ISLAMABAD: The federal capital is all set to get an observatory and a space museum to take the stargazers on a spectacular journey through the universe.
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry will lay the foundation stone of Islamabad Space Observatory at Shakarparian today. It will be established on the location of a fountain near Pakistan Monument.
The objectives of establishing the observatory are to address the issue of moon sighting on the occasions of Ramazan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Eid-ul-Azha and Muharram so that the entire nation can observe these religious events with complete harmony and unity.
This would also help in scientific research, formal and informal science education. It would pave the way to establish a fully synchronized space museum/planetarium/ observatory.
The space observatory would play an instrumental role in educating youth on astronomy and related phenomena of space science and impart knowledge based entertainment to students and general public.
The observatory will be established under a joint initiative of the Ministry of Science and Technology and Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF) for which the Institute of Space Technology (IST) will provide technical expertise.
The science ministry has also planned an observatory in each province after the successful completion of the Islamabad project.
Islamabad already has a telescope capable of observing the solar system set up on the rooftop of the Institute of Space Technology on Islamabad Expressway. However, one is unable to see the moon through it as it is designed for research purpose only. Met Office also has a meteorological observatory but it only function is to analyse the weather pattern.
