1. Founder’s Day

2. Solar Coronal Rotation fromX-ray Bright Points Observedwith Hinode/XRT andYohkoh/SXT

3. Experimental Physics Labfor Integrated PhD Students

4. The 9th COSPAR Capacity-building Workshop

5. IHY – Radio kit

6. Claude Nicollier at IIA

7. The Second IIA-PennStateAstrostatistics School

8. Visit by winners of the FutureSpace Scientist contest ofthe Oracle EducationInitiatives - India

9. IYA2009: PreparatoryWorkshop at Pondicherry

10. From the IIA Archives

11. Archaeoastronomy

Volume 13 No. 3 Indian Institute of Astrophysics September 2008

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Founder’s Day

This year the Founder’s Day was observed in Bangalore on Monday, August11, 2008. Professor C N R Rao, Linus Pauling Research Professor andHonorary President, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced ScientificResearch, Bangalore, delivered the Founder’s Day Lecture. Professor SirajHasan presided over the function.

Professor C N R Rao began his lecture by paying tribute to the late ProfessorM K Vainu Bappu, the founder of IIA, who he knew well and had interactedclosely with during the annual meetings of the Indian Academy of Sciences.He said Bappu was a quiet scholar and a fine human being. He stood forexcellence. Coming to the theme of his lecture, Professor Rao remindedthe audience that he chose this general topic since it addressed thecommon profession of the audience and the speaker. ‘We all do science’.He remembered 1947, the year India got her freedom and he was still astudent in Bangalore. Celebrations were spontaneous and everywhere.The speeches by Jawaharlal Nehru and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan wereinspirational. Prime Minister Nehru was an ardent supporter of scienceand genuinely believed that development based on scientific andtechnological progress was good for mankind and for India, in particular.Under Nehru’s leadership, India came to be the first country whosegovernment actually formulated a Science Policy and it was passed by theParliament in 1958. Professor Rao referred to Homi Bhabha’s closeproximity to Nehru and how at Bhabha’s instance, the Indian Atomic EnergyCommission and the Department of Atomic Energy were established withBhabha at the helm of both.

There were great scientist-leaders in the country. Sir J C Ghosh, ProfessorRao’s teacher and Director of the Indian Institute of Science then, wascalled upon to head the first Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. Alarge contingent of young researchers from IISc followed him to Kharagpur.The tradition of pursuing science had started even earlier with Sir J C Bose,who was essentially a nineteenth century man. Bose invented the first radio

‘Doing Science in India : Personal Reflections’ – C N R Rao, FRS

receiver but was denied due credit for it. Professor Raoreferred to a paper in the Notes and Records of theRoyal Society which clearly established the fact thatBose was the first to develop a microwave radioreceiver. He felt Bose was cheated, he deserved to beour first Nobel Laureate and Marconi should haveshared the prize with him. J C Bose was the teacher ofS N Bose and M N Saha, and then there were C VRaman and Ramanujan. All these people were greatscientists in their individual capacities. But at the timeof independence there was no great scientific institutionin the country. When Professor Rao returned to IISc in1959 after his doctorate and a post-doctoral tenure inBerkeley, he found that his department had minimalfacilities. But the young scientists pursued theirresearch with great devotion choosing problems thatcould be done with the modest equipment available.The gap between the scientific achievements of thecountry and those of the west was mainly due to thegap in the facilities. Yet some quality science wasproduced in the country.

Thirty years ago, when Professor Rao and Dr RaisAhmed of the University Grants Commission conducteda national survey, they discovered that almost 60% ofscientific research originated in the universities, in spiteof the fact that universities lacked funds and facili-ties. Around the same time, under Indira Gandhi’sleadership, a National Committee for Science andTechnology was set up of which Professor Rao was amember. It recommended an increase in funding to thescience and technology institutions. It alsorecommended funding of research of some individualscientists of great calibre, like the noted biologistG N Ramachandran. Money started flowing in but thequality of the institutions did not improve up to theexpectations. Professor Rao rued the fact that in spiteof help from the government over the years, we havenot been able to create a single institution in thiscountry to match the quality of Harvard University orBerkeley or Cambridge. He recalled Blackett’s famousdefinition of a great institution being one, where ordinarypeople were able to do extraordinary things.

Unfortunately, it did not happen in India, all institutionsremained mediocre at best and produced mediocrework. Institutions like the IITs produced first-ratestudents but they all went abroad after obtaining theirdegrees and did not serve the country. Not oneengineer from the IITs joined either our SpaceProgramme or the Atomic Energy Programme. It is thesecond-rate and more mediocre people who stayedon in the country and took up research as a career.Both Atomic Energy and the Space establishmentshave been filled with these people. The gap in qualitywas thus never bridged. The funding of educationalinstitutions continued to be poor. During Rajiv Gandhi’stenure, a National Commission for Education was setup of which Professor Rao was a member along withProfessor M G K Menon and they wrote very stronglyin their recommendations that the funding to theuniversities had to be substantially increased. P VNarasimha Rao, the Minister of Education at the time,chaired the Commission. He agreed with therecommendations of the scientists but later, when hebecame the Prime Minister, he did little to improve thefunding. Universities, therefore, continued to suffer.Today universities contribute less than 15% to the totalresearch output of the country, a very unhappy situation.Professor Rao mentioned that in the 1950s, the totalresearch student strength in the universities in U.P. wasclose to 1500. Today that number has dwindled, withonly 150 students enrolled for research in BenaresHindu University. Professor Rao blamed it on poorfunding, lack of infrastructural facilities and an increasein political activities in the universities.

Moving on to the more recent times, post-2000,Professor Rao saw a further decline in both the quantityand quality of scientific research. He said of the totalvolume of research produced today, the United Statesand Europe share almost an equal amount. Asia intotality is also close to these two ‘pillars’ but India’scontribution to the ‘Asian pillar’ is rather small, Chinabeing the major contributor. The research output of thiscountry has stayed at the same level for the last severalyears, while that of the other Asian countries has goneup and thus, in comparison, Indian research appearsto show a decline. Unlike the era of Raman, Saha orBose, today there are hardly any top class scientists inany field in the country. Just like in the Olympics, weare far behind. Our best are not good enough whencompared with the best in the rest of the world. In 2007,China produced 16,000 Ph.D.s, the USA 23,000 butIndia produced only 4,000 Ph.D.s. Actually, this numberhas not gone up since the 1960s. According toProfessor Rao, India can no longer call herself adeveloping country or an under-developed one. Todayshe has to compete with the best on equal terms andtherefore, quality has to be the yardstick. In a studyconducted by David King of Britain about two years

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ago, it was shown that when the top 1% of the scientificpublications in the world were considered, 63% of itcame from the United States, more than 20% fromEurope (an upward swing of several per cent comparedto the post-War figures) but the Indian contributionwas as low as 0.5%. China too was low some yearsago, but today it is close to 2% and growing. The twoareas, where India seems to have made a largeinvestment in research and claims to be doing well,are Advanced Materials and Biology, but even in theseareas China appears to be far ahead. In fact, going bythe citations, the Chinese contribution to research inthe area of Advanced Materials is the highest in theworld. Professor Rao posed the question is there acountry that is doing well in technology without doingwell in science ? His answer was a categorical ‘no’.Good technology implied a solid base in good science.The United States and Japan are great examples, hesaid. Further, science has to be supported for its ownsake, not just because it may lead to good technologicalgrowth. Professor Rao felt that our investment inscience is still not enough. A city-state like Singaporeand a small country like Taiwan have made much biggerinvestments in science and have built impressivescientific infrastructure. India has done very little.According to him, the phenomenal growth of sciencein People’s Republic of China is mainly due to the closeco-operation that exists between China and Taiwan. Theformer has gained a lot in the process.

In India, another change has taken place which hasdone harm to science. Rise of information technologywith its offer of more lucrative jobs has taken the youngpeople away from science. Nowhere is this trend moreapparent than in Bangalore. Referring to the largepopulation of software engineers working in the ITindustry in Bangalore, Professor Rao said Bangalorehas the biggest concentration of brainless youngpeople. Very few among the youth in Bangalore orHyderabad (the other city dominated by IT industry)come forward to do research. Most of the researchstudents that he comes across these days, come frominterior parts of Tamilnadu or Andhra Pradesh, a largenumber come from West Bengal and also Bihar butnot one from the societies where IT dominates. He was

critical of the fact that people here do not seem to valuescholarship any more. He was horrified to think of a IT-dominated society without scholars, historians,philosophers, economists and musicians. He said – therise of IT has killed the growth of science. Ironically,the funding of science has improved by orders ofmagnitude in the last few years, just when there arehardly any people coming forward to practise it.Finding the right people is a big challenge today. If suchpeople are found, they have to be protected from jobsand temptations of money in the IT sector. One had tosearch far and wide for such people, in schools,colleges, wherever. Professor Rao mentioned someinitiatives that are being taken in this direction. Thegovernment too is taking new initiatives. New structuresare being created with the establishment of more IITs,creation of IISERs, implementation of new fundingmechanisms along the lines of the National ScienceFoundation in the United States. Although it would takea very long time to improve the conditions in theuniversities, there are serious efforts to do so. There isthus some hope that things will turn for the better.Professor Rao averred that creativity in science dependsupon ‘crazy guys’ with great ideas, who do not careabout public opinion but pursue those ideas with single-minded intensity and publish ‘nutty’ papers. They arenon-conformists by nature. We seem to be lacking suchpeople. IT produces only conformists. There is a greatneed for creative minds. He said creativity cannot betaught but an environment can be created where it canbe nurtured and that is the task ahead. Much haschanged since the time when people did good workwith little money. The amount of money going intoscience has increased 300 percent this year. But hefeared, often the first casualty of too much money iscreativity.

Professor Rao felt that for an individual scientist toproduce quality science there has to be in the mind afear of failure and an anxiety for success. Somehowthis seems to be missing. It is harder to do goodresearch today than it was in the years when ProfessorRao had started his career. The volume of researchworldwide has increased enormously and thecompetition has become much fiercer. According tohim, the choice of a good research problem is a veryimportant component of producing quality research.Mindless repetition of work done elsewhere with somesuperficial modification will never lead to goodscience.Many of India’s brilliant scientists fail to attractthe attention they deserve, because they do not choosethe right problem to work on. He cited molecular biologyas one of the fields where this is strikingly apparent.Professor Rao said good science can only be producedthrough hard work. He also said excellence has nobenchmark, it is like the Enlightenment of the Buddha,one has to seek and find it. The goal of an individualshould not be a prize or an award, it has to be

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The 81st birth anniversary of Professor M K VainuBappu was celebrated at VBO on August 10 & 11, 2008.On Sunday, August 10, 2008, Professor Bappu’sphotograph was garlanded in the presence of the VBOstaff and short commemorative speeches weredelivered by P. Anbazhagan and C. Muthumariappan.

A special programme was organised for students ofthe nearby colleges on Monday, August 11, 2008,where Professor C Sivaram, Chairman, TheoreticalAstrophysics Group, IIA, was the Chief Guest. A totalof 60 people (10 physics students and 2 lecturers fromeach of five colleges) participated in the programme.Some staff members from VBO also attended.

P. Anbazhagan welcomed the gathering. ProfessorSivaram then delivered two lectures, one on ‘Sun, Starsand the Universe’ and another on ‘Astrobiology’ with atea break in between. Lunch was organised for all theparticipants in the Dining Hall. In the afternoonDr Muthumariappan spoke on ‘The Universe seen withbig eyes’. A film titled ‘Cosmic collisions’, producedby the American Museum of Natural History, wasscreened for the audience. The participants had anopportunity to ask questions and interact with thescientists. This was followed by a visit to the observingfacilities on campus. Dr Muthumariappan led the groupassisted by the observing section staff. The programmegenerated a great deal of interest in astronomy amongthe visiting students and they spent the lunch and tea

Solar Coronal Rotation from X-ray BrightPoints Observed with Hinode / XRT andYohkoh / SXT

The Sun rotates differentially (i.e. the equatorial regionsrotate faster than the polar regions) at the photosphereand chromosphere. Measurements of solar rotationhave been carried out by two methods: (i) the tracermethod — tracing the passage of various features likesunspots, faculae, filaments etc., over the solar disc,and (ii) the Doppler method — by the spectroscopicobservations of Doppler displacements of the core ofthe spectral lines. The phenomenon of solar rotation isstill to be understood clearly from the existing largevolumes of data. On the other hand, coronal rotationis observed through features like [Fe XIV] green lines,soft X-rays, and radio waves. Coronal rotation has beenmeasured also by two methods: (i) the tracer method— based on visual tracing of coronal features inconsecutive images and (ii) the automatic method, thatrelies on the IDL procedure “regions of interest”segmentation that is used to identify and follow themin the consecutive images. However, both the methodshave advantages and disadvantages. The coronalrotation determination appears to be more complicatedand even less understood, because the corona isoptically thin across a wide range of observedwavelengths, and the features are less distinct induration and extent. Determination of the coronalrotation using X-ray bright points (XBPs) as tracers isan interesting and important problem. There are manyapplications of XBPs to understand the solar corona,namely, (i) intensity oscillations and heating of the solarcorona (Kariyappa and Varghese, 2008); (ii) coronalrotation (Kariyappa, 2008); (iii) contribution of XBPs tototal solar X-ray irradiance variability (Kariyappa,DeLuca, Saar and Farid, 2008) and (iv) detection ofmeridianal motion in the corona (DeLuca, Kariyappa,

something much higher. Ending on a hopeful note, hesaid India is a young nation with 54% of its populationbeing less than 25 years of age. Most of the country’stalent remains untapped in the minor towns and villages.Even if urban India looks away from science, we havethis vast resource to fill our science laboratories anduniversities and this huge unutilised talent should bebrought into the science mainstream to create aknowledge base and this will make India the knowledgecentre of the world.

Founder’s Day at the Vainu Bappu Observatorybreaks discussing various topics in astronomy with thescientists. Concluding remarks and a vote of thankswere given by Dr Muthumariappan. The function washeld at the new lecture hall.

- C. Muthumariappan

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Saar, Golub and Reeves, 2008). It has been shown byvarious groups that the solar corona rotatesdifferentially on the basis of their analysis of coronalbright points in SOHO/EIT images. However, furtherinvestigations are required to confirm the differentialrotation of the corona from long based observations ofXBPs. In particular, it is not clear that the siderealangular rotation velocity of the corona depends on thesizes and lifetimes of the tracers (XBPs) and how itvaries with the phases of the solar cycle.

Daily full-disc soft X-ray images have been used fromthe period of January, March, and April 2007, obtainedfrom the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) on board the Hinodemission. The images were observed through a singleX-ray Ti_poly filter, and the image size is 2048"x2048"with a spatial resolution of 1.032"/pixel. In addition, themultiple observing sequences of the Yohkoh/SXT full-frame images selected for 3-months each year from1992 to 2001 were used for the analysis. In both datasets, a large number of XBPs, covering a large rangeof latitudes, have been identified and selected over thewhole solar disc for a detailed analysis. The maincriterion for identifying an XBP was to check itspersistence in the consecutive images at approximatelythe same latitude and shifted in the central meridiandistance (CMD) according to the elapsed time. TheCMD values of the identified features were thenmeasured in selected consecutive images and werefitted as a function of time. The correlation coefficientof the function CMD was generally very high, implyingthat the tracers were correctly identified. Using SSW inIDL, the full-disc maps of the images have beengenerated and overlaid with longitude and latitude gridmaps.

In using the tracer method (based on a visualidentification of a particular XBP that can be used as atracer), coronal X-ray bright points are visually tracedin consecutive images on a computer screen. This wascarried out several times to make sure that the sameXBP has been monitored. The rotation velocities weredetermined by a linear least-squares fit of CMD as afunction of time, and more images were used todetermine the velocity of each XBP. A large number ofrotation velocities have been measured for differentpossible CMDs in each latitude band, so that more datapoints were used in the analysis. In addition to siderealangular rotation velocities, the sizes of XBPs have alsobeen measured. The sidereal angular rotational velocityvalues are compared with the latitude and sizes of theXBPs.

In Fig.1, the variation of sidereal angular rotationvelocity as a function of latitude is shown for Hinode/XRT data. It is clearly seen that the corona rotatesdifferentially like the photosphere and thechromosphere. In addition to the sidereal angular

Figure 1: Coronal sidereal angular rotation velocity asa function of latitude to demonstrate that the coronarotates differentially. The rotation velocity has beenmeasured with the help of XBPs as tracers from Hinode/XRT full-disc images of January, March, and April 2007.

Figure 2: Coronal sidereal angular rotation velocity iscompared with (a) latitude and (b) sizes of the XBPsderived from the images of Yohkoh/SXT for the timeinterval from 1992 to 2001.

A plot of the sidereal angular rotation velocityas a function of latitude is shown in Fig.2(a) and as afunction of sizes of the XBPs in Fig.2(b). The correlationcoefficient between the sidereal angular rotation velocityand the sizes of XBPs is found to be 0.065. It is evidentfrom Fig.2 that the coronal sidereal angular rotationvelocity does not depend on the sizes of XBPs. The lifespan and variations in the sidereal angular rotationvelocity of some of the XBPs are examined from thecollection and it is found that the sidereal angularrotation velocity values appear to not change with theirlifetime. This means that the long- and short-

rotation velocity of XBPs, the sizes of all the XBPs havebeen measured in full-disc images observed fromYohkoh/SXT for the time interval from 1992 to 2001.

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lived XBPs show almost the same rotational velocity.In contrast, Golub and Vaiana (1978) have shown fromtheir preliminary analysis that the rotation rate of long-lived X-ray features is equal to that of sunspots whilethe rotation rate of the short-lived X-ray features isconsistent with that of the photospheric gas. However,the coronal sidereal angular rotation velocity does notdepend on the sizes of XBPs, and it is difficult toextrapolate the relationship between the photosphericrotational velocity and the sizes of sunspot groups tothe coronal level.

From a detailed analysis of daily full-disc X-ray imagesobtained using the Hinode/XRT and Yohkoh/SXTexperiments, it can be concluded that the coronalX-ray bright points are good tracers to determine theangular rotation velocity of the corona. It is found thatthe corona rotates differentially as do the photosphereand the chromosphere. The coronal sidereal angularrotation velocity does not depend on the sizes of XBPs,and differential rotation is present throughout the solarcycle. The results do not reveal any strong evidenceof the dependence of the angular rotation velocity onthe solar magnetic cycle. A full description of the workmay be found in Kariyappa, R. 2008, A&A 488, 297.

References:

DeLuca, E. E., Kariyappa, R., Saar, S., Golub, L, & Reeves,K. 2008, in preparation.Golub, L. & Vaiana, G. S. 1978, ApJL 219, L55.Kariyappa, R. & Varghese, B. A., 2008, A&A 485, 289.Kariyappa, R., DeLuca, E. E., Saar, S. & Farid, S., 2008, inpreparation.

— R. Kariyappa

Experimental Physics Lab for IntegratedPhD Students

Doing science does not mean knowing scientific factsalone. It means understanding the process of howscience actually works. It also means understandinghow the rigour of scientific methods is applied toadvance a new hypothesis, the design of a meaningfulexperiment, the importance of systematic and carefulobservations, evaluating the credibility of the evidenceand finally the formulation of a theory or law that reflectsand explains the regularity and symmetry in nature.However, the chief purpose of a graduate levellaboratory course is not to investigate or examine anew hypothesis. Usually, the goal of such a course isto conduct experiments so as to test and verify the wellknown physical laws and theories in the laboratory.Students therefore, can develop necessaryexperimental skills and also consolidate theirunderstanding of fundamental ideas and concepts ofmodern physics.

The first batch of integrated PhD students in IIA willcarry out about ten general physics experiments. These

experiments are carefully selected to cover theimportant areas of basic physics. Apart from themeasurements of important physical quantities,experiments also involve the determination of one orthe other fundamental constant of nature. Examplesinclude: the measurement of universal gravitationalconstant with Cavendish’s torsion balance,determination of the Planck’s constant fromphotoelectric effect and blackbody radiation spectrum,the measurement of speed of light using Foucaultrotating mirror technique, electronic charge fromMillikan’s oil drop experiment, e/m ratio usingCoulomb’s constant from electrostatics, verification ofFaraday’s law etc.

These classic experiments also mark importantmilestones in the advancement of physics during thelast century. With all the available resources, studentshave the parallel opportunity to explore the historicalsignificance of landmark discoveries and importantbreakthroughs in physics, and also learn about thedistinguished scientists whose contribution markedlychanged the scientific landscape of our time. Mostimportantly, it helps them refine their understanding ofthe complexity and ingenuity of great experiments inthe evolution and the development of scientific ideas.

Students adjusting the torsion balance to measure theuniversal gravitational constant

Figure 1 Earth’s magnetic field measurements (in horizontalplane) in the general physics lab using Hall probe

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At the component level, each experimental module(supplier: Pasco Scientific, USA) is designed withsimple, open and detachable parts. This way, studentscan greatly appreciate the functionality of eachcomponent, quickly assemble the experiment andmake a suitable modification in its parts if desired. Thisis essential to avoid the passive learning in a ‘black-box’ kind of approach to experiments, where the interiorof the instrument often remains a complete mystery tothe students.

Each experiment requires equipment setting, devicecalibration and fine adjustments before the actualmeasurements are made. Most of the experiments alsohave computer interface for instrument control, dataacquisition and analysis, making the measurementsmore reliable, fast and accurate. After analyzing theexperimental data, students have to estimate thephysical parameters of interest, derive meaningfulinference from the measured data, identify and evaluatethe experimental uncertainties and then present thewritten report of the final results. While doingexperiments, students are encouraged to initiate opendiscussions, and also actively participate in interactivesessions and tutorials classes.

This general physics lab is open to all interestedacademic staff and students of IIA. Anyone who missedthe thrill of doing these experiments in his/her collegedays is welcome to discover the “seriousness and fun”of it once again!

- Ravinder Banyal

The 9th COSPAR Capacity-building Workshop

Jayant Murthy and Prajval Shastri lectured at theCommission for Space Research (COSPAR) Capacity-building Workshop on Space, Optical and UVAstronomy, which was held in Kualalampur, Malaysia,during June 1 - 14, 2008 (http://www.angkasa.gov.my/cospar2008). Participants were students of Physics/Astrophysics from different countries of Asia andSouth-east Asia, and included Ananta CharanPradhan, a Ph.D. student from IIA.

This was the 9th in the series of capacity-buildingworkshops, organised by COSPAR and was co-sponsored by the National Space Agency of Malaysia,the Malaysian Ministry of Science, Technology andInnovation, the National University of Malaysia, theInternational Astronomical Union and the UnitedNations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Jayant Murthygave four lectures on the topics Optical and UVAstronomy from Space, GALEX, FUSE and ASTROSAT.Prajval Shastri gave two lectures on Galaxies and BlackHoles and conducted a session on writing a HubbleSpace Telescope proposal. The workshop laid a heavyemphasis on the participants doing small researchprojects whose primary component was analysis ofspace-based astrophysical data. Jayant Murthysupervised projects on UV Emission from Pulsars,GALEX and XMM observations of M31, The Hostof the Active Galaxy NGC1068, and UV SurfacePhotometry of Nearby Galaxies. Prajval Shastrisupervised a project on Correlation between NIR andRadio Core Luminosity of Fanaroff-Riley-I Galaxies.Ananta Charan Pradhan did a project on OVI lines inHot Star Spectra, under the supervision of David Boyce(Leicester University, UK).

Despite the varied backgrounds of the participants,the lectures did manage to give them an exposureto various astrophysical topics. The participantsmade presentations of the results from their projectsat the end of the workshop. These projects wereclearly the most highly valued component of theworkshop.

Jayant Murthy also delivered a public lecture on TheSearch for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence at the UniversityTechnology MARA, Shah Alam, Selangor.

- Prajval Shastri

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IHY – Radio kit

The first IHY radio kit, was handed over by the Director,Professor Siraj Hasan to the students of MohanlalSukhadia University, Udaipur in a simple function heldin IIA, Bangalore on August 27, 2008. The equipmentis a two-element radio interferometer operating at 170MHz, suitable for studying the Sun and other stronglyemitting cosmic radio sources.The readers are referredto the September 2007 issue (Volume 12, No.3) of theIIA Newsletter for more details on the radio kit.

The Head of the Department of Physics of the MLSUniversity had written to Professor Hasan, requestingfor the equipment for use in their M.Sc. programme.The request was supported by the Dean, Faculty ofSciences of the University. The MLS University wasjoined by the Rajasthan Technical University, also inUdaipur, as a partner, to share the equipment for thelatter’s engineering students to learn radio astronomy.Students of both the universities were with us duringAugust 24 – 29, 2008 and were trained by Dr R. Rameshand his team at IIA’s Gauribidanur Radio Observatory,on how to install and use the equipment. They learntthe basics of radio interferometry in the process. Theyalso carried out observations of the Sun and Cygnus Awith the equipment during their stay in Gauribidanur.We wish them the very best for the successfulinstallation of the antenna and the receiver system attheir institution with the hope that they will be able tocarry out meaningful radio observations of astronomicalsources with it.

– R. Ramesh

Claude Nicollier at IIA

Dr Claude Nicollier, a former NASA astronaut andcurrently, a professor at École Polytechnique Fédéralede Lausanne, Switzerland, visited IIA on August 12,2008 and gave a scintillating talk, titled ‘My Experiencesin Space’, to a packed auditorium. In the talk, hedescribed in detail the Hubble Space Telescope andhis own encounter with it in space when he was amember of the second Hubble Mission in 1999. Thisteam managed to restore successfully the opticalcapability of the multi-billion dollar instrument. As hesaid ‘Failure was not an option’. Dr Nicollier’spresentation was filled with a large number ofbreathtaking photographs taken from space,among them some Earth scenes including thesnow-capped Himalayas, the Mediterranean Seaand the Nile.

Dr. Nicollier visited the IIA Archives and was happy tosee the rich collection on display.

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The Second IIA-PennState AstrostatisticsSchool

The second IIA-PennState Astrostatistics school washeld at VBO, Kavalur during July 9 to 16, 2008.

The practice of modern empirical astrophysics involvesa two-pronged challenge because of the compellingneed for rigour in the application of the state-of-the-artstatistical methods on one hand, and the recentparadigm shift that involves routine mining of largemulti-wavelength datasets on the other, which requirescomplex automated analytical processes that invoke avery diverse set of statistical techniques. The IIA-PennState Astrostatistics schools are a response to thischallenge. As with the first school in 2007, this schooltoo was designed to meet this challenge by providinga strong conceptual foundation in modern statistics aswell as a repertoire of the state-of-the-art statistical toolsapplicable to astrophysical problems.

These schools are distinctive as they are a part of acollaborative effort between IIA, the Center forAstrostatistics of Pennsylvania State University, USA,and the Indian statistical community, which was begunwith last year’s school. From the response to the IIA-PennState school last year, it was clear that the needfor such a school in India is a very pressing one.

The school was open to astrophysics practitioners atall levels. While the first IIA-PennState School in 2007was restricted to affiliates of Indian institutions, this yearthe school was international. There were a total of 31participants that included four members from IIA, sixfrom the Indian university sector (two faculty and fourPh.D. students), besides those from other astrophysicsresearch institutes of the country, viz., IISc, RRI, ISAC,PRL, TIFR and IUCAA, and abroad. In terms ofbackground twenty were graduate students includingfour from overseas institutions, viz., Tel-Aviv University(Israel), Max-Planck Institute of Astrophysics(Germany), and University of Geneva (Switzerland).There were three post-doctoral fellows and eighttenured scientists/faculty.

Besides Jogesh Babu of the Center for Astrostatistics,PennState University, USA, the resource persons ofthe school were Rahul Roy (Indian Statistical Institute,Delhi), Bhamidi V. Rao (Indian Statistical Institute,Kolkata), Sushama Bendre (University of Hyderabad),Mohan Delampady (Indian Statistical Institute,Bangalore), Thriyambakam Krishnan (Cranes SoftwareInternational, Bangalore) and Arnab Chakraborty(Statistical Consultant, Kolkata). Apart from lectures onmodern statistical concepts, a heavy emphasis wasplaced on lab sessions that demonstrated the use ofstatistical tools appropriate to astrophysical problems.Astrophysical data sets for the tutorials were compiledprimarily by Eric Feigelson of the Center forAstrostatistics, PennState. For the purposes of thesesessions, Anbazhagan Poobalan and his computermanagement team at the Vainu Bappu Observatoryset up 32 multi-platform laptops in the lecture hall withthe R software installed, and networked them to a localdata-server. R is an open-source, multi-platformsoftware environment, which is the current standard inresearch-level statistical computation. The tutorialsessions were conducted by Arnab Chakraborty.

A new feature of this school was the introduction ofthe topic of Time-Series Analysis, which was done byArnab Chakraborty. Another new feature of the schoolwas that special brainstorming sessions wereorganised for participants to present a description oftheir own on-going research problems to thestatisticians. Those participants who made use of thisfeature, then presented a summary of their problemsand the inputs from the statisticians, to the wholeschool.

Prior knowledge of statistics was not a pre-requisitefor the course. As many participants observed, it hadan optimum blend of commonly used prescriptivemethods and their theoretical foundation, which wouldhelp them in their future research, particularly in theirchoice of statistical tools. This was also evident in theparticpants’ questions during the sessions andafterward, and during the participants’ presentationson their research problems.

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The tranquil venue of the Vainu Bappu Observatorygreatly facilitated the intense engagement that wasdemanded of the school. Apart from the pedagogicalactivity, the coming together of astrophysicists andstatisticians reinforced once more the very real needfor further collaborations between the communities.Although the dates of the school were selected tocoincide with the lull-period in observing activity, theparticipants and statisticians did have an opportunityto do sky-watching during the post-dinner hours.

The statistics lectures were brought out in the form ofLecture Notes, hard copies of which were madeavailable to the participants at the start of the school.The website of the school is being maintained, and allthe lecture notes as well as the tutorials and data setsare available on the website (www.iiap.res.in/astrostat).

The assiduous team effort of the organising committeewhich had Anbazhagan Poobalan, K. Kuppuswamy,Ravinder Banyal, C. Muthumariappan, MargaritaSafonova, and Firoza Sutaria in addition to PrajvalShastri (Chair) and Sabyasachi Chatterjee, and the ableadministrative support provided by S. B. Ramesh, A.Narasimharaju, K. Shankar, K. Mohan Kumar and K.Lakshmaiah, along with the absolutely meticulousexecution by the Vainu Bappu Observatory team, madefor the organisational success of the the school. PrajvalShastri and Sabyasachi Chatterjee from IIA and JogeshBabu of PennState were the co-ordinators.

- Prajval Shastri

On February 28, 2008, the Oracle Education Initiatives- India launched the 4-month long ‘Student SpaceScientist Program’ involving school children, bringinginto sharp focus the International Year of Sanitation andWorld Environment Day besides dealing with topics onSpace. 10,000 students from about 240 schools acrossthe country participated of which 350 students won

Visit by winners of the Future SpaceScientist contest of the Oracle EducationInitiatives - India

awards. The winning teams of the contest were broughtto Bangalore and the Oracle Education Initiativesorganised visits by them to the premier researchorganisations in the city. A group of 45 students fromChennai, Gauhati and Bangalore visited IIA on August26, 2008. They were accompanied by their teachersand the Oracle Education Initiative officials Mr AjayKapur and Mrs Kamal Deep Peter.

After a brief introduction to IIA and its field stations, thestudents were shown the movies ‘FromNungambakkam to Hanle’ and ‘Powers of Ten’. Thisset the stage for the two popular astronomy talks thatfollowed. The first talk was given by Professor HarishBhatt on the Birth of Stars. Then Professor JayantMurthy spoke on the ‘Search for Extra-TerrestrialIntelligence’ (SETI). Both the talks held the youngaudience spellbound. Later there was a brief but intenseinteraction session where the students and theirteachers asked questions. The programme closed witha vote of thanks by Mr Ajay Kapur who especiallymentioned that he was impressed by the fact that IIA’sorigin was traced back to the Madras Observatoryestablished by the East India Company in theeighteenth century and that the institution hasmaintained an unbroken record of astronomicalresearch, managing today observatories across thecountry from Ladakh to Kodaikanal.

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Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, AndhraPradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Jharkhand, WestBengal, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh. Many ofthe delegates are the resource persons in astronomyin their respective organizations and are also office-bearers in their respective organizations whoseinputs will be important to give IYA2009 the requiredmass base.

At the inaugural speech , Professor J. A. K. Tareen,Vice-Chancellor of the Pondicherry University offeredthe university’s help in future activities related toIYA2009 and said that the university would be happy toset up a museum and an observatory for teaching andpublic outreach during IYA. In this workshop, whichhad six sessions, three scientists from IIA — S.Chatterjee, C. Muthmariappan and M. Safonova wereinvited as resource persons. S. Chatterjee gave anoverview of the landmarks in astronomy, since Galileo’srevolutionary challenge and showed how it opened thefloodgates, which no authority could now contain. Heshowed how the history of astronomy in the last centurycould not be presented as a one-dimensional narrativebut is to be replete with “flashbacks” . He mentionedthe contributions of India to modern astronomy andastrophysics. He urged the student community to

The seminar,“Universalizing the Universe”, organizedby IIA on April 4, 2008 (IIA Newsletter, June 2008) wasa catalyzing event for many preparatory activities ofIYA2009. Many science popularization groups from thesouthern states, who took part in the above meeting,began their own state level meets almost immediatelyafterwards and an all India materials preparationworkshop was organized in Pondicherry in thisconnection on September 6 & 7, 2008. Attended by 60delegates, the meeting had representatives from

IYA2009: Preparatory Workshop atPondicherry

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P. N. Shankar, formerly of NAL, Bangalore and A.Hemavathy (Pondicherry Science Forum) gave newideas on night sky observations and galileoscopy. VivekMonteiro (Nav Nirmiti, Mumbai) spoke on the issue of“Sunderstanding with the Terralab” while T. V.Venkateswaran (Vigyan Prasar, New Delhi) and K.Pappootty (KSSP) presented the materials on historyof astronomy and on astrology they prepared after theBangalore meet. It was decided to have district levelmeetings in every district and to propose to the stategovernments to train a hundred teachers in every districtof the country as a part of IYA’s cornerstone activity,“Galileo Teachers’ Training Programme”.Two separateworkshops were planned for the Hindi speaking statesand the North-Eastern states. It was decided to havethe Pondicherry Science Forum, the organizer of theabove meet as the coordinating agency for the groupsthat participated in this meeting.

The meeting was well covered by the press and othermass media, like the local TV channel and FM radio.The participants recalled the important role that IIA hadplayed in organizing the seminar, “Universalizing theUniverse” and said that it could be an appropriateslogan for the IYA2009, to be popularized.

- S Chatterjee

consider astronomy as a future career. The role of anobservatory in popularizing astronomy was presentedby C. Muthumariapan as he described the on-goingprogrammes in public outreach at VBO and the futureexpansions that are contemplated. M. Safonova wasthe speaker on, “She is an astronomer”, who whileanalyzing the gender issue emphasized the need topopularize astronomy at the primary school level itselfwhich she had experienced in her school days in theformer Soviet Union, where every school had atelescope, as is also the case in present Russia.

From the IIA Archives

W. S. Jacob, Director of the Madras Observatory (1849– 1858), sketched this view of Saturn as seen onJanuary 1, 1853. He used the 6" Lerebours & Secretanrefractor on an equatorial mount for viewing the planet.(Ref: Astronomical Observations made at the Hon. TheEast India Company Observatory Madras Vol. VIII, byW. K. Worster and W.S. Jacob, 1854)

Uranus with its rings painted by M. K. V. Bappuin 1979.

Archaeoastronomy

Sunrise on September 24, 2008 (close to the autumnalequinox) at the Megalithic site Vibhuthihalli in GulbargaDistrict, Karnataka. September 22 & 23 were cloudy.Notice the alignment with the row of stones (4 couldbe seen in the picture).Photo credits: N. Kameswara Rao, Venkat ManoharReddy, Priya Thakur.

International Conference on

Recent Advances inSpectroscopy: Theoretical,

Astrophysical, andExperimental Perspectives

Indian Institute of AstrophysicsVenue: Kodaikanal Observatory

Date : Jan 28 - 31, 2009

Editors: D. Banerjee, D. C. V. Mallik, B. A. VargheseEditorial Assistance: Suchitra KPhoto Credits: T. K. Muralidas

Indian Institute of AstrophysicsII Block, Koramangala, Bangalore 560 034, INDIA

Tel : 91 (80) 2553 0672 Fax : 91 (80) 2553 4043Voicemail : 91 (80) 2553 9250 E-mail : webmaster@iiap.res.in

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