 1.Project site:
BANGALORE ASSOCIATION FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION,
Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Sri.T.Chowdaiah Road, High Grounds,Bangalore - 560 001,Karnataka State,India.
2.Description of the project and the problem or need it will address, including the intended beneficiaries and how the project will benefit the community in need:
The project involves in providing a dome for the telescope which involves designing, fabricating and commissioning of 5.7 metre diameter Telescope Dome at existing tower located at J.N Planetarium, High Grounds, Bangalore. It does not involve any construction.
It involves providing a dome for the telescope which is installed at the top of seperate tower with a staircase to reach the telescope. No men live or work at the telescope tower.
Planetarium has professional grade optical telescope (6" Coude Refractor Telescope) manufactured by well known Carl-Zeiss, Jena, Germany. The optical device comes with a photographic device, a CCD camera, a sub-telescope and a solar projection plate. The images drawn from the scope can be projected onto a screen through an LCD projector. The telescope would be helpful in procuring astronomical data, observation of planets, deep sky objects, sunspots, asteroid observation and astro-photography.
Due to non-availability of the dome, optical telescope is not commissioned. This has severely hampered the educational and public outreach activities, creating an obvious void.
3.Beneficaries:
1] Children from rural and urban schools are the primary target which will benefit from this project. Most of the in rural areas are ill-equipped and lacked basic facility preventing the children from being exposed to wonders of the sky. This is essential for the learning of the science subjects, popularization of astronomy and to inculcate scientific temper among rural students.
2] Children studying in the Government and Private Schools and under graduates students interested in Astronomy constitute the second target group.
3] Teachers of students in rural and under privileged urban schools are also a target group. This project will enhance the efficiency of their teaching and provide exposure to modern science.
4] General public form the fourth group for viewing programs like lunar eclipse, solar eclipse, planet
observation etc. Number of beneficiaries of this project each year will be approximately 20,000 per year.
4.Benefits to the community :
Dissemination of science education is a very important factor in elevating the science literacy rate. This is especially true in a country like India, which comprises of over 70% of the population in rural areas. It is important to empower the rural community with the fundamental concepts, the benefits of which will be harvested over generations.Astronomy education caters to the need of the fight against superstitutions (for example, that one should not come out during the solar eclipse).
5. How the benefiting community will maintain this project after grant funding has been fully expended:
The project envisages a one time expenditure towards the installation of the dome. There is no expenditure towards any assets (building or land). Further there would be no annual running and recurring expenses towards power, water, trained manpower etc. as the centre would be maintained by the partner organization J.N.Planetarium.
Specific activities of the host and international partners in implementing the project.
6. What will the Rotarians who are members of the partner clubs do during the project?:
The host club has designed the structure of the dome by involving the rotarians in house. Roatarians will be supervising the commissioning of the dome. The international club will assist with project planning and will maintain weekly commmunication with the host sponsor. The communication will be in form of video conferencing, e-mails & regular reports.
International Services Director of the Club, Rtn.Manohar Modgekar has more than 40 years of experience in designing and installing Radio Telescopes. He has worked with TATA Institute of Fundamental Research for more than a decade and for more than three decades in Raman Research Institute
in Bangalore as Sr. Engineer in Radio Astronomy. The following Radio Telescope Projects have been completed by him during his service of more than four decades.
1. Large Cylindrical Radio Telescope at Ooty, Tamilnadu State, India
2. Decametre Telescope at Gauribidanur, Karnataka State, India
3. 10metre MillimetreWave Telescope (first in India) at Raman Research Institute Campus at Bangalore,
Karnataka State, India.
4. Mauritius Radio Telescope (MRT) at Mauritius, a Joint Venture of University of Mauritius and Raman
Research Institute.
5. 12Metre Dia Radio Telescope at Gauribidanur, Karnataka State, India. He has worked at The Australia Telescope Compact Array at Narrabri, New South Wales, Australia. He has visited CALTEC University USA and Green Bank Telescope of NRAO, at West Virginia. The Dome Project will be implemented under his leadership. | 
