Coordinator: Dr. Deepti Gupta & Dr. Rohini Karandikar
12Mon
Coordinator: Dr. Mashood K. K.
An informal reading session based on the book `Vibrations and Waves' by AP French. Broadly the plan is to go through important points and topics, chapter by chapter, with the goal of identifying potential threads for PER work.
Only on Mondays & Thursdays
18Wed
Coordinator: Ms. Smita Burli
19Thu
Coordinator: Prof. Jyotsna Vijapurkar
Dr. Wayne Orchiston, University of South Queensland
In a world marked by rapid cultural change, the opportunities are dwindling to reconstruct many indigenous Asian astronomical systems as older people die without transmitting their traditional knowledge to younger colleagues (who often show little interest in their cultural past). International ethnoastronomy has now entered a critical phase, because in the course of the next two decades many of the key stake-holders will die. So if we want to tap into and preserve their astronomical knowledge, in the words of the immortal American singer, Elvis Presley “It’s Now or Neverâ€. Very soon it will simply be too late!
In this seminar I will briefly discuss SE Asian ethnoastronomical systems and then focus on ‘hill-tribe astronomy’ and ‘orang asli astronomy’, two major international collaborative research projects that present enormous challenges but offer immense potential. Indian astronomers and anthropologists can not only participate in both of these projects, but can even take on major leadership roles.
Wayne Orchiston retired in January 2018 and currently is an Adjunct Professor of Astronomy at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), after previously working in Australia, New Zealand and Thailand. He has wide-ranging research interests in the history of astronomy, and has published extensively on early radio astronomy; the history of asteroidal and cometary astronomy and meteoritics; solar eclipses and the development of solar physics; the emergence of astrophysics in Asia; notable astronomers and observatories; the amateur-professional nexus in astronomy; and the history of astronomical societies. He has also studied the indigenous astronomical systems of Southeast Asia and New Zealand, and has published a number of papers about Maori ethnoastronomy. Currently he is collaborating with Mayank Vahia and Ganesh Halkare in a study of Indian ethnoastronomy. Wayne is the Vice-President of IAU Commission C3 (History of Astronomy), and is the Editor of the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage. In 2013 the IAU named minor planet 48471 Orchiston after him.