of people have contacted us with the fear of darkness, we decided to release this blog post and the facebook post about it!

Here's the video news from the Cosmos News about the hoax released on October 25, 2014 on www.youtube.com :

If you want to explore the fact in other websites, please feel free to visit these links below:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/science/Nasas-six-days-of-total-darkness-in-December-2014-is-a-hoax/articleshow/44963012.cms
http://www.ibtimes.co.in/hoax-busted-nasa-confirms-earth-will-experience-6-days-total-darkness-december-fake-612353
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/27/days-of-darkness-hoax-nasa_n_6052614.html
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1050964-6-days-of-darkness-on-earth-3-days-in-december-2014-confirmed-by-nasa-are-viral-hoaxes/

Spread this information to people around you so that they can be sure that nothing will happen :)

First Asia Pacific Space Generation Workshop (AP-SGW) 2014 in Japan during November 29-30, 2014!

Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC) has announced the first regional regional workshop in Asia Pacific region that will be held in Japan during November 2014. 

The Asia Pacific Regional Space Generation Workshop (AP-SGW) 2014 with a theme "Approaches to promoting Asia-Pacific regional collaboration in the space sector – the next generation perspective"  is a two-day regional workshop for students and young professionals in the Asia–Pacific region in conjunction with the 21^st Asia Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum (APRSAF21) held in Yokohama, Japan during November 29-30,2014. It will be co-organized by the Graduate School of System Design and Management, Keio University and supported by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

"It is really exciting to organize such a regional event in Asia Pacific which I dreamt to have since I join SGAC in 2009. I am very proud of our team members for their tiresome work to realize this event in November and special thanks to Yusuke Muraki for taking lead to make it happen", said Suresh Bhattarai,Co-manager of the event and Regional Coordinator of SGAC at Asia Pacific. Mr.Bhattarai is Chairman & CEO at Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) promoting Astronomy,Astrophysics and Space Science Outreach, Education and Research in Nepal.

The objective of the AP-SGW is as follows.

1. To strengthen the regional network of the students and young professionals in the Asia-Pacific region
2. To examine and consider key questions in Asia-Pacific region that the regional space community is facing and to provide inputs from the next generation of the space professionals
3. To allow tomorrow’s space sector leaders in the Asia-Pacific region to have the opportunity to interact with today’s space leaders in the region through the cooperation with APRSAF.

One of the primary components of the Asia-Pacific Space Generation Workshop is the working group sessions. Each delegate is assigned into one of five groups. The groups in the break-out sessions discuss a pertinent space topic, which is guided by Subject matter experts from the field, who will join these working groups to support them with knowledge to make the group discussions more fruitful. The preliminary conclusions of each group are presented to the rest of the delegates on the last afternoon of AP-SGW and the final conclusions are written into reports that are presented at the Asia-Pacific Regional Space Agency Forum

The five topics of this year are:

• Asia-Pacific Space Agency (APSA); Can/should it be realized?
• Evolution of Asia-pacific regional space cooperation
• Future of Asia-Pacific region in 2030-40; How will the transform of the region affect the space sector in Asia-Pacific?
• Technology advancement in 2030-40; How will the evolution of the technology affect space sector in Asia-Pacific?
• Space Outreach programs for the developing countries in Asia-Pacific

Deadline for applications close on the 31st October 2014 on the official AP-SGW website. Applicants will be asked to provide information on their experience in the space sector and their motivations for applying. Based on applicant's interest and prior experience, the AP-SGW delegates will be selected and then assigned to one of the working groups.  The five AP-SGW working group topics will focus on future regional cooperation in Asia-Pacific region in the space sector. More information on this year's working group topics can be found here.

Current leaders from the space sector in the region will be invited to share their passions and perspectives, as well as contribute to the working groups and debate with delegates on the main topics of the workshop.  Conclusions and recommendations from the working groups will be formally collected in a report, which will be shared throughout the following year at the United Nations, at conferences, and with SGAC's partners and supporters.

World Space Week 2014 at Sarangkot, Pokhara!

This year, we celebrated World Space Week 2014 (WSW2014) with the kids,locals as well as visitors at Sarangkot,Pokhara,Kaski,Nepal during 8-9, 2014. Our team visited had two events as a part of WSW2014: Lunar Eclipse Observation Program on October 8, 2014 and Solar Observation Program on October 9,2014 at Sarangkot, one of the most popular hill near Pokhara Valley.

Photo 1: Children enjoying the sun and the sun spots on October 9, 2014 at Bhanjyang Village Lodge, Sarangkot, Kaski, Nepal 

'We are very lucky to have an opportunity to observe the sun with such telescope at this village',said one of the participant of the event. ' We would like to thank Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO)for choosing this village for the activities and hope to have more events in future for our children', he added.

Nainshi Dwa, who looks after NASO program in Pokhara explained,'The active participation of these children is encouraging us for more program at this place in future. I had a short talk with the locals here and they want us to address their children at school very soon.'

Photo 2: Eclipsed Moon as seen from the Sarangkot (~1,600 m), Pokhara on October 8, 2014 by Manisha Dwa, Project Coordinator at Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO)

'We were almost deprived of watching this great event from this hill as clouds started to hover in the sky and started to rain. Though we planned to photograph Draconids that night, we could only see some of them but could not capture due to shower that took place late night', said Manisha Dwa, Project Coordinator.

We are thrilled with the interest of the kinds there and wish to visit the place again with our another observation program in future.