Maharaja Jai Singh II - The Solar Astronomer of medieval India

[rdhinakar]

Derek, those observatories are still working!

[Suncityan]

Derek, there is an equally interesting observatory in your country, to me anyway.

I was invited to visit it by a person posting on another "Solar" website about ten years ago. It has a wonderful outreach program with original telescopes and other instruments from when Australia first became into existence as we know it today.

The one that fascinated me most was the system that set the time of day. The main component was a solar scope that was permanently mounted to be aimed at the sun at its zenith. When the sun reached that position in the scope's eyepiece a canon would be fired to signal the correct time of the day.

After viewing that and some other historical equipment I was taken to the dome where visitors could look through the observatories main telescope. The techs there had just unboxed a Coronado MaxScope 60 identical to the one I had purchased about six months earlier. I was very pleased to help them set it up and was rewarded with being the second person to view the sun through it.

After looking through the telescope I looked through the slit in the dome to see the world famous harbor bridge with two beautiful Australian flags flying high above it.

Needless to say, it doesn't get any better than that, Tommy

[rdhinakar]

My good friend Mr. Sivashankara Sastry who runs Kolar astronomy club makes models of the instruments in Jantar Mantar for schools and also teaches them on its principles. Those models really work!! One model he made and holding in a















image is mainly used to find the equinox ! But I can't say is that equinox on Equator or on the latitude of the place where the model is kept! On the equinox the two sticks that peep on the side don't make a shadow!! I have requested him to give me few models so that I can show to kids in schools as I am intending to start a solar club here in lines of Stephen some time in near future!

Sastry's email: [email protected]

[marktownley]

Cool stuff!!! B)

[rdhinakar]

Yah,those models were the highlights of the day time astronomy workshop in Bangalore IIA last November. And Sastry has models for almost every school science and astronomy lessons! His aim taking astronomy to grass root with simple easy to make models which children themselves can make!