Taking a break from her preparation work, Aishani, the Oasis coordinator of the Astro Club, decided to meet with the Oasis English Press to share the club’s plans for the fest. 

Astro club is a group of astronomy aficionados. They come together to have discussions on topics like interferometry, radio telescopes, and star cycles. In addition to regular group discussions, the club also organises sky watch sessions. Members of the club are trained in using Cassegrain, and Celestron telescopes. They also have an ancient Galilean telescope which is said to have been used by GD Birla himself.

This year for Oasis, the club will be organising their usual Astronomy quiz and the night watch sessions where celestial bodies like Jupiter, Saturn, and the Orion Nebula will be observed. 

When asked if the club is facing any difficulties, Aishani revealed that there was a problem with the Automatic Tracking System (ATS) of the telescopes, which helps in tracking objects invisible to the naked eye. Another challenge being faced by the club is the construction at FD3. The main telescope dome used by the club is present on the roof of FD3. However, due to the ongoing renovation, Controls has asked the club to shift their night watch sessions to FD2 and use other telescopes which are not entirely functional.

Despite these setbacks, Aishani is very optimistic for Oasis. ATS is required to focus on invisible objects, but the members are quite adept at focusing on ‘visible’ objects which would be observable during Oasis.

As an Astronomy enthusiast herself, Aishani asked BITSians to read up on Astronomy. During Oasis, the club would be open for discussions on any Astronomy topic and will also be taking requests for viewing specific celestial bodies, if the sky and the technology permits.