Confederation of Indian Amateur Astronomer Association

History

Astronomy in India has been a passion since the Vedic period. Records exist of scriptures on the subject since the time of Maurya Dynasty in the 3rd Century BCE. However, it came to be recognized for of science after Aryabhata penned the Arya-siddhānta and made it public. Today Aryabhata is regarded a a demi god of Astronomy in India. No wonder, the first Indian Satellite was named after him. The Surya Sidhanta is another ancient script that explained the cosmic sciences to a layperson.

This science lost its value during the British era and gradually was treated as an expensive science and restricted to only those academically involved. There was no room for amateurs. Several years after Independence, with the arrival of Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of Indian sciences, amateur astronomy started taking roots. However, the vast distance between each locations, high cost of telescope, slow communication, a need for formation of a common platform was felt. Prof. Jayant V Narlikar suggested that a Confideration be formed and Dr. N C Rana of IUCAA was assigned this job.

The Confederation of Indian Amateur Astronomer - CIAA was formed in the 4th All India Amateur Astronomers' Meet - Calcutta, on the January 22nd, 1994.

Aims and purpose

The Confederation is a conglomeration of Amateur Astronomers and Amateur Astronomy Associations from all over India. It has a scientific advisory committee for support that is required in its projects and endeavours.

Indian Amateur astronomers use the platform of CIAA for the use a range of instruments to study the sky, depending on a combination of their interests and resources. Methods include simply looking at the night sky with the naked eye, using binoculars, using a variety of telescopes of varying power and quality, as well as additional sophisticated equipment, such as cameras, to study light from the sky in both the visual and non-visual spectrum. Some people even focus on amateur telescope making as their primary interest within the hobby of amateur astronomy. The people gather who are interested in hunting to find a new comet or rock from space (meteorites) or are interested in radio astronomy.

Registered under Societies Act and also under Bombay Public Trust Act, The Confederation of Indian Amateur Astronomer Association goals are spreading the message of Astronomy in the most interior part of the country (India). Lately, even amateur groups from acros the borders have started involving themselves in the activities of CIAA. The confederation has appointed regional representative and gather information on the other amateurs activities for better interaction. They conduct Annual Astronomy meet for the amateurs from all over the India of different Amateur astronomy associations. This meet is hosted by different Associations every year at different places. All amateurs are given a chance to present papers regarding any outstanding or unusual work they may have done in the vast field of Astronomy at these Meets.

Indian Astronomy

Indian astronomy is slightly different from modern astronomy. Unlike the constellations the science is based on the Rashi - Twelve Zodiacal Constellations and Twenty Seven Nakshatras. The number of Nakshatras varies from 27 to 28 depending on the language and location. These Nakshatras are also known as the wives of the moon, since our celestial neighbor travels over the sky in period less than a month.

Amateur astronomers residing in rural areas use the ancient form of Hindu Astronomy which more closer to Āryabhatīya the magnum opus of Aryabhata named above. It may be interesting to note that Aryabhata himswlf was an amateur astronomer. His passion for sciences began with his first encounter of the solar eclipse. He is also credited as the first astronomer to make an attempt at measuring the Earth's circumference since Erastosthenes (circa 200 BC). Aryabhata accurately calculated the Earth's circumference as 24,835 miles, which was only 0.2% smaller than the actual value of 24,902 miles. Aryabhatta was also the first to prepare the Indian Almanac better know as panchang. Rural amateur astronomers still use the panchang, while the ones residing assist the pandits in drafting the annual almanac.

Indian Amateur astronomers also use maps that, depending on experience and intentions, may range from simple planispheres through to detailed maps of very specific areas of the night sky for getting involved in the projects like photographing the whole sky, the Messier Objects or observing the occultation of the stars by the Moon, Asteroids etc. A range of astronomy software is available and used by amateur astronomers, including software that generates maps of the sky, software to assist with astrophotography, and software to perform various calculations pertaining to astronomical phenomena.

External links

* [http://www.ciaa.net/ Confederation of Indian Amateur Astronomers]