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layout: home
title: Welcome to Astronomy Club!
subtitle: Cosmos is within us
cover-img: /assets/img/banner/index.jpeg
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<h1>Who we are ?</h1>
We are a group of highly enthusiastic students from IIT Kanpur who love to
appreciate the beauty of the cosmos. Not all of us have formal background in
astronomy, but we are passionate about what our universe has to offer. The club
is open to all the students: from the freshers to the final years and from the
post-graduates to the ones doing their PhDs. The club consists of not only
Physics majors but students across all departments. All you need is just a
little interest in the stars and not even that, spend time with us and we'll
make sure that you will fall in love with the cosmos because you yourself are
made of stardust. So, even if you think that variable stars are demons trapped
in a mysterious realm or that comets are omens of that war, we invite you to
come and join us.

<h1>What do we do ?</h1>

As the name suggests, the club aims to instil in the people an interest in
astronomy and nurture the interest of those who are already awed by the
subject's beauty. To achieve our aim, we organise activities all round the year.
From observatory sessions to planetarium shows, we try our best to attract your
attention towards the sky. To give a chance to people for showing off their
skills and others to learn new skills, we conduct competitions which include:
spotting constellations, stars, messier objects, solving cryptic puzzles and
solving astrophysics problems. For the ones who want to dig deeper in astronomy
we organise summer and winter camps each year with projects ranging from
building an antenna to hunting exoplanets and asteroids alongwith lecture series
on various topics of astronomy and astrophysics We conduct our annual astro
fest, Mandakini, which sees applicants from different colleges putting their
astronomy skills to the test to win the competitions and the prizes. Have
anything to share or discuss- from a moon to a black hole or even paradoxes-
visit the club and we will have a group discussion right beneath the stars like
our forefathers. Summarising in points, we conduct:-

<ol>
  <li>
    <h4>Astronomy Observation Sessions</h4>
    We hold observation sessions regularly. In these sessions, telescope will be
    used for observing Moon, nebulae, planets like Saturn etc. However, naked
    eye observations and using binoculars also plays an important role in
    astronomy. Informal session involving small quizzes and general discussions.
  </li>
  <li>
    <h4>Planetarium Shows</h4>
    We are proud to have our own inhouse planetarium built entirely by students.
    The planetarium was inaugurated on Jan 29th, 2012, and still stands to
    marvel the dedication of the students who built it. Today we host various
    planetarium shows, some of which are made by the students themselves.
  </li>

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  <li>
    <h4>Astrophotography</h4>
    To the uninitiated, nothing could be more logical than afocal photography:
    if you look through a telescope's eyepiece, why wouldn't you point a camera
    into it? The club has its own SLR camera which is used for various
    photometrical projects.
  </li>

  <li>
    <h4>Observatory Automation for Astronomical Research (OAAR)</h4>
    Astronomy Club, IITK, has built its own observatory for astronomical
    research. It hosts a mammoth <b>14 inch Celestron EdgeHD</b>, which brings
    the Heavens down to earth. The observatory was inaugurated in Summers '14.
    It is currently open for observations.

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          href="/resources/observatory"
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          >View Photos</a
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      </li>
    </ul>
  </li>
</ol>

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<h1>Cygnus: Annual Club Magazine 🌠</h1>
<br />

Astronomy Club IITK proudly releases its annual astronomy magazine, Cygnus every
year. The magazines would be a nice treat to anyone even mildly interested in
Astronomy and also for the unfamiliar to gain a quick initial exposure.

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      >Read Now</a
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  </li>
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<!-- <hr class="large">
<h1>Monthly Newsletter 📰</h1>
<br>
Astro Club brings to you its newly minted monthly newsletter series detailing the recent happenings from the world of astronomy. Read more to find out about new space launches, cutting-edge research, and exciting future events to look forward to.
<ol>
    <h3>Issue #1 : October 2021 [<a href="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/docs/newsletter/1.pdf" target="_blank">Read here</a>]</h3>
    <h3>Issue #2 : November 2021 [<a href="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/docs/newsletter/2.pdf" target="_blank">Read here</a>]</h3>
    <h3>Issue #3 : TBA</h3>
</ol>
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