August to December of 2008 and 2009 will be good times to have plans for evening observations of Jupiter. It is planned that details of possible observations of the Galilean Moons of Jupiter, and Jupiter satellite events will be drawn up and made available to all the groups that have received telescopes. Photocopies of collected drawings of Galileo, related to the positions of the four moons of Jupiter at different times, will be made available to each group. Every child who observes Jupiter through telescopes will be encouraged to draw the relative view of Jupiter and the Galilean Moons as seen through the telescope and mark it with their location and the time of observations, just as Galileo had done, four hundred years ago! Children would set the time of their observations using radio or television. Children will also be encouraged to report the timings of occultation and eclipse events of the Galilean moons. A collection of all these drawings and timings will be a wonderful resource for getting to know the effectiveness of our efforts. How many children have been able to view and draw the relative positions of Jupiter and the Moons? How accurate are these drawings? What would be the most likely problems encountered by the volunteers in managing these activities? All of this feedback will be collected, reported and utilised for future activities.
Jupiter, struggling to be visible against the accumulated light pollution in the vicinity of the Samrat Yantra at the Delhi Jantar Mantar -- June 2007
January to July of 2008 and 2009 are suitable for easy evening views of Saturn. The orientation of the rings, however, is almost edge on, in 2009, and would not yield very good views. This situation, however, is suitable for highlighting the reason it took several decades after the first telescopic views of Saturn by Galileo, before the rings of Saturn were finally identified. (It was in 1613, that the rings were edge on, but, it is likely that the views would not have been very favourable for beginning telescopes a few years on either side of the ring crossing year. There must have been more at work than just ring crossing, of course, as the ring nature of Saturn was not understood for several years following Galileo's initial observations)
A collection of amateur drawings of Saturn viewed with very modest telescopes, from the last few years and for some years ahead, would be attempted, keeping in mind that Galileo had been unable to resolve the rings of Saturn, while he had discerned the faint gibbous phase of Mars with his telescopes.
September 2009 will be the time for Saturn ring crossing. However, Saturn at this time will be in conjunction with the Sun, making observations difficult. Student projects with archived Hubble data from the 1995 ring crossing of Saturn, which resulted in the discovery of new moons, will be conducted.
