A View from the Other Side : Part 1

A View from the Other Side
A trilogy based on the events at the X - INAO camp.
(For some reason in 3.5 parts)
Sometimes also called "The Many Morals of Astro Camp".

Part 1: Well begun is barely one third done
May 3 to May 8

Day 1 :
This was the day the camp had finally begun. All seniors had arrived and true to our soon-to-be short lived form both Mehul and me got up at 8 am. The reason being breakfast (of all things breakfast). Not mine (I refuse to acknowledge the existence of anything so far fetched). But that of 50 odd astro campers.
Moral 11 : Most of the Indian population has been misled by unknown sources into believing that breakfast exists. It is very difficult to convince them otherwise :(
After this so called breakfast routine, we proceeded to the inaugral lecture.
Day 1 was a day of unexpected surprises :
1. Both I and Mehul had slept through "Powers of Ten" twice before when we were supposed to pay attention, we remained awake this time when we could officially sleep.
2. I knew very little black body physics.
3. Laptop hard-disk crash for no reasons.
When rephrased,
Moral 12 : Mehul, electronics and astro-camps don't mix. (Part A)
4. We slept in lecture no 3 and were woken up by the kids for tea. (Almost bed-tea)
5. "Sling shot effect" is an excellent lecture delivered by a divine lecturer.
Also known as,
Moral 13: If a lecture is understood by 1 student and 2 facilitators, then there is more to it than sadistic pleasure.
The last part does deserve clarification, it took us about 4 hours in the dorm with my laptop, an LCD projector and photos of sir's notes to make people see what that one hour lecture was all about. This was the winner of the "dorm session of the camp" award.

Day 2 :
Moral 14 : The fact that I have lost my voice does not imply people have lost their enthusiasm.
There were observations after the dorm session. And there was post dinner.
The next morning we overslept, missed "the breakfast" and barely managed to reach class in time.
Moral 15 : It feels nice when things get back to normal.
There were a few lectures nothing noteworthy except for the fact that the everyone hated the optics one.
Almost forgot, Vishal and Simit dropped by to say hello.
That evening was the first observation session. Given our skill with observations, the big guns had to be called. That was our first encounter with Anoop. The evening went of pretty smoothly and mostly everyone was comfortable using a telescope.

Day 3 :
This day too began with post dinner followed by some sleep.
It seems that this time around the moon had decided to play truant and the first observation outing had to be preponed. For reasons natural and unnatural this year it was at Vangani. Vangani is a small village about three hours from Mumbai by bus and it is a pretty decent observation site.
Moral 16 : Time spent in a bus is inversely proportional to square of the quality of the bus.
(Note from Munjeshwari Travels : We specialise in suspensionless busses)
Moral 17 : Busses are excellent locations for courses in literature ;)
At Vangani we met Piyush, who along with Anoop would be helping out with the observations. Vangani was where I saw Mercury for the first time. Vangani was also where I had used a telescope for the first time in my life. (Quite some time ago)
After unpacking the scopes the kids were free to do any observations they pleased. Although observations are always fun it is always troublesome when you don't have an extra telescope.
Moral 18 : A student's lecture session is a facilitators time to use the telescope.

Day 4 :
Overnight observations are not about staying awake all night. They are about choosing the right time and place to sleep. For most people this was session 3. The fault is not theirs alone.
Moral 19 : It is criminal to not provide biscuits with tea at 4am.
Around day break I was thankful we had no extra telescope. I dont know whether someone can have post dinner at 5:45, but the Pohe were welcome anyways. As we boarded the bus to leave I realized the beauty of mathematics.
Moral 20 : If a 50 seater has 46 occupants and if when horizontal an individual occupies 3 seats, then by pigeon hole principle 2 facilitaors can sleep.
As I later came to realize, thanks to a certain 10 Mpixels
Moral 21 : People who throw stones at others should not SLEEP in glass houses.
I do not really know when we reached IITB, I do not know what I did later. I do vaguely remember a co-ordinate systems lecture I mostly slept through (there was some coffee involved somewhere).
But I do think this was the day we played football. Yes I was the goal keeper and no my team did not lose.
Moral 22 : If the size of the goal is larger than the maximum span of the goal keeper, the goal keeper is expected to move.

Day 5 :
There was post dinner as H13. Although we did oversleep again, the next morning we woke up with fresh vigor. It was the day before TT1. I had given my TT1 with much anxiety.
Moral 23 : The view is indeed much better from the other side.
While the kids sat for the lectures we planned and plotted. Kedar Sir and Vahia sir had come down for the TT. By the evening the questions were finalized (thank God for the coffee shack). By the time the papers were ready, we had almost missed dinner. There was some doubt solving to be done.
Moral 24 : Spherical co-ordinate systems are never too easy for beginners.

Day 6 :
TT1 is always a funny experience. It has always been an open notes examination.
I have never seen anybody open their notes in TT1.
Nevertheless it is slightly boring when you have nothing to do for 4 hours (almost hoped I could write the test too [On third thoughts, its sometimes better to have nothing to do]).
After the test and the discussion, there was the first lab session. First by Aniket Sir, then by Vishal. I remember Vishal from my camp. He always did the labs and he did them well. Incidentally I also remember the problem he did that day (all too well). It was from my camp (Retrograding of Mars).
Moral 25 : Mistakes always seem exponentially more stupid with a linear increase in knowledge.
After the labs, it was time for some enrichment. It was a lecture on Cosmic rays. It was the lecture that went on and on till about 8:30pm. We were just in time for dinner. After that it was time for some observations. There was an OT coming soon. Something for which planning had begun quite some time ago.