Purpose of Astronomy Activities

[Sabalias]

Hi,

Have you seen this TED talk?

 

I don't know if it will help you but it's very interesting and informative.

Stu

[Felias]

23 hours ago, Rhushikesh-Canisminor said:

Hello!

I do not know whether this is the right place or should I put this question in other section.

I am into Astronomy since last 7 years and currently planning for a few Astronomy outreach activities in my region (India), specific for rural/underprivileged schools and colleges, which might require funding from local govt.

 

 

Funding can indeed be a problem, but sometimes you don't need that much. If you can enlist a few amateur astronomers/astronomical associations and their telescopes, plus transportation, you can do a lot. About a decade ago, back when I was working in Mexico DF, we did a "Night of the stars" in the Zocalo (the main square), with people from the Astronomical Institute in UNAM and some local associations. It was just a decent number of small/medium-sized telescopes, laser pointers to show the constellations, and "ask and astronomer" stalls (well, and a few other more complex setups, but those were the most popular). We literally had thousands of people popping up to look through the telescopes (the planets mostly), entire families with children, from all sorts of social and economic backgrounds. I don't know if they still do this, but it was amazing.

Local governments may be inclined to cooperate (and there were sponsors like Celestron, so you should explore this angle). It is popular and quite cheap, they just need to provide a safe space one night, and some means of crowd control. Mayan astronomy was a selling factor to start taking about science and promoting the event (the press loves this), so maybe you could think of historic Indian astronomy to pitch your activities. Aryabhata as an early (VI C) example of explaing the diurnal motion of the stars by the Earth spinning about an axis comes to mind.

Anyway, good luck!

PS: google found the link for me, apparently they still do this, and it's a national thing now. It's in Spanish though:

https://www.nochedelasestrellas.org.mx/