Being Global: The World at Your Front

SGAC has opened applications for multiple spots for three important roles to the organisation: Co-Secretary, Web Editor and Reporter on the Communications & Public Relations (PR) Team. These positions are offer challenging, rewarding, and professional skill-building experiences. Be a part of leading and shaping the organisation! Benefits of these positions include meeting and working with young space sector leaders from around the world, having a higher chance of receiving SGAC scholarships to attend conferences around the world,being recognised internationally as part of the organisation's leadership on the SGAC Team webpage,being invited to attend United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space meetings and other conferences as part of the official SGAC delegation,building leadership skills and other skills that are directly translatable to your career For more details and please visit the official website of Space Generation Advisory Council( SGAC)-www.spacegene...

October Second week remained busy for us doing astronomy outreach in three different districts, named Chitwan, Makawanpur and Sarlahi of Nepal for astronomical outreach. The team carried it's 8 inch Dobsonian to the places and talked about astronomy and did some observation whenever weather remained cleared! In the evening of October 16, some night sky observation and light pollution estimation has been done from Sauraha, Chitwan. During the observation, we observed Jupiter, Moon and the some of the prominent constellations visible at that time. The night remained partly cloudy and we played Hide and Seek with them for our observation. The next day, October 17, we did some night sky observation from Hotel Avocado, Hetauda where NAAM executives joined from from Birgunj. Though the weather played foul to us, the discussions remained unforgettable. Milan Rai, president-Nepali Association for Astronomical Mission (NAAM) expressed, " I have never thought that I could meet Rishi Sha...

On October 8, Nepal had two astronomy events. As we were celebrating World Space Week in Nepal ( October 4-10), we also celebrate International Observe the Moon Night 2011( InOMN2011) in various parts of Nepal. This InOMN events were organized in Maitidevi and Lazimpat of Kathmandu valley and Birgunj which is outside the valley. The Draconids were recorded from several places as I guided some of the enthusiastic on how to record them, none of them approached me for the further processing of the data and archive. I observed Draconids from 9:45-11:45 PM and recorded four meteors during the time which is now available in the IMO database( www.imo.net). Through the prediction was ~1-6 meteors per minute, the rate was reduced due to moonlight which was almost full ( Full Moon on Oct 12). The next Meteor Shower is Orionid Meteor Shower which will be visible from October 21-23, 2011. I will be observing during the dates! How about you ???

This year, Space Generation Congress (SGC), annual meeting of Space Generation Advisory Council ( SGAC) ( spacegeneration.org) held in Cape Town, South Africa. This was the first time that SGC was held in Africa and also the record number of participants over a past several years!!! The congress provided me a great platform to interact with the people from different parts of the world. ............

Michael J. Drake(1946–2011), Regents’ Professor, Director of the University of Arizona’s (UA) Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL), and head of the Department of Planetary Sciences, died September 21 at The University of Arizona Medical Center–University Campus in Tucson, Arizona. He was 65. Drake, who joined UA in 1973 and headed LPL and the planetary sciences department since 1994, was the principal investigator of the most ambitious UA project to date, OSIRIS-REx, an $800 million mission designed to retrieve a sample of an asteroid and return it to Earth. OSIRIS-REx is due to launch in 2016. Under Drake’s leadership, the LPL grew from a small group of geologists and astronomers into an international powerhouse of research into the solar system. Drake played a key role in a succession of ever more high-profile space projects that garnered international attention for LPL and the university. Those include the Cassini mission to explore Saturn, the Gamma-Ray Spectrometer onboard NASA’...

Nepal is regarded as a cultural lab as it has 100 plus ethnic groups with their own culture and traditions. There are several festivals that are celebrated in Nepal and Mani Rimbu is one of them which is celebrated in the Himalayan District Solukhumbu, the district which houses the Mt. Everest, world’s highest peak. The most important festival in Tengboche, of Solukhumbu is called the Mani Rimdu. Tengboche is a village at the height of ~4000 meter. As Nepal is celebrated Nepal Tourism Year 2011 (NTY2011) , we have introduced a 14 day tour named Mani Rimdu Festival Tour 2011 Nepal which cost you only 1350 USD per person only (round trip airfare from your country to Kathmandu has not been included in the above price). The festival consists of nine days of ceremonies and meditation (Drupchen). This is concluded by a special blessing ceremony given by Tengboche Rinpoche to the public and the world renowned Mask Dances performed by the monks at Tengboche Monastery.The dates for t...