Dera Dr. Chandel,

As a member of the venus transit group, a copy of your mail reached me
instatntly and I could not resist the temptation to respond to it. I may please
be excused for all this.

You might be aware that I was on deputation to the Council of Science &
Technology UP. At that point of time the planetarium projects at Lucknow and
at Gorakhpur were languishing because the instruments were received in a damaged
condition. I was fortunate enough to invite tenders for a 220 seater
planetarium at Lucknow and proceed towards its successful completion and
inauguration on 08 May 2003. I also prepared the tender documents for the
Gorakhpur planetarium but after that I returned back to the Observatory at Naini
Tal. The Gorakhpur planetarium was inaugurated in Jan. 2007 or 2006. However,
it was closed after functioning for a month or so because the airconditioning
system was not working well. Efforts are currently being made to have it
functional again.

In my humble opinion one should straight away invite tenders from the vendors
for completion of the whole project or at least for the instrument and the
building designs etc without giving any specification of the instrument. Giving
a specification binds the vendor to a specific model ! It would be an added
advantage if the indian representative takes up the responsibility for any
unforseen work arising after the installation and a smooth run of the
instrument. A person fully soaked in Astronomy should be entrusted to prepare
the show soft wares and he should have a team to do that. Purchasing a software
from a vendor may not be suitable to the audience and also it may be out of tune
with the current topics.

You should feel glad that because of our efforts the customs duty on planetarium
imports has been brought down to just 15% feom a whopping 65% which we had to
pay. Other useful point may be to associate the planetarium with some research
activities. The name of the planetarium should hint at that. This may further
cut down the costs on customs duty besides proving beneficial in other sapects.
One more thing about the site. It should be located where you have lot of
floating population !

I am now forced to close it abruptly. However, if you feel like you may ask me
for anything that could considered useful.

Thanks and with regards,

K. Sinha


********************************************************************************\
******
Dr. K. Sinha
Aryabhatta Research Institute of observational sciencES,
[Formerly (U. P.) State Observatory,
Manora Peak, Nainital - 263 129, Uttarakhand, India.

Phones : (O) +91 5942 - 232655, 233734, 233735 or 235583 (extension 211).
Fax : (O) +91 5942 233 439.
Phone & Fax : (R) +91 5942 224509.
Alternate email ID ksinha2000@...
********************************************************************************\
*****

________________________________
> To: VenusTransit@yahoogroups.com
> From: chandel_shyam@...
> Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:16:00 +0530
> Subject: [VenusTransit] Establishment of Planetarium & Science City At Shimla
>
>
> Dear Madam ,
>
> The State Council for Science & technology & Environment , HP is planning to
establish a planetarium . Could you please suggest what type of planetarium are
installed in India/ world wide ?. Which model could be suitable for a 250 seat
planetarium at Shimla.with latest features ?
>
> Please send the details of the companies producing these alongwith their
Indian offices
>
> Woth Regards
>
> Dr SS Chandel
> Principal Scientific Officer
>
> --- On Mon, 11/8/08, rathnasree63 <rathnasree63@...> wrote:
>
> From: rathnasree63 <rathnasree63@...>
> Subject: [VenusTransit] Astrophotography and Image Processing Workshop
> To: VenusTransit@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Monday, 11 August, 2008, 12:06 PM
>
> An Astrophotography and Image Processing Workshop is being planned to
> be held at Delhi, from the 3rd-6th of October 2008.
>
> Some preliminary thoughts about the workshop are placed here :-
>
> http://nehruplaneta rium.org/ taarewiki/ pmwiki.php? n=Site.Astrophot
ographyAndImage\
> ProcessingWorkshop
>
> The workshop is likely to be a meeting where all the talks will be
> interwoven as presentations by Professional and amateur astronomers,
> as appropriate.
>
> There is likely to be something for everyone here -
>
> 1. Something for those who wish to enhance their skills towards doing
> a little quantitative celestial science with available equipment and
> resources,
>
> 2. Something for those who wish to enhance their astrophotography
> skills and enjoy taking beautiful images of the sky and celestial
> objects,
>
> 3. Something for the very beginner wanting to get aquainted with the
> skies and learn to observe, image or measure it in some way,
>
> 4. Something for those who feel a sneaking sympathy with Walt Whitman,
> when he says that all he wants to do is to "look up in perfect
> silence, at the stars"! Well, there will be some interdisciplinary
> discussions that look at the inspiration that the skies have been, for
> so many creative urges.
>
> The workshop is mainly aimed at the serious amateur astronomer and the
> senior school/BSc/MSc/ Engineering students with an interest in
> Astronomy. That is
> not to say that other students will be excluded.
>
> To register for the workshop, one needs to first enter their name on
> an expression of Interest page here
>
> http://nehruplaneta rium.org/ taarewiki/ pmwiki.php? n=Site.Expressio
nOfInterest
>
> and send a one page writeup about work that they have done, to
> nehruplanetarium@ gmail.com The work could be some basic
> astrophotography, or any simple analysis work that they might have
> done as a student project, related to Astronomy.
>
> Please do enter your name and a link to a page containing your
> astrophotographs on the Expression of Interest page.
>
> I do want that the names of all interested participants are on this
> page containing the expression of interest. As can be seen, I have
> been the first to enter my name on this page.
>
> What anyone interested needs to do, is, go to this page, and click on
> the edit button at the bottom, enter their name and details and then
> Save - making sure that they put their name as the author of this
> change on the wiki page.
>
> We will make all attempts to see to it that everyone who registers,
> does benefit from the workshop efforts, even if they are not selected
> to be physically present at Delhi, during the October workshop.
>
> There will be an absolute upper limit of 200 to the total number of
> participants actually present at the workshop - but, online
> participation possibilities will be explored to accommodate
> participation from others interested.
>
> Please enter your names quickly, as some first come first served
> weightage will be given, in addition to weightage given to work that
> has already been done.
>
> We will take the workshop forward, from this expression of interest
> page :-)
>
> Rathnasree, Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi
>
> Check out the all-new face of Yahoo! India. Go to http://in.yahoo.com/
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>

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