Kathmandu:

It was a fun moment for all gathered at the Valmiki Campus, Bhrikuti Mandap to view the neighbouring red planet at its closest to the earth for the year on the evening of December 18.

The ‘Mars party’ started at around 6:30 pm, and many people got the view of the red planet. Students and other visitors clustered around the 6-inch telescope struggling to get past one another to watch the planet. A small red ball was visible, if you looked through the telescope.

Some even had to fight their way through to get a view, as some

of those eyeing the planet didn’t seem in the mood to give way for others that early.

“It’s really nice,” commented a first year undergraduate student of Astronomy at the college, Shridhar Acharya. “I had also watched Jupiter and its four satellite around a month back. This gives a very good learning experience,” he added excitedly. Mars was at its closest ever in the year 2003.

“The distance between the sun and earth is generally considered 1 astronomical unit (AU). Taking that into consideration, today Mars is at a distance of 0.589 AU. The planet comes closest to the earth usually in December,” said Jayant Acharya, an astronomy teacher at the college. “We always organise such watching get-togethers when there are special occurrences in the sky, like this one. This is a part of the students’ practical studies,” he added. The event was organised by the Astronomy department of the campus, under the co-ordination of the Department Head Shambhu Prasad Dhakal.