29th Annual Report (2016-17)

141 PublicOutreach M.Sc. Practicals RadioAstronomyWinter School The RPL gives special attention to public outreach, and is open to enthusiastic individuals for any help/advice they require regarding astronomy related activity. RPL members deliver informative lectures related to astronomy and instrumentation in astronomy in schools and colleges to make students aware of the career opportunities in astronomy. They are also informed of the latest developments. We also have initiated the process of making videos for general public, which describe key radio astronomy concepts in lucid manner and documenting the working of big international facilities in India, like the GMRT (which is one the world’s largest radio telescope). All these material will be freely available on our RPLwebsite (http://www.iucaa.in/~rpl ), andYouTube channel. RPLhas also launched pages on the social media like Facebook, Twitter andYouTube for propagation of radio astronomy in India. M.Sc. students are expected to perform experiments as a part of curriculum. The students have to appear for practical exam to complete their course. Some of these experiments are conducted in RPL. Every year 3 to 4 experiments are performed by the students, and these have been a great success and will continue to be so. Some of the experiments are antenna radiation pattern measurement, detection of 21 cmHydrogen line, Faraday rotation, and noise fundamentals. RadioAstronomyWinter School (RAWS) has been organized every year, jointly by IUCAAand NCRA. The school is largely meant for under-graduate students in science, pursuing B.Sc. (Physics/Electronics/Astronomy), and Engineering (B.E./ B.Tech.). Bright and highly motivated high school/junior college students, involved in amateur Astronomy, have been also encouraged to apply. Through lectures and hands-on Radio Astronomy experiments, the school exposes the participants to Astronomy in general, and Radio Astronomy in particular. The school has been immensely popular, and so far nine such schools have been organized since 2008. The experiments are conducted by RPL. The hands-on experiments included (i) Observations of Sun with the 4 m and 3 m telescope to determine the antenna power pattern, (ii) Observations of HI 21 cm line to neutral Hydrogen from the Galaxy, (iii) Measuring power patterns of various types of antennas using the antenna trainer kit, and (iv) Noise fundamentals. These experiments are designed to educate the students about techniques and instrumentation used in radio astronomy.

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