MSV-2035 Astronomy Document - Inside Design - FINAL - FINAL

Astronomy & Astrophysics 106 • Connecting with school/college students and tapping the latent interest in astronomy. This can be done through talks by astronomers and others involved inmega projects. • Setting aside funds for small telescopes (not only in optical but also in radio and other wave bands) and instruments to bemade available to schools for hands-on projects. • Encourage astronomers to come up with ideas for citizen science projects. Set aside funds for such activities. These are particularly popular with school and college students. The Rad@home (https://radathomeindia.org/about-us ) project is already doing this in the country with a primary focus on radio astronomy using existing facilities such as the GMRT. Citizen science astronomy is also being conducted under the Pune Knowledge Cluster project. Such projects have considerable scope and potential for expansion to other domains of astronomy as well as to bigger facilities like the SKA, TMT, LIGO, etc. • Organise hackathons of the kind LIGO and SWAN projects have been running to provide short-term focus for groups of college students. • Most observatories have arrangements for visitors. Some observatories and institutes (e.g. VBO, IIA) have the visits streamlined so that school/college groups can make online appointments for such visits in advance. This needs to be expanded to all observatories. • Support planetariums for developing programmes related to work being done in India, and also to mega projects. Many planetariums run very successful outreach programmes and these can also be supported. • Setting up science centers in different universities displaying models, various discoveries, audio-visual material on theMega Science Facilities and the Science done with them, etc. • Each mega project should have a formal interface to interact with the local population in the region. This should include efforts to support education in the region at all levels as well as for astronomy-related activities that may generate employment, e.g., astro-tourism. MEGA SCIENCE VISION-2035