Nehru Planetarium

Nehru Planetariums are the five planetariums in India, named after India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. These are located in Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune and Bangalore, plus there is a Jawahar Planetarium in Allahabad. Nehru Planetarium in Pune was the first one in Asia, established in 1954.[1]

The Nehru Planetarium in New Delhi is situated on the grounds of Teen Murti Bhavan, officially known as 'Nehru Memorial Museum and Library', earlier the official residence of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and now a museum in his memory. In 1964, the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund was set up to promote his ideas and it undertook to build the Nehru Planetarium with its aim being the promotion of astronomy education. This planetarium, like its namesake in Mumbai, was also inaugurated by Smt. Indira Gandhi on 6 February 1984.[2] One of the major attractions of this place is the Soyuz T-10 which carried India’s first cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma to space, along with his space suit and mission journal.

The Sky Theatre shown at Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium are very popular and attract about more than 200,000 visitors per year.The sky theatre is a dome shaped theatre . It shows information on constellations,planets . Visuals such as Cartoons, Paintings, Computer animations, video clippings and special effects are liberally used in the programmes at the sky theatre.

The planetarium was reopened in September 2010, after renovations worth Rs. 11 crore, ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games and received Queen's Baton. It now has 'Definiti optical star projector “Megastar” that can show 2 million stars.[3] It also sets up old telescopes, projection boxes and solar filters at its premises at major Solar eclipses.[4][5]

Nehru Planetarium, New Delhi

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Asia's oldest planetarium to reopen". The Times of India. Aug 9, 2011.
  2. ↑ "Features" on Press Information Bureau of India
  3. ↑ "Nehru Planetarium ready to receive the Queen's Baton". The Hindu. Sep 30, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Nehru Planetarium all set for the eclipse". The Hindu. Jul 22, 2009.
  5. ↑ "Children throng Nehru Planetarium for glimpse of eclipse". The Times of India. Jan 16, 2010.
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