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Conference of Planetarium Directors & Professional

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02.04.2007

On 3 March 2007 Nehru Planetarium, Mumbai completed 30 years of its existence. To commemorate the occasion a two-day Conference of Planetarium Directors & Professional was organized on 19 & 20 March 2007.

The Conference had the theme "Planetarium through ages: Vision 2027". It was attended by directors and professionals of all the major planetariums in the country. The directors and professionals from sixteen planetariums, namely, Allahabad, Bangalore , Bhubaneshwar, Calicut, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nasik, New Delhi, Vadodara and Warangal actively participated in it.

Prof. Govind Swarup, FRS, Former Professor of Eminence, TIFR and former Director GMRT, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, Pune gave the inaugural address . He spoke on "Radio waves and the Universe: from Big Bang to Black Holes".

Besides the three former directors of the Nehru Planetarium (namely, Dr. V. S. Venkatavardan, Dr. J. J. Rawal and Prof. Mayank Vahia), Prof. R. Subramanian from M. P. Birla Planetarium, Kolkata, Dr. B. G. Sidharth from B. M. Birla Planetarium, Hyderabad, Dr. N. Rathnasree from Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi and Dr. P. Iyamperumal, Executive Director Tamilnadu Science Centre & Planetarium spoke on conference theme and shared their experiences with the delegates. In all there were thirteen invited talks and eleven paper presentations by participants.

Mr. Scott Niskach of Evans & Sutherland USA (digital planetarium manufacturer) spoke on "Current State of Planetarium Projection Technology". His talk was followed by a live demonstration of a latest projection technology Sony's SXRD projector in the sky theatre.

Dr. Carolina Ödman of Leiden Observatory, Netherlands had been specially invited to tell the delegates about the "Universe Awareness: an inspirational programme for young children".

There were two panel discussions on f ormation of a Federation of Indian Planetarians and future of planetariums and technology.

Enthused by the response of the planetarians who had gathered here in Mumbai, Dr. N. Rathnasree, Director New Delhi Planetarium took initiative in starting a Yahoo ChatGroup Planetarian_India@yahoogroups.com

Suhas Naik-satam | Source: alphagalileo
Further information: www.nehru-centre.org/tyc/
www.nehru-centre.org/tyc/photos/
www.nehru-centre.org/tyc/prog.htm

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