An All Bengal Science Camp on the International Year of Astronomy was held in the Berhampur town, Murshidabad district, on 20-21 February, 2010. A total of 430 participants from all the districts of West Bengal attended the camp.
The inaugural session, presided by Prof. Anis Ray, started at 4PM. On behalf of the Reception Committee, Dr. Sukumar Mal (Secretary) and Dr. Biswanath Gangopadhyay (Presedent) welcomed the participants. Then Prof. Dhruba Mukhopadhyay and Prof. Soumitro Banerjee discussed the various aspects of the life-struggle and scientific contributions of Galileo Galilei.
After the inaugural session, there was an anti-superstition show, followed by a talk on amateur astronomy by Mr. Biplab De (member of the Skywatcher's Association) and a skywatching session. Parallely, a film show on the life of Galileo was shown.
The second day of the camp started with group discussions, in which the participants were divided into 9 groups for more focused discussions on the life-struggle and scientific contributions of Galileo, and on astronomy. It was followed by a powerpoint presentation on the myth of destruction of the world in the year 2012, by Dr. Soumitro Banerjee. In the concluding session (presided by Dr. Subhasis Maiti) Sri Ashoke Mukherjee and Sri Debashis Ray discussed on the questions that remained unresolved in the group discussions.
