The APOGEE English Press sat down with the Fest Coordinator of Astro Club, Suyash Kumar, to know more about the club’s work for the fest.. 

This year, Astro Club will be organizing six events, namely, Night’s Watch, 42, AstroPixel, Everyone Dies, a Movie Screening, and a Guest Talk on Astrophotography. Night’s Watch, the club’s most popular event, is a stargazing session conducted on the FD-III terrace scheduled for Day Zero, just after the inauguration. 42 is an astronomy-based quiz with multiple rounds and formats, named as a nod to the classic book, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Astro-Pixel is an Astrophotography competition accompanied by a talk by Prathamesh Jaju, an eighteen-year-old astrophotographer from Pune who holds the incredible distinction of capturing the clearest photograph of the Moon ever taken. Everyone Dies, a new event, is a situation-based game, in which players are given hypothetical and fictitious situations. The player with the most scientifically and logically correct answers wins.

When there are no fests scheduled, the club hosts stargazing sessions. The main telescope dome used by the Club is located on the roof of FD-III. Pilani’s skies offer a wide variety of celestial bodies and provide breathtaking views from the telescope dome. He said working with his juniors leading up to APOGEE has been wonderful and that the club’s accomplishments are due to everyone’s efforts.

One of the hurdles that Suyash faced in the months leading up to APOGEE was the mismatch in the timetables of the freshers and the seniors. As a result, it was a difficult situation for the coordinators of many clubs, departments, and associations who sometimes had to prioritize their clubs over themselves to ensure that the quality of APOGEE was not compromised. In conclusion, Suyash commended the CoStAA for their efforts in making the fest more tech-based than last year and said he appreciated the number of pre-fest workshops and talks lined up and organized by the several clubs and associations.