This particular event was organised for the primary grades of Kriyasthala, a Montessori school. It lasted for 3 days and 2 nights, starting from the 13th of November. The prime objective, as the first student we met, Umung, (whilst my father and the farm owner, Girish Uncle, were discussing the chances of running the splash pool) told us, was to learn more about astronomy. Packed in two tempo travelers, 18 kids, ranging from age 7 to 12, all arrived for learning, only learning and nothing but learning.
(Warning: some things in this paragraph are slightly misleading.)
The rendezvous point was the café, where, before the first thing that had happened actually happened, the children were climbing trees and generally having a good time.
The first thing that happened was lunch.
After lunch, a quick tour of the farm was followed by a list of dos and don'ts.
The dos and don'ts was followed by an explanation of why we explain the dos and don'ts.
No, there are interesting things that happened. For example, the things that are to be explained later here in the blog. We find it best to begin with the boring stuff for reasons that are obscure even to me.
Anyway, the skies stubbornly refused to let us glimpse the Sun. Perhaps the clouds wished to greet him instead of us.
(Look, is there any reason to shine right in my face? Sun? Sun? I'm talking to you and I'm serious.)
Not to worry, the children did see the Sun eventually.
Well, life goes on, and similarly, the event went on too.
How the event went on was like this.
This is: explanation of the types of telescopes.
The first and foremost part of this explanation was the dangers of looking at the Sun through a telescope, unless you have a burning desire to ensure it is the last thing you see. The rest of this explanation needs no more insight other than mentioning its educational value. This explanation somehow progressed to a talk on meteors and meteorites and ended with a promise to show a few specimens.
Canyon Diablo Meteorite
Instead of us heading to the café for tea, BournVita and bhajis, they headed to us instead.
After refreshing ourselves with these, we proceeded to our next course of action, setting up tents.
The tent setting up was followed by the fulfillment of the meteorite viewing promise. We looked at specimens of the Canyon Diablo meteorite, the Chelyabinsk meteorite and a tektite.
(For all those normal people out there who can't be bothered to waste their mental space with useless facts, a tektite is what you get when you subject soil to tremendous amounts of heat and energy - like when a meteor hits ground. This is not something I suggest you watch at close quarters. The closest viewing point should be, for maximum enjoyment and life length, out of the country.)
Amit Uncle, my father's friend and a casting director, proceeded to thoroughly confuse us with a game, and he was just getting started. In a video my father, Anish, took, all you can hear is him (my dad) laughing, and he wasn't even playing properly.
The evening had progressed, but unfortunately for us, the clouds were still desperately clinging to the heavens, even though the Sun had set. I find that extremely rude, don't you?
Though the clouds were stubborn, some of us still managed a glimpse of Venus through our 8-inch Go-To Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain before the heavens (very slightly) opened up. Due to the weather, the 16-inch Go-To Dobsonian in our inventory stayed in and didn't come out. Before the heavens opened up (very slightly, remember), we explored lunar motion and a quick way to navigate our skies.
While waiting for the sky to clear, we played a story-telling game (hosted by Amit Uncle) that took a completely nonsensical turn. Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan and my father would have all had a heart attack had they heard what happened to Physics in this session.
Next in line was a constellation story session. I narrated stories that would help remember where the constellations would come. For more on this, check the part 2 of my upcoming blog, Astronomy 101.
The clouds parted slightly to reveal the Moon, so we set up (more like took out) our manual 6-inch Dobsonian. As part of an activity, a group of students at Kriyasthala built a 2-inch telescope at school that was probably better than what Galileo used to prove that the Earth is round. They used that to look at the Moon and I think almost everybody had a look.
While all this was going on, Girish Uncle and a few of the farm workers had secretly started a campfire. As everyone sang songs sitting around the fire, corn cobs burned steadily in it and were later consumed.
We headed back to the café and ate a fitful dinner, which marked the close of the first field day.
6.30 AM the next day saw us nestled in the café sipping warm cups of tea and BournVita whilst munching on biscuits and bananas. Half an hour later, most of us were sitting on a tractor and traversing the hilly hills to another hilly hill, that just so happened to be an ancient megalithic site.
Our morning (lazy) trek done, we proceeded to consume another fitful meal. Next, was the slot for shifting into cottages, after which we had a session on confusing friends with astro-speak and the working of a few websites that helps in learning the skies. These are all mentioned and in fact elaborated in the part one of my (upcoming) blog, Astronomy 101. This done, another fitful meal (there seems to be quite a lot of these, no?) was eaten.
Next in line was a session on how weather stations gather data. My father demonstrated this through the weather station we have set up at our campsite.
Amit Uncle kindly kept us engaged with another few games while my father argued with the clouds to let us view the Sun. As you may have guessed, the clouds complied and everyone saw several sunspots and prominences.
After another game, we all headed to a hill (not quite hilly, more mountainlike) to scale it. Coming down, our first destination was the café where tea and snacks greeted us, alongside a rain shower. It was getting dark, but we still were engaged in stuff. The stuff in question was viewing interesting slides of stomata, arteries and many more through a binocular microscope.
Though the rain stopped after a while, the only things visible were the Moon and Saturn, and they too proved to be very dodgy. A few of us did see a couple of satellites though. I think I jinxed it, I saw clouds scattering and said it looks like its clearing up. Let this be lesson for all stargazers - NEVER taunt clouds.
Fast forward to the next day.
(Yes, we had dinner. You didn't have that question? Oh.)
After another fitful meal, we watched the process of how honey is collected from beehives and were engaged in a short talk on plants by Girish Uncle. This was followed by a short scavenger hunt that ended in refreshing lime juice.
Remember how I mentioned the splash pool in the beginning?
I'll wait while you go back and read that bit.
Back? OK, good.
The splash pool was run and everybody got thoroughly splashed. Well, the name kind of gives it away, right?
This time we had a nourishing lunch.
(No, all the other meals were nourishing as well, my keyboard refused to let me type fitful one more time...)
After lunch, we were presented delightfully crocheted pieces (for Amit and Girish Uncle(s)), a spectacular painting of all the zodiac signs, and a beautifully painted bottle.
Well, this brought an end to our field day(s) and I'm sure everyone enjoyed it. All the students were well-mannered, to the extent that, on the first day, they offered to wash their used utensils and left each and every facility they used in impeccable condition, which is a rare thing we see nowadays. We hope that they took away knowledge worth the time they spent at our camp. On our end, I can say that all the time we invested in it paid off and we truly enjoyed hosting the students of Kriyasthala.
This is Ridhi, signing off for now.
PS: If you are commenting, please also put your name down. I would like to know who said what (so I can come after you, incase I didn't like your comment).
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