The Astronomical Society of India (ASI) is an Indian society of professional

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

s and other professionals from related disciplines. It was founded in 1972, with

Vainu Bappu Manali Kallat Vainu Bappu (10 August 1927 – 19 August 1982) was an Indian astronomer and president of the International Astronomical Union. Bappu helped to establish several astronomical institutions in India, including the Vainu Bappu Ob ...

being the founder President of the Society, and as of 2010 has a membership of approximately 1000. Its registered office is at the Astronomy Department,

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in 1918 , He released a farman to establish OSMANIA UNIVERSITY on the day of 28 August 1918. It ...

Hyderabad, India Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the '' de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern In ...

. Its primary objective is the promotion of Astronomy and related branches of science. It organises meetings, supports and tries to popularise Astronomy and related subjects and publishes the Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India. Prof. Rajaram Nityananda of the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Ganeshkhind,

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

is the Society's President. The Society makes a series of awards, the most prestigious of which is the ''Prof. M. K. Vainu Bappu Gold Medal'' awarded once every two years to "honour exceptional contributions to Astronomy and Astrophysics by young scientists anywhere in the world."Awards and Endowments instituted by the Astronomical Society of India
Previous award winners include: * 1986 Yasuo Fukui * 1988

George Efstathiou George Petros Efstathiou (; born 2 September 1955) is a British astrophysicist who is Professor of Astrophysics (1909) at the University of Cambridge and was the first Director of the Kavli Institute for Cosmology at the University of Cambri ...

and

Shrinivas Kulkarni Shrinivas Ramchandra Kulkarni (born 4 October 1956) is a US-based astronomer born and raised in India. He is currently a professor of astronomy and planetary science at California Institute of Technology, and he served as director of Caltech O ...

* 1990 D.J. Saikia and Dipankar Bhattacharya * 1992 Pawan Kumar * 1994 Matthew Colless * 1996 Sarbani Basu * 1998 Peter Martinez * 2000 Biswajit Paul and

Alycia J. Weinberger Alycia J. Weinberger is a staff member at the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Before joining the Carnegie scientific staff in 2001, she was a Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) postdoctoral researcher and astrobiology ...

* 2002

Brian P. Schmidt Brian Paul Schmidt (born 24 February 1967) is the Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University (ANU). He was previously a Distinguished Professor, Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and astrophysicist at the University's Mo ...

* 2004 R. Srianand and Ray Jayawardhana * 2006 Banibrata Mukhopadhyay * 2008 Niayesh Afshordi and Nissim Kanekar * 2010

Marta Burgay Marta Burgay (30 November 1976, Torino) is an Italian radio astronomer whose initial claim to fame was being the discoverer of PSR J0737-3039, the first double pulsar (two pulsars orbiting each other), through using the 64-metre Parkes radio teles ...

and Parampreet Singh The Society also runs two prestigious lectures: the Modali Endowment Lecture and the R. C. Gupta Endowment Lecture.

Previous Organisation

A previous organisation of the same name existed between July 1910 and ''circa'' 1922. It was founded to promote astronomy following an appearance of

Halley’s Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the o ...

. Initially there was strong support for such a society and by 30 September 1911 there were 239 members (192 ''original'' and a net 47 added during the first session). The society was run along similar lines to the

British Astronomical Association The British Astronomical Association (BAA) was formed in 1890 as a national body to support the UK's amateur astronomers. Throughout its history, the BAA has encouraged observers to make scientifically valuable observations, often in collaborati ...

. Sections were formed for general observation,

meteors A meteoroid () is a small rocky or metallic body in outer space. Meteoroids are defined as objects significantly smaller than asteroids, ranging in size from grains to objects up to a meter wide. Objects smaller than this are classified as mic ...

, Earth’s

Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...

and

variable star A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth (its apparent magnitude) changes with time. This variation may be caused by a change in emitted light or by something partly blocking the light, so variable stars are classified as ...

s, experts were appointed to advise on instrumental matters and photography. A Library was established. The society was based in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and nearby

Barrackpore Barrackpore (also known as Barrackpur) is a city and a municipality of urban Kolkata of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA ...

Sidney Gerald Burrard Sir Sidney Gerald Burrard, 7th Baronet, (12 August 1860 – 16 March 1943) was a British army officer who served as Surveyor General of India and played a major role in the Great Trigonometrical Survey's work in the Himalayas and identified the s ...

and

John Evershed John Evershed CIE FRS FRAS (26 February 1864 – 17 November 1956) was an English astronomer. He was the first to observe radial motions in sunspots, a phenomenon now known as the Evershed effect. Biography Evershed was born in Gomshall ...

were Vice Presidents. However the organisation faded to obscurity following the departure from India of one of the principal members, Herbert Gerard Tomkins.

Publications

* '' Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India''

References

External links

* {{Authority control Astronomy organizations Scientific organizations established in 1972 Scientific organisations based in India Organisations based in Hyderabad, India 1972 establishments in Andhra Pradesh Astronomy in India

Previous Organisation

Publications

See also

References

External links