Space for Everyone

The Department of Aerospace Engineering, MVJ College of Engineering, organized an event ‘Space for Everyone’‘Space for Everyone’, an interactive session related to optical Astronomy, on 20^th December 2022.

The event started at 9.00 am at the Rajalakshmi Seminal Hall. Around 200 students from the fifth and seventh semesters of the Aeronautical and Aerospace Engineering departments participated in this event. The objective of this event was to educate the students about Optical Astronomy and learn about the celestial objects in space.

The session started with Dr.P.Mahabaleswarappa, Principal – MVJCE, welcoming the audience and the Guest Speaker. During his talk, our Principal highlighted the importance of space and space-related activities.

The Chief Guest, Mr. SanjeeshPilakkat (Director – Principal Engineer, CapgeminiEngineering) then started his lecture on ‘Space for Everyone’. He gave a brief explanation about various astronomical activities such as Halley’s Comet and its orbitaltime period.He explained about various independent Astronomical organizations, and also about Optical Astronomy and Radio Astronomy. Speaking about Optical Astronomy, he highlighted the importance of telescopes, and explained about making an optical telescope in a cost-effective way, using a low-cost spectacle lens, with the eye piece of the microscope having around 33x power, housed in a PVC plastic tube, and its magnifying range up to the distance of Saturn rings, satellites of Jupiter etc.

Next, Mr. Sanjeev Pilakkat dealt with the making of a telescope, briefing the students about the parts of an Optical Telescope and demonstrating the assembly of a telescope. This was an interactive session, where students took part in assembling the telescope.

Further on, the session continued with a discussion on Astronomy societies such as ABAA and SSERD, and the scope for these institutions collaborating with our college.At the end of the Lecture, there was a Q&A session, where Guest Speaker addressed the queries of the attendees.

The event concluded with vote of thanks by Dr. P. Arunagiri, (HoD (i/c)) to the Guest Speaker, MVJCE Management, Principal, Vice Principal and COE of MVJCE, for providing this opportunity to conduct the Club activity ‘Space for Everyone’. A special mention to ITHELPDESK and team for their technical support during the session.

Outcome of the Event

The students and faculty understood the importance of astronomy and the event presented them with a professional way of approach to the subject. Irrespective of the field an individual chooses, he/she can implement the study of astronomy by sky gazing or observing the sky, telescope-making and so on. The session also encouraged the students to be a part of astronomical societies. This would in turn help them to explore astronomical studies.