PRESS RELEASE

Astronomy Magazine – Krittika

The breathtaking beauty of the thinnest of a crescent of the Moon hanging low over the skyline, flanked on both sides by two bright planets --- even a city like Delhi, with its malignant sky, cannot take away the beauty of such a sight! An event like this can be seen, for instance, on the 16^th of August, an hour before sunrise. Did you ever wish to know when; such and other events may be there to watch out for, in the sky? Which planets may be visible at a given time? Or long for the details of an imminent eclipse, available in an easy format?

The Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi, is releasing a new electronic astronomy magazine, to provide such information, as well as create a forum for students, teachers and educators to discuss issues related to sky watching and astronomy. The inaugural issue for the month of July is available freely. It can easily be obtained by sending an e-mail request to the following address – planetdl@bol.net.in  On the subject line just mention – ‘Krittika’ and send the empty mail to this address and the July issue will arrive at your desktop in less than a day! This facility will be activated from the 15^th of June to the 15^th of July, so hurry up and send that mail off, to get started or accelerated with your sky watching! The physical size of the July issue of the magazine will be close to 400 KB. If your mail client is likely to be choked up by such files, opt for the text only version of the July issue, by typing ‘Krittika (text only)’ in the subject heading of the empty mail that you are sending to planetdl@bol.net.in  The size of the text only version is less than 150 KB. However, the larger sized file is decidedly more attractive as well as packed with interesting images, so try to opt for the larger one!

This magazine will attempt to have something for everyone – from the very beginner to the seasoned observer, to the one who only has a casual, glancing interest in astronomy. In addition, breaking astronomy news will also be provided with every issue in an easily digestible format. The base station for all sky events is New Delhi. However, the timings, visibility etc. for most events will not be very different for other locations in India except for those events that are visible over narrow ribbon-band regions. Information for a given event, for any location other than Delhi, can also be obtained by contacting us at the same address. A lot of the information compiled in this magazine comes from public domain material available on the Internet. However, it has been a labor of love for the staff of the Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi, to compile the most interesting of this information in a highly palatable manner,  for students and sky enthusiasts.