To, Mr. Prasad Modak We Are Group of Students From

8/14/2019 To, Mr. Prasad Modak We Are Group of Students From

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To,

Mr. Prasad ModakWe are group of students from Physics Department,

University of Mumbai. We are going to observe and conductsome experiments during Annular Solar Eclipse on15 Januray, 2010. These experiments are aimed at studyingradiation coming from the sun. This will provide usefulinformation about solar radiation effect on atmosphere ofthe earth and weather changes during the solar eclipse. Wehave already been to China to study Total Solar Eclipse on22nd July, 2009 for which we had been recommended by

Dr. Jaydeep Mukherjee ( Director, NASA Florida Space GrantConsortium, Kennedy Space Center, USA) , Dr. Mayank Vahia (Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Tata Institute ofFundamental Research, Mumbai) and Dr. A. D. Yadav ( Head,Physics Dept., University of Mumbai).

This time we are planning to do comparative study ofprevious eclipse with addition of some other experiments.Since, we are students we have financial constraints. Ourdepartment has been very supportive to us but they havetheir own limitations. This year is also announced asInternational Year of Astronomy by UNESCO. This is a part

of worldwide celebration of 400th anniversary of the firstrecorded astronomical observations with a telescope byGalileo Galilei and the publication of Johannes Kepler's

Astronomia nova in the 17th century. We would be sincerelyobliged if you financially support our expedition.

The activities we are planning for this expedition andother details are listed herewith. Hoping to receive anencouraging response from your side.

Thanking you in anticipation. Yours sincerely,

Chintamani Pai Ankush Bhaskar

P.R. ProjectLeader


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+91-9773597589 +91-9869670258

Our group members have been doing following activities inastronomy

1) Meteor shower observation since last 5 years. Data hasbeen sent to IMO

( International Meteor Organiz\ation ), Germany.2) Observing eclipses of the sun3) Observing eclipses of the moon4) Occultation: Saturn, Venus, Mars, star Antares.5) Transits: Venus (2004), Mercury (2003)6) Meteorite research:

I. Jagannath Meteorite Impact at Orissa incollaboration with AGCA. II.Lonar crater

study of impactite glasses.7) Workshops given:

I. How to teach astronomy to school children organized

by Comet Media Foundation,India in 2005.

II.Astronomy workshops for general public every yearfor popularization of

astronomy.8) Workshops and conferences attended:

I. International conference on Planetary Science,2009.

II. International conference on Solar Cycle organizedby PRL (Physical Research

Laboratory), Ahmedabad in 2007.

III. Young Astronomers Meet at IIT Kharagpur in 2009.IV. International Astronautical Congress, Hyderabad

organized by ISRO in 2008.V. Workshop on Solar Eclipse organized by SPACE, New

Delhi in 2009.VI. Summer school at ARIES, Nainital in 2004.VII. Summer school at IUCAA, Pune in 2008.

9) Research papers presented:


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I. About Lunar surface intensity and temperaturevariation during lunar eclipse

presented at IPA (Indian Physics Association),Mumbai chapter in 2008.

II.About solar flares and magnetic clouds at

International Conference on Solar Cycleorganized by PRL, Ahmedabad in 2007.III.About impactite glasses and fulgurite at

International Conference on PlanetaryScience organized by IPS (Indian Planetary

Society), Mumbai in 2009.

We hope that you understand our necessity and requestyou to help us in this expedetion. We expect partial orfull sponsorship. I am sure by doing this you will becontributing to the science in India and putting good

example for promoting science in India.

Brief introduction about our sun

In our daily life which is well occupied with many thingsassociated with our survival in todays competitive world,we hardly get any time to think about our sun. The wordSun comes to your mind only when it is scorching on topof your head and making you to sweat. Beyond that we neverthink of the sun and its relation with billions of our

lives here on the earth. Our sun which is around 3,32,900times massive than the earth is at 146.9 million kilometersfrom the earth was formed around 4.57 billion years agoand will still live for coming 5 billion years. Does thatmean coming billion generations has nothing to worry abouttheir survival? No, not at all.

In fact, very small amount of mass when ejected from thesun can become a major reason for our extinction. This is


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exaggerated in science fiction movies, but it is a reality.Though it is the closest star providing us opportunity tounderstand the root cause of life on the earth andmysteries of cosmos, we hardly know anything. There arespace missions, ground based observations all over the

world to reveal these scientific mysteries. Eclipse is onesuch opportunity to understand the sun and itself acelestial phenomenon for astronomers all over the world.When stone-age man must have looked at eclipsed sun manymyths must have risen in his curious mind. From that timeto todays modern scientific era we have been evolving andupdating our knowledge about the sun. But still today,apart from scientific mysteries there are myths about suchphenomenon existing in our society which question us howbackward we are. Our scientific expedition is not just anexpedition but we are also pledged to popularize astronomy

and clearing undue myths about eclipse which are stillexisting in our society. It is a social issue and we expectyour cooperation for this expedition.

About Annular Solar Eclipse on 15 January, 2010

On Friday, 2010 January 15, an annular eclipse of the Sunis visible from within a 300-km-wide track that traverseshalf of Earth. The path of the Moon's umbral shadow beginsin Africa and passes through Chad, Central African


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Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya,and Somalia. After leaving Africa, the path crosses theIndian Ocean where the maximum duration of annularityreaches 11 min 08 s. The central path then continues intoAsia through Bangladesh, India, Burma (Myanmar), and China.

A partial eclipse will be seen within the much broader pathof the Moon's penumbral shadow, which includes EasternEurope, most of Africa, Asia, and Indonesia.

The eclipse starts at Uganda passes through Nairobi,enters Indian Ocean where the greatest eclipse is takingplace in mid of Ocean. After that enters Maldives, where itwill be second longest with 10.8 Min of viewing. After thatenters and exits India at Rameswaram. Only place of landunder the eclipse on India. After Rameswaram, enters SriLanka at Delft Island, exits at Jaffna in Sri Lanka, cross

Bay of Bengal and ends in Burma - China border.

Our team


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1) Ankush Bhaskar (SolarPhysics)

2) Chintamani Pai (Solar

Physics , Scientific computation)

3) Avdhhot Purohit (NuclearPhysics )

4) Sumeet Deshmukh (Data Analysis,Observational Astronomy )

5) Aniruddha Patankar (Nuclear Physics)

6) Anand Pothapragada (Scientificdatabase developer)

7) Virendra Yadav (SpacePhysics)

8) Samrat Patel (Imageprocessing, Scientific computation)

9) Abhishek Chitnis(Electronics )

Our team consists of young fellows who are from various

academic backgrounds like Physics, Mathematics, andComputer Science who are having Astronomy as a commoninterest. Team members are divided along experimentsperformed during the eclipse as per their respectiveskills.


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Our team will be conducting following experiments duringAnnular Solar Eclipse

1) Weather change during eclipse

As the sun gets covered by moon during eclipse, thereare sudden changes in the atmosphere of the earth.These changes will be monitored through ourexperimental set-up.

2) SpectroscopyThrough this experiment combined with image processingtechniques, we will be able to understand elementalabundance near the surface of the sun visible duringtotality.

3) Magnetic field activity measurementRadiation coming from the sun changes as the mooncovers during the eclipse. This in turn affects feeblemagnetic field of the earth. Using an instrumentcalled Magnetometer we will study these minutechanges in the earths atmosphere.

4) Radiation activity measurementOur sun emits energetic particles and radiation likealpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays and cosmicrays. Earth is always exposed to such harmful

radiation from other sources present in the space. Wewill be studying the contribution to this radiation bythe sun and real time activity.

Above experiments mentioned will concentrate on differentaspects of the sun related to the Earths atmosphere andelemental abundance of the sun.


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Budget Details

A. Technical Requirements:

Instrument

s

Company Quantity Cost

SolarTelescope

Meade 1 30000/-

DSLRCamera

Canon 1 50000/-

Stellacam Watec 1 60000/-PortableGM Counter

Gammascout 1 30000/-

UPSInverter

LocalCompany

2 20000/-

Total Budget for instruments: Rs. 1,90,000/-

B. Lodging and Boarding:


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Travelling expenses per head 2000/-Lodging expenses per head 3000/-Total Cost per head 5000/-

Total cost for whole team: 5,000/- X 6students = Rs. 30,000/-

C. Overall Budget for the expedition

Technical requirements: Rs. 1,90,000/-Lodging & Boarding: Rs. 30,000/-

Total Budget: Rs. 2,20,000/-

REQUIREMENTS:

CASH SPONSORSHIP

In return to your generous donations, we willbe obliged to offer you the

following,

BANNER (5ft into 3ft) OF YOUR BRAND AT OUR SITE DURINGECLIPSE.

FLIERS OF YOUR BRAND TO BE DISTRIBUTED DURING THEEVENT TO OBSERVERS AT RAMESHWARAM

VERBAL MENTIONS OF THE BRAND MADE BEFORE, DURING ANDAT THE END OF THE EVENT*

LOGO SPACE OF YOUR BRAND ON CAPS, T- SHIRTS* PUBLICITY THROUGH POST EVENT MAGAZINE

*(may vary according to the sponsorship amount.)

Hoping to receive a favourable response from yourside. Thanking you.


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To, Mr. Prasad Modak We Are Group of Students From