My Tribute to IYA 2009 : A Poem on Pluto

Here is my tribute to IYA 2009: A Poem I composed this in early 2007, when I was the president of Anandian Astronomical Association for the years 2006/2007. However now it's the almost the end of 2009. Therefore, while IYA 2009 is still due, I hit on the idea of paying tribute to the Galileo's efforts with my poem which has not yet been published online. however it was printed on this years Star Party 2009 souvenir for the first time and I had good feedback on it. It was the era when Pluto was subject to many colloquial talks on astronomy. They were debating whether Pluto was a planet. I felt sad for Pluto and I though of composing a poem,...

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IYA 2009 Astronomy Sri Lanka just received Google PageRank 5

It's not a short while ago that I came to know Google PageRank has just updated. I usually tend to look at the Google tool bar's PR button when a page loads. For my surprise I had got PageRank 5. I was earlier with Google PageRank 4 for this IYA2009 astronomy blog and now I'm glad to have done that. That's why I made this quick post.Improving PageRank is not very easy. You have to focus on building quality backlinks and updating the site with quality content regularly. In addition you should be patient as well, Last time I jumped into PR 4 from PR 0 during the last week of May 2009. That's when the last update of Google PageRank had been,I also...

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A random Idea I have: Do Atoms & Solar System (Planetary System) share a similarity?

This is one of those freaky matters that I have been thinking of, over the course of time. Now I though of posting it here and getting ready for a better discussion, argument or whatever.So let's straightly get into the topic. I have also supplied pictures to illustrate the idea. Basically, an atom is of course made up of electrons, neutrons & protons. The electrons orbit the the nucleus, which houses the protons and neutrons. Hence the nucleus is positively charged and since the negatively charged electrons orbit the nucleus, in a nutshell, we can say the atom is neutral.Now let's focus on solar system. There is the mighty sun in the center,...

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A Series of Lectures by MAS UoC: Lecture 1- Space Shuttles

The Mathematical & Astronomical Society (MAS) of University of Colombo (UoC) has arranged a new lecture series, commencing from Friday, 23rd October 2009. The lectures are scheduled to continue weekly through the 1st semester of the academic year.The lecturers will be fourth year students, who have been qualified for a special degree and office bearers of the society. Lecturers include following personnel.Ms. Monika Madhavi - PresidentMr. Buddhika Priyasad - Vice PresidentMr. Lasitha Senaratne - EditorThe lectures will be delivered at the PSR (Physics Seminar Room), Department of Physics, UoC from 4 .00 pm onwards.The Lecture No 01- Space...

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Sri Lankan Team @ 3rd International Olympiad of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Tehran, Iran

It's just a while ago, that I got the updated images of the Sri Lankan delegation who left on 17th instant for the 3rd IOAA, at Tehran, Iran. In fact the delegation composed of 5 individual students, who were qualified via the national Olympiad on Astronomy & Astrophysics, together with the leader Dr. Chandana Jayarathne, who also is a senior staff member of Faculty of Science, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka and Mr. Saraj Gunasekera .Above you can see the Sri Lankan delegation majestically posing with our national flag- The Lion FlagThe delegation is as follows:Leader: Dr. Chandana Jayaratne Saraj Gunasekera Students:Eranga Thilina...

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Hooray !! Star Party 2009 Featured as a Galilean Nights Project of IYA 2009.. Yeah

Guys, I have this wonderful news that we were able to feature the Galilean Nights with Star PArty 2009, representing Sri Lanka. I was just browsing through the Galilean Nights site and the map, at http://www.galileannights.org/ and I noticed Sri Lanka flagged with an event. When I found out it was Star Party 2009..Here is the news in detail posted at http://www.galileannights.org/events/event_country_srilanka.htmlFind Event - Sri Lanka Choose the first letter of the country to see a list of events. A B C D E F G H I J K L ...

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IYA 2009 Highlighted Sci-Fi Competition Organized by Royal College (RCAS)

This post is about the latest Sci-Fi competition organized by the Royal College Astronomical Society. They are gonna have the competition featuring a quest to find the next Arthur C Clarke, as they claim. But I feel these days, students are less attracted to writing stuff, I presume. However this could turn out to be yet an exciting event for IYA 2009, The premier celebration of Astronomy.Are You the next Arthur C Clark ??Age group | Topic>Grade 6-8 ~ "I met an alien!">Grade 9-11 ~ "Colonization on moon">Grade 12,13 & open ~ "Evolution of life in our solar system"You can either send in your stories/ entries to scifi.2009@yahoo.com...

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Successfully Ends Observational Night Camp by MAS , UoC

The very first Observation Camp that I took part at the University of Colombo, ended successfully on the 10th Morning of October 2009. In fact it was more than Successful I presume. My experience is unfolded as follows. Also I should add that the whole scenario was broadcast live with ustream.The camp began with an introductory lecture to Observation Astronomy, delivered by Pulasthi Kanattage, who happens to be a colleague of mine as well. It was featured with basic facts of celestial sphere and the ancient accounts for having the heavens observed.Afterward, we moved to observing the skies with binoculars and our own naked eyes. The skies were...

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Observational Night Camp by MAS (Mathematical & Astronomical Society), UoC

Hi folks,I have a good news for you again. It has not been a long I have posted that I got admitted to the University of Colombo Sri Lanka for my higher studies. Moreover I have also talked about the MAS, which stands for Mathematical & Astronomical Society of University of Colombo in my previous posts. If you have subscribed with me for a quite a long period, you must be aware of Star Quest | Interschool Quiz Competition, organized by the very society ( Read herehttp://iya2009sl.blogspot.com/2009/05/star-quest-09-annual-astronomy-quiz-2nd.htmlhttp://iya2009sl.blogspot.com/2009/05/star-quest-09-annual-astronomy-quiz-1st.html ). However,...

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Star Party 2009 (Largest IYA 2009 Project of Sri Lanka) Ustream.tv Live Feed Statistics

The featured live feed of Star Party 2009 was successfully implemented with ustream and here are the statistics of the show. As ustream says these are the matrices in their own words.First Start Time : 10:01am on Sep 24, 2009Last End Time: 7:07pm on Sep 25, 2009Total Broadcast Time: 12 hours, 56 minutesViewer Hours: 52 hours, 18 minutesUnique Viewers: 88Total Viewers: 225Average Number of Viewers: 4However I'm glad that the Star Party 2009 was so much successful and many people( as many as 225) worldwide were able to view it online with the live feed, which was was carried out by mainly me and my colleagues. You can also enjoy the videos which...

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