Students of Dikshant Make Telescopes: Hold an ‘Exhibition of Telescopes’

By Tricitynews

Chandigarh 10^th May:- Presenting how education can be transformed by introducing practicality, Dikshant International & Global School, brought another opportunity for  students to explore their potential. As a culmination of a seven day workshop on Telescope making, an ‘Exhibition of Telescopes’ was organized at Press Club here,  in which telescopes made by students from both the Dikshant Schools were showcased. Mitul Dikshit, Chairman, Dikshant Schools, Tushar Purohit , a telescope expert from the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, IUCAA, Pune who  conducted the workshop were present along-with the 25 students who made the telescopes. In all 25 students were involved in the telescope making. Five different teams having 5 students each were made and a total of 5 telescopes were created.

Mitul Dikshit, Chairman, Dikshant Schools said that it is a matter of joy for us to find our students learning practical aspects apart from theory. The scenario of education is changing these days. The motive of this workshop was to make students get acquainted with the process of making practical use of their classroom lessons. We have a well equipped Think Lab established at our Global School campus where we keep having scientific workshops conducted by experts.

The telescope making workshop continued for seven days. The initial phase of the workshop started with teaching students how to grind concave mirror, calculate curvature and focal length of mirrors. This was followed by a session on smoothening of glass which holds great importance in the telescope making process. Till third day of the workshop, students were able to properly grind the glass. The fourth and fifth day mainly focused on teaching them the process of polishing of glass using pitch tool. For the last two days, students were involved in doing testing of class, calculating length of tube and drilling the same for fitting. In addition, they also started coloring the tube.  

Tushar Purohit who conducted the workshop has an  expertise in telescopes like  Newtonion , Galilio,  casigrain etc. He has an experience of more than 18 years in Telescope & astronomy. Tushar said that the students made Newtonian type telescopes. We used household items to create the telescopes. Table top glass was grinded by keeping one over other with carborandom( silicon carbide). The main body of telescope was made using  PVC pipes which were painted from inside and outside by students, these were then put up on an Altitude Azimuth mount. A concave mirror was used instead of a lens to make the telescopes.

The students seemed motivated on being recognized for their commendable achievement. Camilla Sardanaa Class IXth student at Dikshant, shared her experience saying that we are really excited. As the telescopes are worthy enough to be used to view Jupiter and Saturn & its rings. We can see the moon with its craters too.

Siddhant Kapoor of class IXth at Dikshant said that it is a one time opportunity and he is happy that he used it efficiently. The workshop introduced him to the technicalities of telescope making and will be helpful to him as he is looking forward to go in this field only.

All the sessions made students understand aspects like how a telescope functions, it's parts & their uses etc. the real learning came when the students made telescopes in a hands on manner. Dikshant School has been actively involved in various academic and co-curricular activities for quite a long time and will be coming with more such events helping in students' overall development.