Stellar celebrations for planetarium anniv

Students will get a chance to reach out to the stars at the 33rd anniversary of the Nehru Planetarium, Worli, where students fascinated with the skies can participate in activities centred around astronomy.

Students will get a chance to reach out to the stars at the 33rd anniversary of the Nehru Planetarium, Worli, where students fascinated with the skies can participate in activities centred around astronomy.

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The celebrations will kick off on February 24 and conclude on March 3. With competitions ranging from astro-essay, astro-painting and astro-quiz, the idea is to inculcate interest in the subject. “Astronomy is not part of school syllabus. So all our competitions are focused on this science in the hope that students get interested,” said Suhas Naik-Sattam, the programme coordinator of the planetarium.

The planetarium is undergoing an expansion with the introduction of three more exhibits. Visitors will get a view of how the space shuttle takes off through a simulated three-dimensional interactive model that is yet to be installed.

An interesting addition to the list of exhibits is an installation, Find Your Home, where a child can spin the earth via a 47-inch touch-screen panel. The child can locate and zoom into his home on the earth. “The idea is to make him feel like the master of the universe and manoeuvre the Earth with his finger,” said Piyush Pandey, planetarium director.