Night Sky

Phenomenon collective organised an event on sky watching and constellations named as the NIGHT SKY which took place on November 20th at the Placement Hall of the college from 2 p.m to 4 p.m. There were over 50 plus students who came to be a part of the event, observing covid guidelines. The event was a collaboration between The Bhawanipur College and the Sky Watcher’s Association, an association where amateur astronomers and sky watchers of all ages and backgrounds gather to partake in the wonders of the night sky. 

The event started with a speech by the experienced sky watcher and the President of Sky Watchers’ Association, respected Mr. Basudev Bhattachary who said, “One finds experienced sky-observers equipped with six good telescopes and various sky-charts, warmly introducing visitors and members to the night-sky and answering the entire gamut of questions related to astronomy, unmarked by the politics of conventional academia.” 

He further continued the event by giving a brief idea about the galaxies containing nebulae, the formation of stars, how to locate the constellations to know the stars – Polaris , Sirius , Betelgeuse , Rigel , Vega and many more . 

The students were then shown a brief presentation on diffuse nebulae (any of the numerous luminous or dark formations or irregularly distributed dust and gas seen within the Milky Way galaxy and in other spiral galaxies but not including the planetary nebulae ) , some of its types namely Orion nebulae , Trifid nebulae , Eagle nebulae etc , the view of the planet earth from different planets and moon , some open star clusters ,  globular clusters – M3 , NGC 5139 , M15 , M 13  ( names of some globular clusters ) , galaxies – andromeda galaxy m31 , m51 whirlpool galaxy ( names of some galaxies ) . They then shared their views and doubts with Mr. Basudev about the session and their observations which were answered by him.

Everyone was then taken to the terrace in small groups maintaining covid guidelines and safety measures to see the sun and its position from a telescope brought by the SWA, and the members of SWA showed the students how to operate and handle a telescope. The event then came to an end with students, Prof. Dilip Shah and the members of SWA at the terrace , to watch the sun after which the event came to an end .

Krttika B Dutta, a final year student of English honours in Jadavpur University and an active member in the SWA , remarked , “ We enjoyed a lot while being a part of this event and sharing our knowledge and observations with such an interesting and active crowd  and college . We are surely looking forward to many more such events with the College.”

Report By – Prerona Gupta 

Photographs By – Sagnik Ghosh