01 July 2014

Occultation Demonstration setup at ABAA




At ABAA, we try to make concepts of astronomy simple so that everyone can visualise and understand. This setup I made at ABAA using materials that we can find easily and we can build this at very low cost and fast. The setup is to show occultation concept, consists of a motor, a light source that acts as a star and a dick attached to motor to show an object coming in front of the star, Occulting the star.

Moon Occulting Venus 



Occultation is an astronomical event when one astronomical object comes between observer and a distant object. For example, moon in its journey in the night sky comes in between background stars and us, this we call moon is occulting stars.




I made the video with external lights on and off, to show the setup working. With lights on, we can see the disk coming in front of the light source and Occulting the Star and with lights turned off we can simulate night sky and we can measure star light disappearing and re appearing. Using different sizes of disc, we can show that occultation helps in determining the size and shape of an object using the time of appearance and disappearance to the star.  

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