By Okram Bimoljit
IMPHAL, December 16: `We are not issued telescopes by the university though we have installed a 9-inch, 12-inch, 14-inch telescopes on our own, estimated to cost of Rs 3 lakhs, 1 lakhs and 6 lakhs respectively`, said Prof. Kangujam Jugindro Singh.
The professor of Manipur University, in an informal conversation with this reporter at his Wangkhei Thangapat Mapal residence said his works has been appreciated by the Vice Chancellor of the university and has encouraged him to do more work on astrophysics.
It may be mentioned that Prof. Jugindro had already created history by discovering `Transient Pulsation of Sirius`, a name given by him, which is about the `low state`™ of Sirius, the brightest star in the visible sky in which the star shows up very high amplitude pulsation in the visual band of electromagnetic spectrum.
He has created history by becoming the first Indian to have been invited for giving two presentations at the 103rd Meeting of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) held at Woburn Hilton, Massachusetts, USA during November 6-8, 2014.
He further said that a photometric study of Sirius during the last week of January, 2014 has revealed that the star shows transient pulsation. `Observation of Sirius were taken with integration period of ten seconds in B and V bands using SSP3 photometer attached to a Celestron CGE1400 telescope and these observations were taken in the night of January 30, 2014`, he said.
It may be noted that Prof Jugindro has installed a private observatory at his residence. He along with his team of MU meets regularly at his house to watch the phenomenon of stars in the sky.
He shared that his team is the lone team not only from India but also in the whole Asian continent participating in the International Orion Project for production of high precision photometric and spectroscopic data of five bright variable stars of the constellation of Orion. The International Orion Project of Phoenix, Arizona, USA, has declared his team as the champion of Orion Project, Prof. Jugindro said.
`We have innovatively designed and constructed three observatories each costing few hundred USD for housing three small Schmidt-Cassegrain type telescopes namely Celestron CGE925, Celestron CGE1400, Meade 12`LX200GPS`, he said.
He further stated that Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO has given his group a project to do world class observation of a category of variable stars called “SU UMa” stars.
`Astronomy is one of the oldest sciences, and I have a vision to do more work for the advancement of subject and to attract more and more students in this field so as to generate employment and to interact with the people at the top level in the field in the world`, he noted.
He lamented that the Northeast as well other States in the country are lacking behind in terms of research works and enthusiasm in astrophysics and there is lack of funding as well from the government.