Astronomical Society of India

Short description: Learned society in India, of professional astronomers

The Astronomical Society of India (ASI) is an Indian society of professional astronomers and other professionals from related disciplines. It was founded in 1972, with Vainu Bappu 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, Hyderabad, India. 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.[1]

Prof. Dipankar Banerjee, Director of Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences , Nainital, is the Society's President.[2]

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."[3] Previous award winners include:

* 1986 Yasuo Fukui
* 1988 George Efstathiou[4] and Shrinivas Kulkarni
* 1990 D. J. Saikia and Dipankar Bhattacharya
* 1992 Pawan Kumar
* 1994 Matthew Colless
* 1996 Sarbani Basu
* 1998 Peter Martinez[5]
* 2000 Biswajit Paul and Alycia J. Weinberger
* 2002 Brian P. Schmidt[6]
* 2004 R. Srianand and Ray Jayawardhana[7]
* 2006 Banibrata Mukhopadhyay
* 2008 Niayesh Afshordi and Nissim Kanekar[8]
* 2010 Marta Burgay and Parampreet Singh[9][10]

The Society also runs two prestigious lectures: the Modali Endowment Lecture and the R. C. Gupta Endowment Lecture.[3]

## Contents

* 1 Previous Organisation
* 2 Publications
* 3 See also
* 4 References
* 5 External links

## Previous Organisation

A previous organisation of the same name existed between July 1910 and circa 1922.[11] It was founded to promote astronomy following an appearance of Halley’s Comet.[12] 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).[13] The society was run along similar lines to the British Astronomical Association.[14] Sections were formed for general observation, meteors, Earth’s Moon and variable stars, experts were appointed to advise on instrumental matters and photography.[12] A Library was established.[13] The society was based in Calcutta and nearby Barrackpore.[12] Sidney Gerald Burrard and John Evershed were Vice Presidents.[13] However the organisation faded to obscurity following the departure from India of one of the principal members, Herbert Gerard Tomkins.[15]

## Publications

* Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India

## See also

* Akash Mitra Mandal
* List of astronomical societies

## References

1. ↑ Astronomical Society of India
2. ↑ "Executive Council". ASI India. https://www.astron-soc.in/executive_council.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Awards and Endowments instituted by the Astronomical Society of India
4. ↑ Europa Publications (2003). The International Who's Who 2004. Psychology Press. pp. 480–. ISBN 978-1-85743-217-6. https://books.google.com/books?id=neKm1X6YPY0C&pg=PA480.
5. ↑ "International Medal to South African astronomer" (Press release). South African Astronomical Observatory. 29 November 2000. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
6. ↑ Ambastha, Ashok (March 2004). "Society Matters". Bulletin of the Astronomical Society of India 32 (1): 83. Bibcode: 2004BASI...32...83.. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2004BASI...32...83..
7. ↑ "Lanka astronomer wins two top awards". The Sunday Times (Sri Lanka). 18 February 2007. ISSN 1391-0531. http://www.sundaytimes.lk/070218/Plus/023_pls.html. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
8. ↑ Lambert, Lisa (21 April 2011). "Niayesh Afshordi wins Vainu Bappu Gold Medal" (Press release). Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.
9. ↑ Satake, Alison (4 March 2015). "LSU and Campus Federal Credit Union Name Rainmakers" (Press release). Louisiana State University. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
10. ↑ "Professor M. K. Vainu Bappu Gold Medal". Astronomical Society of India. http://www.astron-soc.in/awards.php#vainu_bappu. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
11. ↑ "D:\uploadedFiles\b13f7f9ead1d26148ac991352c8828d1-b2553557f3532164\p1884b19f11sgi1tu5ub31lvu11r84.pdf". http://www.scienceandculture-isna.org/sept-oct-2013/07 Art_The_Forgtn_Astrnmcl_Soc._of_Ind._by_Rajinder Singh_Pg.369.html/index.html.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Astronomical Society Of India (1910). The Journal Of Astronomical Society Of India Vol 1. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.212928.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Astronomical Society Of India (1911). The Journal Of Astronomical Society Of India Vol 2. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.212929.
14. ↑ "1911JBAA...21..278. Page 282". http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-journal_query?volume=21&plate_select=NO&page=282&plate=&cover=&journal=JBAA..
15. ↑ "1935MNRAS..95..332. Page 332". http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1935MNRAS..95..332..

## External links

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