Solar Outreach with Uniglobe HSS at Godawari!

Today, we had solar observation for ~500 high school students from Uniglobe Higher Secondary School at Godawari as a part of their field trip. During the program, students were provided an opportunity to observe the sun through Personal Solar Telescope and 8 inch SkyWatcher Dobsonian telescope. Students will now prepare their reports on the sun and submit as a partial fullfillment of their internal evaluation.

Photo 1: Mr. Surya Gyawali, NAO2015 delegate and NASO Club member setting up the PST for solar observation.

Photo 2: Mr. Suresh Bhattarai, explaining about the sun and its features to the participants

During the program, Ms. Manisha Dwa, project coordinator explained our activities and how students can get involve while Denisha Sapkota and Surya Gyawali handled the solar observation with PST.

Mr. Suresh Bhattarai, our executive chairman, conducted the solar observation with 8 inch SkyWatcher Dobsonian for the participants. He also explained different features of the sun to the participants.

The observation opportunity was the first for all the students with such arrangement! 

Interested to host such program for your students? Please feel free to contact our office!

MechTRIX7.0: 7th National Mechanical Engineering Exhibition 2017 held at IOE, Pulchowk!

MechTRIX7.0: The 7th National Mechanical Engineering Exhibition was held at Pulchowk Engineering Campus, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University during Febuary 3-5, 2017! This year the exhibition theme was 'Innovation for Sustaibility'. Society of Mechanical Engineering Students (SOMES) was formed in 2007 at Department of Mechanical Engineering at Pulchowk Engineering Campus started this national exhibition in order to provide a national platform for the students and exxhbitors to share their innovation.

Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) was one of the supporting organisations of the exhibition including Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST), Robotics Association of Nepal (RAN), Nepal Telecom Authority (NTA), Alternetive Energy Promotion Center (AEPC) and others.

We also has a stall to provide latest information about our programs during the exhibition. More than 2,000 visitors stopped by our stall and enjoyed solar observation as well as information sessions on our various programs at 7th National Mechanical Engineering Exhibition, February 3-5, 2017!

We would like to thank Sushant Tnahsus, Surya Gyawali, Denisha Sapkota, Shruti Bhattarai, Poudel Aashish, Bijaya Luitel, Prabin Shrestha and Suman Kc for their active participations at our stall conducting observation program and information session during the exhibition!

If you would like to have our stall at your exhibition, please feel free to contact our office!

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 :)

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.

Solar Observation & Photo Exhibition at Jyoti Kunj Secondary School Pokhara!

Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) in coordination with Pokhara Astronomical Society (PAS), western chapter, organized one day Astrophoto Exhibition and Solar Observation Session during the Science Exhibition at Jyoti Kunj Secondary School, Pokhara, Nepal. The school management has announced three day celebration of their 25th Anniversary with different programs during January 29-31, 2014.

Photo 1: Curious minds looking at the astrophotos and the telescopes during the science exhibition at Jyoti Kunj Secondary School, Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal on January 30, 2014.

Photo 2: Father explaining the astrophotos to his young son during Science Exhibition at Jyoti Kung Secondary School, Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal on January 30, 2014.

Photo 3: Suresh Bhattarai, co-founder and secretary of Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) with volunteers during the Science Exhibition at Jyoti Kunj Secondary School, Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal on January 30, 2014.

Photo 4: Coverage of the event on Adarsa Samaaj, National Nepali Daily, published from Pokhara on January 31, 2014.

Photo 5: Curious students waiting for the observation of Sun and its spots through Personal Solar Telescope (PST) during the Observation Session at Jyoti Kunj Secondary School, Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal on January 30, 2014.

We would like to thank Volunteers: Jyoti Sharma, Kabita Ghimire, Suresh Baral and Surendra Adhikari for their precious time and dedication.

If you are willing to organize such events at your place, please feel free to contact us. To know more about our regular as well as special programs, we recommend you to follow us here and our facebook page and twitter page

Photo 6: Happiness after the reaction of a child when she managed to see the Sun and the spots during the solar observation session at Jyoti Kunj Secondary School, Pokhara, Kaski, Nepal on January 30, 2014 organized to celebrate 25th Anniversary of the school.

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We're looking forward to reach more people with our exciting events enrishing the knowledge of young minds of Nepal!

Astronomy at 6th ROTARACT District Conference 2013 Nepal!

Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) had astonomical sessions during the 6th ROTARACT District Conference 2013 on December 27, 2013. The Conference will continue till December 28, 2013 at St. Xavier's School, Jawlakhel, Lalitpur, Nepal.

Photo 1: Opening Ceremony of 6th ROTARACT District Conference 2013, December 27-28, 2013

We had three sessions during the conference: Presentation, Solar Observation and Night Sky Observation Session on Dcember 27, 2013. 

Photo 2: Manisha Dwa, Project Coordinator at Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO), presenting on NASO and Astronomical Sessions during the conference.

Photo 3: Participants of 6th ROTARACT Disctrict Conference 2013 enjoying the solar Observation at Playground of St. Xavier's School, Jawlakhel, Lalitpur, Nepal

Photo 4: Participants at the Night Sky Observation session with 8 inch Skywatcher Dobsonian during 6th ROTARACT District Conference 2013 Nepal.

We would like to thank all the participants of our sessions during the conference. We look forward to meet you again in another sessions soon!