Before being officially named, the idea and spirit of the club existed in the college in the form of Aryabhata and functioned for over 20 years, conducting sky-watch programs, workshops and astronomy activities for students under the banner of the the Physics department.
Poornaprajna Amateur Astronomers’ Club
In January 2004, a team of interested teachers., students and old students of Poornaprajna institutions gathered together to understand and appreciate Astronomy and Astrophysics, and established Poornaprajna Amatuer Astronomers’ Club (PAAC). It was inaugurated by H. H. Sri Vibhudesha Theertha Swamiji.
Since then, Dr. A.P Bhat, the founding co-ordinator, under the guidance of H.H. Sri Vibudhesha Theertha Swamiji and later, H.H. Sri Vishwapriya Theertha Swamiji and H.H. Sri Eshapriya Theertha Swamiji, has organized countless sky-watch programs for the students and public alike.
Apart from sky-watch, Dr. A.P Bhat has organized National and International level conferences, workshops and training programs on Astronomy at Poornaprajna College. Because of these efforts, Poornaprajna Amateur Astronomers’ Club has become a hub for Amateur Astronomy in the Coastal district of Udupi.
The objectives of the Club are as follows:
- To promote the basic study of Astronomy and Astrophysics.
- To conduct sky-watch programmes.
- To gather latest information from the national level institutions like IUCAA, BAAA and IIA etc.
- To promote and support the establishment of Astronomy Clubs in different institutions.
- To promote interest among the public in general and students of Poornaprajna institutions in particular towards Astronomy and Astrophysics, and thus to develop scientific temperament and love for nature.
The PAAC functions under the department of Physics at Poornaprajna College and is currently co-ordinated by Mr. Atul Bhat from the department. All the other department members are actively involved in PAAC activities and guide students in taking up various astronomy activities and courses.
With the blessings and generosity of the pontiffs of Udupi Sri Admar Mutt, PAAC has never felt short of infrastructure and has several well maintained equipment for amateur astronomy.
At PAAC,
to locate the objects in the sky, we have : a Vanguard FR-1050W binoculars.
Once we locate the object, we can view it up close using one of the many telescopes we have at PAAC.
These telescopes include:
- an 8″ Dobsonian Reflector Telesccope with a Goto Tracking System.
- a 4″ Refractor Alt-Azimuth Telescope with a Goto Tracking System.
- a 4″ Refractor Equatorial Telescope with Manual control.
- a 2″ Refractor Alt-Azimuth Telescope with fork mount.
In case the gathering is large, we are equipped to display the telescope image from the eye piece using:
- A T-ring and DSLR adapter which allows us to capture the telescope image onto the DSLR sensor and project the image
- A ZWO ASI 290 planetary camera with a CMOS sensor that connects to a laptop which can then be used to project the image.
To magnify the image beyond the power of the scopes, we have a 2x Barlow that allows us to view the details of various astronomical objects more clearly.