Indian Institute of Astrophysics had organised an Open Day at its campus in Koramangala on 25^th February, in celebration of National Science Day. This was an extremely successful event, and more than 3500 people came to the campus to participate.

“We decided to invite all of Bengaluru to our campus, to celebrate science as a community, and we were overwhelmed by the huge response. We had a large number of school students of all ages visiting us, and engaging with our experiments, demonstrations, and posters”, said Niruj Mohan Ramanujam, of IIA.

IIA students had designed many posters about astronomy as well as the research done at the institute, along with some science experiments, and were there explaining them to the thousands of people who are attended the Open Day. A balloon payload experiment, laser demonstrations at the Optics Lab, sunspot observations, and astronomy games by the IIA students's DOOT project were also popular with the visitors.

Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium had lent us many astronomy models, which were a big draw among the children. In addition, the Bangalore Astronomical Society, Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers, and the Breakthrough Science Society were invited to put up stalls. Bangalore Astronomical Society also conducted a night sky watch in the evening with their own telescopes, which saw almost 1000 people in attendance, to see the Moon and many planets. We had visitors not just from Bengaluru, and but from all over Karnataka and many parts of Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well.

“We has organised two public talks, one in Kannada and one in English. Our students and staff also organised Science Quizzes, again one in Kannada and one in English. We also had the Government High Schools of Begur and Adugodi display their science experiments at our institute”, said Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam, Director of Indian Institute of Astrophysics. “Our institute would like to take astronomy to the public, and let the students know what kind of research is going on at IIA, and the Open Day is a fantastic step in this direction”, she added.

National Science Day will be celebrated at other IIA campuses in CREST Hosakote, Vainu Bappu Observatory in Kavalur Tamil Nadu, and Kodaikanal Solar Observatory on 28^th February. These are open to the public as well.

FOR MEDIA: Photographs are at  

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/3/folders/1Y5UPhKXwQED7WYcOZYGx- VqKnxZHLIpv

Contact for more info: Niruj Mohan Ramanujam, 7798680084.

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