Astronomy is the one of the
subjects that navigators use to find positions of ships, so naval
cadets study astronomy in the RTNA Astronomy Building. The Astronomy
Building is also an important sight of the Royal Thai Naval Academy
and is one of the beautiful
places in the RTNA.
In
1953, the Navy contacted Spitz Laboratories to build the planetarium
and in 1954 it was sent to the Royal Thai Naval Academy and finished in 1958. It
was the first planetarium in Thailand. The Astronomy Building has 3
parts. The first part is the
navigation museum and shows equipment and knowledge about the stars and
planets. The second is the planetarium on the first floor and it is
used to study about the sky
and theory of the universe. Finally, on top of the building is an
observatory with a telescope. The telescope can take star photos of the
sky. Nowadays, the Astronomy Building
has a lot of up-to-date equipment; an example is the new telescope
named Meads and in 2006, the RTNA renovated the Astronomy Building for
the 100 year anniversary of the RTNA.
The
Astronomy Building provides important knowledge about astronomy and
navigation that naval cadets can use in the future, and many tourists
can see the history of Thai navigation and the RTNA from the museum in
the Astronomy Building.
Interview
Last week, we interviewed an officer in the Royal Thai Navy who is a
teacher of Navigation and Astronomy of the Royal Thai Naval Academy. He
has knowledge about Navigation because he taught this subject for along
times. He works in the Bridge Simulator Building.
Questions about the Astronomy Building and Navigation
1 Q: What is the purpose of the Astronomy building?
A: I want to train naval cadets to learn about planets and stars.
2 Q: What is the knowledge which naval cadets can get from the
Astronomy building?
A: I think the cadets will get more Astronomy and Navigation, because
they will train very hard every week in this subject.
3 Q: What time can Naval Cadets use the telescope on the top of the
Building?
A: Naval Cadets can use the telescope every time but sometimes there is
bad
visibility so the telescope can't be used.
4 Q: What's interesting of the Astronomy Building?
A: This building has Equipment of Navigation, Astronomy (stars and
planets) and the highlight of this building is the Planetarium.
5 Q: If Naval cadets want to learn about Astronomy and Navigation what
do they have to do?
A: Yes they can learn these subjects in the Astronomy building, because
in the
building have the Astronomy classrooms and have a lot of Equipment of
Navigators.
