The camp started off at 7.00 pm on the 30th of March 2009 with a lecture on Introduction to Astronomy and this was delivered by Mr. Lasitha Senarathne, a 3rd year student of University of Colombo. Then Mr. Hasitha Karunarathe, an IT student of APIIT and who is also the webmaster of SKYlk.com explained how the programme would be going through in next few hours.

After a short while I, Prasanna Deshapriya also lectured the AIS students on Celestial Sphere and there was a great response from the audience as the attendees were eager to the exposure of Observational type exploration, on which they didn’t have much experience. Then the dinner time arrived and sky was getting better, although it was more gloomy and cloudy in the evening. With our telescope we were able to catch the Moon which was setting from the West. Thus we were able to let AIS students observe the Lunar and they could possibly see the craters of the Moon as well.

After the dinner there was a Guessing Game which which took all the gathering with amazement. It was like this. A volunteer was asked to come forward in the beginning and he was given a key-word related to Astronomy and all he had to do was give cluses to the audience without revealing the keyword. The student who first correctly got the keyword was awarded with a small gift ( Chocolate) and now it was his chance to repeat the game, provided with a new keyword.

Then there was a brief discussion on “Eye and Optics inside” conducted by Mr. Kusal Weerasinghe a medical faculty student of University of Colombo and it seemed more appealing to the audience of AIS. They were further informed about IYA – International Year of Astronomy and the story behind that. Next I gave an introduction to Using Sky Chart and taught them how to identify the stars and constellations during the night.

We also got the students and teachers of AIS to observe the Saturn and it’s belts during its position in zenith. The telescopic functions were done by Mr.Varuna Gunasekara and Mr. Pulasthi Kanaththage who were both past presidents of Anandian Astronomical Association.

After all there came the most-waited event “The Lander Activity”. The AIS students were divided into 4 groups and each group had to make a lander, whose landing should be able to survive the egg which was inside. Provided with the scissors, celo-tapes, glue, cardboard, cotton-wool and other needy, the groups performed pretty well under the inspection of Mr.Kusal Weerasinghe and Mr. Madusha Dedigamuwa. However amazingly the 4 landers survived their eggs as dropped from the 4th flour of the tallest building in AIS.

We called the halt to the Camp at midnight precisely at about 00:15 am next day (31st March 2009) as they organizers asked us to do so, since there were unavoidable security circumstances.

However although the Observation camp lasted for 5 hours the AIS students seemed to have experienced a new dimention of knowledge and fun, which was indeed out of the box for them.

Contributors of Anandian Astrnomical Association:

1. Mr.Varuna Gunasekara
2. Mr. Pulasthi Kanaththage
3. Mr. Lasitha Senarathne
4. Mr. Kusal Weerasinghe
5. Mr. Hasitha Karunarathe
6. Mr. Madusha Dedigamuwa
7. Mr. Prasanna Deshapriya

The camp was held to promote International Year of Astronomy 2009 -IYA 2009 from the evening of 27th March 2009 to the morning of the next day. It should be mentioned that the girls of the ( present and alumni members ) Mahamaya Girls College, Kandy took immense effort in bringing this camp into a reality. The camp was conducted by present and alumni members of the Anandian Astronomical Association ( more known as AAA) , Ananda College, Sri Lanka. This combination is best reputed as “Star Party Crew”, who organize the annual Star Party observation competition.

I, J D Prasanna Deshapriya was fortunate to grace the occasion as an alumnus of AAA together with my colleagues. We managed to get into the school at about 6.30 pm after a 4-hour bus-drive from Colombo. The opening ceremony started at 7.00 pm and Mr. Sithum Gunarathne delivered the first lecture on Introduction to Observation Astronomy and there was an attendance of about 90 students as well.

Then after the dinner at 9.00 pm we had a small competition just like a guessing game and it turned out to be a fun activity while a lot of information, being shared among participants. After that was a lecture by Mr. Pulasthi Kanaththage on “Celestial Sphere” .Then we had a practical observation session as the sky was clear and participating students were educated on how to use the star map/chart. This observation session prevailed nearly for 1 hour and since the sky got into the type V (5), the participants were directed to lecture halls and they were taught on Telescopes, IYA 2009 , History of transformation of Telescopes, and prevailing IYA projects such as Globe at Night project & Galileoscope.

Then we arranged our telescope assembly project. Here, we divided the students into 5 groups and asked students to assemble a telescope which was provided to them. This was a great experience to amateurs, who had never even touched a single telescope. Since we had only 3 telescopes this seemed bit troublesome and however we managed to teach them how to assemble the telescopes step by step. All the telescopes were Newtonian reflectors with alti-azimuth mounting system.

Sooner sky again turned out to type II (2) and we went back into observation. I, myself captured few stars and got a lot of effort to capture Jupiter precisely as there was more light pollution around. The students, most of whom were juniors from grades 7 & 8 were astonished to see comprehensively the majestic Jovian planet with its four major satellites – Ganimede, Calisto, Europa & Io with telescopic aid.

Meantime we arranged a small competition to make the best Lunar lander model. They were provided paper, glue, scissors, sellotapes and an egg. The objective was to make the lander so that the egg would be inside and to have the egg survived,( in the sense not-broken) after having collided with the ground during landing. To build a ready-made landing site we selected a tall building and dropped each lander made by a group. It was really a fun activity and in terms of scientific approach, this determined the

ability of the designer of the craft
to think a bit about airfoil, air-drag, air-resistance, the geometric shape and even the concepts like center of mass, relative to its shape and phenomenon of free fall. In this case most of the crafts survived, since the ground was smooth and wet with fog overnight.

Eventually as the camping came to an end as the sun rays kissed the star-gazers from the southern mountain hills. The principal, tutorial staff, and of course the students shared a wonderful day in their life with a lot of joy and exciting knowledge of this sidereal science. This was one of immemorial nights in the 29-year old history of School.

This actually implied that a promising future would be lying ahead for the Astronomical Association of Seetha Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Kandy. Thus I can note that the Astronomy is now being popularized in this city of Temple of Tooth. In the end I take this opportunity to thank Mrs. Malalagama – the Principal of Seetha Devi Balika Vidyalaya- Kandy, the tutorial staff the Board of officials and members of respective Astronomical Association and parents of the school children and Sumudu Malalagama and her friends – Indeewari, Thelum & Tharini of Astronomical Society of Mahamaya Girls’ College for their efforts in the success of this event.

Furthermore it’s worth saying that school has a great reputation over the island for its Hockey team. Seetha Devi Vidyalaya leads their way in school-based Girls’ Hockey islandwide.

The Contributors

1. Pulasthi Kanaththage
2. Sithum Gunarathne
3. Hasitha Karunarathne
4. Madusha Dedigamuwa
5. Prasanna Deshapriya
6. Sanka Lakshan

We started with a lecture on Celestial Sphere by Mr. Pulasthi Kanaththage and when it was getting more late we divided the attendees, who were altogether about 100, into 5 groups. They were taught on how to use the star map/ chart to track the sidereal objects and make out popular constellations easily.

Since the dawn of the next day, we began to employ the girls with their practical awareness of observation. First we told the elder students how to assemble the Newtonian reflector telescope that they had. ( Some parts/ screws were irreversably damaged for not being used for sometime)
Then we g0t them to see Saturn at about 2.00 am on the 21st. Mr. Pulasthi Kanaththage and I, myself took immence effort on capturing the Saturn with the telescope as the area was more polluted with light. Alttough we missed Saturn on the zenith, we manged to get it and show it to girls with precise motion.

Then without much trouble we located Moon and observed the Moon phase and it was a great fascinating scene for the participants, most of whom were amateurs. Later in the morning we captured the sight of great jovian Jupiter ant its four satellites and had to agjust the telescope once a couple of minutes to keep the precision.

At the end it was all a funny 12 hours with intellectual enhancement for everybody took part.
Special thank goes out to the Teacher in charge of Astronomical Association of Southlands College- Mrs. Nandanee and the present board of officials for their deidication in making this event a reality in IYA 2009.

The participants got a fair knowledge on Observational Astronomy and had a team work session, where they made impressive modes of the Colombia Space Shuttle in memory of the 6th anniversary of the honourable astronauts of the very Shuttle.

Apart from the indoor activity, they had the outdoor observation session and everybody got a clear impression on star charts and got familiar with celestial bodies, thus adding a variety for their normal routine. The Lunar phrases, and rings of the Saturn were clearly observed with a Newtonian Telescope with an Alti-Azimuth mounting system.

At the end everybody, including teachers and parents were capable of having a promising impression on Observational Astronomy. Accredited personnel from AALK ( Astronomical Association of Sri Lanka ), Skylk and ASSC ( Astronomy & Space Study Center ) contributed their voluntary service to this endeavour. Also a special thank goes out to the members and BoO of Piliyandala Leo Club for making the necessary arrangements under their Educational Projects.

This Observation Camp was held in affiliation with the IYA 2009 events of Sri Lanka.