Khagol Mandal

Khagol Mandal is an organization of amateur astronomers in Mumbai, India. Established in 1985 by handful of astronomy enthusiasts, the organization has grown into a membership of 1000+ within past 24 years. Khagol Mandal will be completing 25 years in 2009. The organization was founded and is still based in Mumbai city of Maharashtra state of India.

The organization was founded a few years before the arrival of the Halley's comet and succeeded in it's intent to generate curiosity among the general public about the comet.

The organization has various geographical units located at Sion (head office), Dombivali, Nashik, Panvel and Pune. Each unit meets periodically (usually once a week) and conducts local astronomical programs and arranges lectures/slide-shows, etc. In addition each unit also runs its own library where members can avail of books on astronomy and related subjects. Each unit is assigned a head who reports to the central committee once periodically. The unit-head prepares monthly accounts, conducts inventories and arranges for all administrative requirements of the members.

In addition to the above units, the Mandal (as it is affectionately called by it's members) owns land at Vangani in Thane district of Maharashtra state of India. This place and other nearby places in the vicinity are used to conduct observation sessions for the general public as well as for members. The secretary will periodically publish the dates on which these programs will be conducted. Generally the programs are conducted on Saturday evenings/nights nearest to the New moon day. This allows the observers to view the faint deep-sky objects without interference from the moon-light. Approx 8-10 programs open to public are conducted per year. The months of July, August and September are avoided which coincide with the Southwest Monsoon season in India.

The Mandal also publishes two periodicals --- Khagol Warta in the local language Marathi (translated in English it means astro-news) and Vaishwik in Englist (which means Universal). While the Khagol Warta is published bi-monthly (six issues per year) the Vaishwik is published tri-monthly (four times per year).

External links

* [http://www.khagolmandal.com/ Khagol Mandal]