Heliodyssey 2008, International Student Expedition to Russia

For long eclipses have been viewed as a bad omen in Indian society, something unnatural and something evil. Even as children are taught otherwise in schools, often their parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts urge them to throw away this rational thinking and make them believe that eclipses are something to be feared. The statements in textbooks and the repeated explanations from teachers are simply not enough to overthrow this prejudice society has created in the minds of children and even their parents.
Through Heliodyssey, SPACE strives to break the myths and fears associated with solar eclipse in the minds of people. Science dispels inequality, communalism, casteism and breeds equality and unity. SPACE utilized this event to popularize astronomy and science, one of the core objectives of SPACE, inculcates Scientific Temper, which leads to rational thinking, questioning and logic, all vital for the growth of mind, especially amongst the younger generation.
The taboo of eclipses on the Indian Psyche got a severe jolt on 1st august when students and astronomers went thousands of kilometers from India to watch and study the total solar eclipse in Novosibirsk, Russia. SPACE under Heliodyssey project has been able to bring out this radical change in the lives of people. The eclipse on 1st August 2008 was partial in India and Total only in Canada, China, Mongolia and Russian federation. The longer totality (time for which the sun is covered by the moon) for this eclipse at Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia was the reason for SPACE team’s travel to that location.
School students from all over India were selected through an online exam held at National Level. Out of 100 winners of the Heliodyssey contest, 5 winners were selected to accompany the expedition team to Russia on a fully sponsored trip. 95 other prize winners won various exciting rewards like telescopes, books, science games etc. The team and winners were facilitated at a ‘Felicitation ceremony’ organised on 25th July 2008 at the Russian Centre for Science and Culture, New Delhi.
.The first 5 winner travelled to the location of Total Solar Eclipse fully sponsored (i.e. Russia) and were trained in various experiments and scientific procedures. They became part of the official SPACE team of astronomers and scientists to work on various experiments during the Total Solar Eclipse and scientifically record the event. They not only got a chance to represent their school and themselves internationally but the exposure opened their horizon for scientific research and the cultural diversity added to their personality. 
The team performed various experiments during the eclipse like Eclipse photography (corona, diamond ring etc.), Visual observation and recording, Coronal spectrography and Spectra analysis, Temperature & Wind speed variations, shadow band recording, imaging Flash spectrum etc. The group successfully executed the observations and returned with loads of data to analyze scientifically.
The expedition team landed in Russia on the 27th of July and traveled to St Petersburg and Moscow to understand Russian culture and then went to Novosibirsk (Siberia) to view the eclipse on 1st August. The team was encouraged on 30th July by Shri Prabhat Shukla, Indian Ambassador to the Russian Federation, in Moscow.
Along with the visit to the site of Total Solar Eclipse (in Russia), SPACE also organized road shows and public watches in India on the day of the eclipse to educate the common man on eclipse and make them experience the spellbinding phenomenon of nature. This year, the watch was organised at around 55 centers all over India.

The Exam: was conducted on 10th May 2008 with about 1200 students participating from all over the nation. The first ever online astronomy exam was conducted

successfully all across India. It was of one hour duration and students could access it from their homes or schools during the given time slots.
The Results: were announced on 15th May 2008. The results were formed on the basis of marks the students scored and the first five winners had a clear win, scoring above the rest 95. 100 students were given various prizes ranging from fully sponsored trip to Russia to telescopes, binoculars, astronomy kits, etc.

Felicitation Ceremony: The day to award 100 winners of Heliodyssey 2008 had arrived. The Felicitation was held on 25th July, a day before the contingent was scheduled to leave for the expedition. Winners with their parents and teachers interacted with Dr. Rathnasree as she awarded the prizes.

Russia: 26th July 2008. The much awaited day had arrived when a contingent of 40 people comprising of 5 winners, amateurs, astronomy enthusiasts and scientists embark on the journey to Russia, to view and study the most spectacular phenomena of the nature. Enriched by the culture of St. Petersburg and Moscow the team finally arrived at the final destination of Novosibirsk, where they were to observe the eclipse. With less time in hands experts didn’t waste a minute, and training went on even at the airport. The team launched into action as soon as they touched the Pedagogical University grounds, the eclipse site. The equipment was set & the rehearsals for the next day started, the thrill had set in. While students were put early to bed for a long next day, few of the team members stayed back at the set up, to protect and further tune the equipment.

Click Images to view   50 centers across India held public watches under Heliodyssey – India segment. SPACE Observations at India Gate, Nehru Planetarium, Raja Garden saw 2000 observers. SPACE Club students at 41 Schools in Delhi/NCR catered to 4000 observers. SPACE Hyderabad Office at the office itself looked after 100 observers.   SPACE Nodal Centers, at Punjab, Guwahati (Assam), Chennai, Jaipur, Wardha (Maharashtra), across India educated 400 observers.

Myths: Moon covers the sun in the middle of the day, the day turns into night (quiet literary), the birds and animals go wild by this sudden appearance of night and get further baffled by an even quicker reappearance of the day, the temperature drops and the winds pick up speed. All these are quiet amazing and quiet a contradiction to the normal behavior of things as we humans perceive them. Any discrepancy to the normal world around us over a period of time can be taken only in two ways. One, the scientific mind which tries to reason out the patterns or abnormal behaviors around it, and the other and more prevalent since ancient times is the unscientific mind which gets scared of any sudden change around itself, and gives air to a lot of superstitions. Compared to the fearful atmosphere prevalent back home in India, the Pedagogical University ground was alive with festivities and portrayed a picture of fearless humans keen on learning. It was a learning and eye opening experience for the contingent. It was a festival going on there with sweets and eatables being distributed and purchased. A pregnant lady was seen walking on the ground with the same enthusiasm as the others and saw the whole eclipse. The shadow bands (supposedly snakes), formed around the totality, were being captured on the video, most of the equipment was automated, so switching on and off of the electrical appliances was also a part of the fest.

Results: And yes, their achievements are innumerable! The experiments below were conducted at the time of
Total Solar Eclipse on 1st August 2008 at Novosibirsk, Russia by Heliodyssey 2008 team.

TIMING OF CONTACTS: Recorded at Novosibirsk State Pedagogical University (Local Time)

TEMPERATURE VARIATION: The soil temperature shows a drop in the temperature from a maximum of 35 degrees to a minimum of 26 degrees, indicating a total fall of 9 degrees in the soil temperature. The air temperature shows a continuous decrease in the temperature with a difference of about 11 degrees between the maximum and minimum temperatures. Both the temperatures show a drop at the time of totality with a dip (minimum temperature) at the mid totality. Soil Temp. experiment was done by Vismaya (13 yrs), Ayush Dugar (13). Air Temp. by Prerna (17), Sahil Gupta (12).

WIND SPEED VARIATION: This experiment was performed with anemometers that the students had made themselves. The experiment

was also done at two different levels. One anemometer was placed on a student table (about 30 inches high) and one was placed at the ground level. The results as seen are quiet interesting. The factors that need to be taken into account while discussing

these graphs include that the weather was very turbulent and the sun was under clouds till very near to the first contact. The variation in wind speed does not reveal a significant increase or decrease at the time of totality but it does reveal a relative difference in the wind speeds at these different heights. Though the points coincide at lot of values but in idealistic conditions we would expect them to be same (both anemometer were made from same material and were of same dimensions). The variation in the counts of rotation was in itself a fascinating experience for the students (even after accounting for human error). Shivansh Chaturvedi (11), Shubham Goel (13).

HUMIDITY VARIATION: The drop in relative humidity as measured by the wet and dry bulb thermometer is clearly indicated at the time of totality and especially mid totality. The dip at mid totality indicates a sudden drop in the humidity with a gradual increase on either sides. Utkarsh Agarwal (14), Prerna Gupta (17).

LIGHT INTENSITY VARIATION: The variation in Light Intensity as measured by two set of instruments confirms what the eyes have seen. A luxmeter which measures the lux falling on the sensor with values increasing as the light goes up and an LDR which indicates

decrease in resistance as the light goes up were used for this experiment. Both the graphs (1 & 2) placed together depict beautifully how the value of lux dropped to zero at the same time when the resistance shot up to about 3,00,000 Kohms. This was the mid totality time. A gradual decrease in the lux values with a minimum (actually zero) at the mid totality and then a continuous increase is shown in the graph1. The resistance values show such a drastic increase during totality that on the same scale the other values drop to zero (graph2). Another graph on the left (graph 3) has Light intensity variation with totality values put to zero to show the gradual increase in the value of resistance and then a decrese after totality. Charchit Gaur (14), Shivam Gupta (13).

IDENTIFICATION OF PHASES: A four year old was given an experiment of identifying the pre drawn phases of the solar eclipse with the ones actually happening in front of her eyes through a filter. An elder accompanying her was to write the timings of the identified phases when she approved that the sun was in that phase. The experiment went very well and the phases were identified but the child lost interest after the eighth phase. There were in all 12 phases to be identified separated by 10 minute intervals. Asmi Bahmba (4 yrs).

Heliodyssey 2008 at Novosibirsk also saw various photography experiments by its members.

FLASH SPECTRUM: A setup of a Handy cam fitted on a tripod, diffraction grating with 15000 lines per inch, tried to capture the flash spectrum. As the moon covers the sun totally, just before totality, the dark lines in the spectrum of the sun turn to bright for a fraction of a second, giving rise to flash spectrum. Unfortunately the ”flash” could not be captured. Meetali Devgun

SHADOW BANDS: Shadow bands are elusive and each eclipse throws a shadowy surprise just before and after totality. The shadow band event is even difficult to capture photographically. A video camera, a tripod, and a big sheet of gray cloth afixed to the ground was successful in capturing the faint waves both at C2 as well as C3. Mehak Bahmba

To see the eclipses astronomers travel to the ends of the earth, and with them goes tons of equipment to conduct the planned experiments, and that makes good a tussle between the travelers and the airline baggage rules. For Heliodyssey photography, one mount was adapted to handle 4 cameras; 1. a video camera continuously photographing the eclipse; 2. a combination of a finder and electronic eyepiece served a dual purpose, that of guiding the setup remotely as well as capturing the eclipse during moments of diamond ring; 3. Nikon D80 coupled with a 840mm Carl Zeiss telescope beautifully captured prominences and Baily’s beads; 4. A Canon 450D/300mm lens afforded a wide FOV, capturing five solar radii of tenuous corona. Several varying exposures rapidly clicked and combined later using digital image procesing techniques has become a de-facto method of creating beautiful pictures of corona. Heliodyssey was successful in all its photographic experiments.

EQUIPMENT

The chromosphere is a thin layer of the Sun’s atmosphere just above the photosphere, roughly thick as the diameter of the Earth and can only be seen during total solar eclipse. The photograph captures the chromosphere and spicules, along with the beautiful prominences (on right). A prominence is a large bright feature extending outward from the Sun’s surface. One of the prominence captured was measured to be of 88,000 kms height from the surface of the sun. C.B. Devgun

They say that diamonds last forever, this one too will remain forever in the memories of Heliodyssey 2008 expedition members who witnessed it. This image has captured the famous ’Diamond Ring’ effect which was visible for few seconds just as the totality ended. Diamond Ring effect is caused as the last rays of the Sun shine through the lunar valleys just before the totality begins and create a glistening diamond in the sky. The ring is caused by the dark silhouette of moon set against the inner solar Corona. This phenomenon is repeated as the totality ends, giving rise to another diamond ring. Vikrant Narang

Warning: It is not entirely safe to view the Diamond Ring effect with naked eyes because the photosphere of the sun is visible.

All Sky Camera as the name suggests captured a wide swath of sky, 140°, as well as movement of the participants on the ground. The best view from this apparatus is a 4 second exposure in which a small & cute black sun surrounded by the spiky corona can be seen. The setup was all automated: Fish Eye Lens-Canon 450D DSLR-Eclipse Orchestrator software-Laptop. The experiment was handled by two Doctors, Mrs & Mr Girgla.

A Nikon D80 with solar filter, mounted on a tripod, captured the phases of the eclipse in 5 minutes intervals. Filter removed during the totality, with varying exposures, captured the diamond ring along with the extended corona seen in the center of the sequence. The frames were added digitally later on for the desired result. Dipti Sharma
Photography Equipment Detailing & Image Processing: Ajay Talwar

HELIODYSSEY 2008 TEAM AT NOVOSIBIRSK

From left to right:
Front (sitting): Shubham Goel, Bhargavi, Kanika Kalra, Shivansh Chaturvedi, Charchit Gaur, Chhavi Bahmba, Ayush Dugar, Shivam Gupta, Vismayaa Vinod, Dipti Sharma, Kaustubh Bansal, Spectator.
Just behind the Heliodyssey Banner: Utkarsh Agrawal, Sahil Gupta, Jyoti Kapoor, Shalini Bahmba, Monika, Asha Bahmba, Prairna Gupta.
Back Row: Chander Bhushan Devgun, Vijaya Raghavan, Sanjeev Kapoor, Mehak, Pankaj Bahmba, Rashmi Gupta, Harbhajan Singh Girgla, Bhoopinder Jit Girgla, Deepak Chopra, Vikrant Narang, Partha, Ved Parkash Bahmba, Sachin Bahmba, Surender Kumar Solanki, Khushboo Dhawan, Pushap Kanta Devgun, Meetali Devgun, Asmi Bahmba
Missing: Amit Verma

Report by Dipti Sharma