Frequently Asked Questions

RAD@home Astronomy Collaboratory is the first Indian Citizen Science Research initiative in the field of astronomy and astrophysics. This zero-funded, zero-infrastructure collaboratory has been established as a platform wherein Any BE/BSc undergraduate/graduate sitting Can Do serious multiwavelength, extragalactic astronomy research ( #ABCDresearch ) sitting @home using GMRT telescope and by utilizing the power of Internet, particularly the widely used social networking site: Facebook.

No, anyone from any walk of life can be a part of RAD@home, be it a BSc/BE student, an engineer or a doctor or even a housewife. As long as one has completed a minimum education of up to a bachelor’s degree in the field of science or engineering, they can learn and be trained to become a citizen scientist (RAD@home e-astronomer).

Very simple. All you need is a personal computer, access to internet and a facebook account. You have to be a part of our Facebook group because that is where we hold all our discussions and exchange of information and thus, you will start your astronomy education there in the facebook group.

Once you join the group, follow the first/pinned post and, you will also be guided to make RGB images of galaxies and post your analyses. The senior members and your peers will interact with you regarding your analyses. Once you make enough analyses and the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Collaboratoy acknowledges your skill, you will be selected to attend a one week-long RAD@home Discovery Camp to become an trained citizen-scientist or e-astronomer.

RAD@home Camps hosted by various research institutes are free of cost. The only requirements are sufficient knowledge (which can be acquired by interacting in the facebook group) and passion for astronomy research.

A certificate will be awarded to the student at the end of the camp. The certificate has details about RAD@home and mentions the title of the research project. It is jointly certified by RAD@home and the host research institutes like IOP, HRI, UM-DAE CEBS, Nehru Planetarium (Delhi), Vigyan Prasar (DST, Govt of India) etc...

No equipments or books have to be purchased. All the research work is done using data sets provided by RAD@home and NASA‘s online page - Skyview

If you are curious and passionate about stars, galaxies, black holes, Universe, you will learn and contribute towards growth of astronomy, that should be enough! However, RAD is not just an astronomy-education programme its a nation-wide inter-university research collaboratory of 100+ trained citizen-scientists (e-astronomers), being part of that is something never existed in India before. For interesting/important black hole-galaxy systems that the e-astronomers discover they become Co-Investigator in International research proposal submitted to the world’s largest such GMRT telescope. They become co-author in national conference papers. They become co-author in international peer-reviewed research journal publications. They get good recommendation letters from Director & PI of RAD@home, Dr Ananda Hota, to get summer internships and MS/PhD fellowships in India and abroad. Google profile of the PI can be found here .