3rd National Call for Astronomy Olympiad Logo Competition 2015!

Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) is pleased to announce 3rd National Call Astronomy Olympiad Logo Competition 2015- Nepal today! With the success of our logo competition in 2013 and 2014 which provided hundreds of designers to share their creativity with us, we are looking forward to more creations this year from both science and non science background enthusiastic people. Interested amateur/professional designers can submit their logo/s to info.naso[at]gmail.com by 5:00 PM, Friday, September 25, 2015.

What is Astronomy Olympiad Logo Competition?

It is an annual competition run by NASO in order to provide national platform for creative designers and promote astronomy Olympiad program in Nepal. The best logo will be used as a logo as an official logo of the National Astronomy Olympiad- Nepal of the Olympiad year. For e.g. the best logo from 2013 logo competition was the official logo for first National Astronomy Olympiad 2014- Nepal.

Who can participate in the Competition?

Anyone who wants to share their creativity with us wish to get national and international exposure can submit their work following the rules and regulations provided by the organizer.

What are the rules and regulations of the competition?

Please carefully read and follow the bellow mentioned rules and regulations in order to submit your work for the competition.

• The logo must include the following themes: ASTRONOMY, EDUCATION & NEPAL and should reflect Third National Astronomy Olympiad 2016
• Maximum of three designs can be submitted by a person. Submitted designs must contain the original idea/creation of the designer. Logos must be created in full colour in JPG formats. The logo specification is width 600 pixels
• Each design must contain a description of no more than 200 words. Design without description will not be accepted for the competition
• The deadline for submission is 5:00 PM, Friday, September 25, 2015. Submission after the deadline will not be entertained.
• The submission must be done through email: info.naso[at]gmail.com
• The decision of the evaluation committee will be final. The copy-write of the selected logo will be of NASO only

 What are the benefits of participating in the competition?

• The best three logos will be awarded cash prize of NRs 5,000/-, NRs 1000/- and NRs 500/- respectively as well as certificates
• Winners will get global exposure which may be instrumental for their career development

Selected designers will be contacted via telephone, so please make sure you provide us your contact number/s while submitting your works to us.

Looking forward to welcome your creations! Lets share our ideas, lets share our creation to global astronomical community!

4th National Call for 'Astronomy Olympiad Teacher' Training 2015!

Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) is pleased to announce 4th National Call for 'Astronomy Olympiad Teacher' Training 2015 to select teachers who will help the organizing National Astronomy Olympiad Organizing Committee- Nepal (NAOC-Nepal) to organize 3rd National Astronomy Olympiad 2016- Nepal.

Among all the applicants, five best applicants will be selected based on their motivation, academic history and interviews (both telephone and in person). They will participate in the upcoming Astronomy Olympiad Exposure Camp 2015 which will be held at Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education (HBCSE),Mumbai,India during November 2-5, 2015.

What is the objective of this Training?
The primary objective of this training is to select the five best applicants who will assist NASO to organize NAO-Nepal which is operational in Nepal since 2014. It also aims at productive interaction of our selected candidates at regional level (SAARC) with Olympiad activity at its focus.

What will be there at the training at HBSCE,Mumbai, India?
It will consist of various exposure sessions on theory, data analysis problems as well as night sky observation sessions. Tentative topics include celestial mechanics, observational astronomy, positional astronomy and observable properties of stars.

Who can apply?

Astronomy educators from different sectors i.e. Astronomy outreach personnel from scientific institutions, University / college / high school teachers, staff of planetaria and science museums as well as active amateur astronomers.

What will be the cost of participation?
Selected candidates will be reimbursed to and fro travel fare as per the entitlement (Maximum II AC). Food and accommodation in the HBCSE Guest House will be provided. During the workshop, one may visit HBCSE laboratories, library, History of Science Exhibition, HBCSE “books for sale” section, etc.

How to apply?

Interested candidate need to send their one page (A4 size) motivation letter and latest CV with photo and contact number/s to info.naso[at]gmail.com by 5:00 PM, Monday, September 7, 2015. Incomplete application will not be processed for the selection round!

When will be the selection result available?

The result will be announced at our website on Wednesday, September 9, 2015 and provided with further instruction on the participation in India.

Looking forward to welcome your application!

To know more about NASO and its activities, click here.

Short Films all in: Chhoto TV

With the recent rise in young and enthusiastic Nepali movie makers, the rise in Nepali short movies is also evident. There are several Nepali short movies in +YouTube and other media platforms and this is where Chhoto TV comes in.

Chhoto TV is a website with a collection of short movies mostly Nepali. It's an online portal where users can experience short movies published by creative personels. +Swapnil Acharya, a visual designer and owner of design company +Expresiv Studios, along with his partner +Chandan Goopta   an engineer, is the man behind this project. Both of them worked together in a short movie last year, and now they've teamed up for Chhoto TV, their pet project besides the main work.

So why this and why now? Mr. Acharya answers:

Right now the problem with short film scene in Nepal is that there are so many great films made but they're not discovered or they aren't on YouTube at all. When you search for "Nepali short films" in Youtube, you end up with random videos or skits that don't necessarily qualify as short films. 

We wanted the discovery to be easier, thus decided to handpick the best ones ourselves and present it to our viewers. Actually, the project comes out as a result of my own frustration - and I hope this will help many more people who love short films like I do.

Something interesting is that Chhotu, the Himalayan Red Panda is the mascot used for Chhoto TV as it's also seen in the logo. The main idea to use the panda is to have something native that could represent Nepal. as Mr Acharya mentions:

I'd like to portray him as a film watching companion. After all, we mostly watch films with our friends, right?

With the target audience Nepalese and everyone who either understands or is interested in watching Nepali movies, it seems logical to have all the short Nepali movies in one place as it will be featuring mostly Nepali short films made by Nepali people. Apart from that, interesting videos about Nepal would also make its way in Chhoto TV.

Mr Acharya's final words for enthusiastic young film makers:

A lot of young people are very interested in making short films - I urge them to make more and more films so the creativity of the next gen Nepali comes out well. Owning digital equipment's to shoot/edit a film is easy nowadays, but I still see we're struggling with content - I look forward to see richer quality films in the future. And I want Chhoto.tv to be a system of encouragement and reward for them.

As for now, do enjoy some amazing Nepali short movies through their site Chhoto.tv and also connect to them through Facebook or Twitter.

Reach out to us +View Your Choice- तपाईको सोचाई हाम्रो रोजाई -  if you have a story to share 

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