Planetarium

Last week, Mahi & I visited the Birla Planetarium. I was going there after nearly 15 years. A lot continues to be the same while some portions have definitely changed. It is located on the panoramic hillock of Naubat Pahad in Hyderabad and is a visual treat to the advances made in science and technology.

Inaugurated in 1985, the Planetarium offers visitors, daily sky shows, in Telugu, Hindi and English. The topics cover various aspects of the Cosmos, the beautiful mysteries of the Universe, the comets, the Hubble Space Telescope, Eclipses, the puzzling Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO's) and the very recent clash of the Titans.

When the lights were dimmed and the night sky was projected, there was a collective”aaahhhhh” from the audience as the illusion of being transported into the galaxy was complete.

Adjoining the planetarium is the Birla Since and Arts museum, which comprises of excavated architectural artifacts of the bygone era, interactive science experiments and the arts of different cultures and civilizations. While the science section does need some maintenance, it’s a good learning exercise for one and all.

The latest addition to this area is the Dinosaurium - a new wing which houses among other exhibits, a 160 million year old mounted "Kotasaurus Yamanpalliensis", excavated in Adilabad district and presented to Science Museum by the Geological Survey of India. This one exhibit was huge and was about 8 meters long and 3 meters tall and the beauty of it all – a herbivore. Apart from this highlight, the Dinosaurium also has a collection of smaller fossils of dinosaur eggs, marine shells and fossilized tree trunks. Sadly, the one thing which was an eyesore was the defacing of the posters and paintings inside with people having scribbled messages and names on them.

The image on the left is a representation of how the dinosaur would have looked in it's heydey.

In case you haven’t had a chance to visit this area, do try and look it up. You won’t be disappointed.