Astronomnomnom

Mumbai to Rann of Kutch - Seeking the elusive Milky Way

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 19:16:00 +0000

Beginnings

The sun goes under the Rann horizon

(Something dawned on me while I was writing this post. Dark sky hunters are not really hunting for dark skies. They are hunting for the faintest, most delicate of lights. As it turns out, to see the faintest light, one must travel to the darkest places.)

I had been planning a road trip to the Rann of Kutch to see the Milky Way with the naked eye for over 2 months. All my research had pointed to 2 locations in India where this would be seen. Kutch and Ladakh. I chose Kutch. My planning started in January, 2014. Keeping in mind the lunar calendar, I zeroed in on the last week of March. The timing seemed perfect. With less than 2% of the moon illuminated at time of viewing and with the monsoons still a good 2 months away, I had my fingers crossed and my petrol-money piggy bank emptied. Even the rising and setting of the Milky Way arms were accounted for.

The 2,000+ kilometre journey from Mumbai to RoK to Mumbai would need about 130 litres of fuel, and while taking a train would save me some money and physical strain, the raw appeal of the open road coupled with the freedom to design our own journey made the road trip a clear choice.

Thanks to well networked astronomers like Abhijit Juvekar, I was introduced to Rahul Zota – one of the most respected astrophotographers from Kutch. Rahul recommended that I also visit a Messier Marathon that was planned for the 29^th of March in Rajkot. Since driving to Rajkot would add only about 100 kilometers to our trip, I accepted his suggestion. It would let me meet a whole new community of astronomers (you’ll be surprised as to how many there are all over the country) and it would also mean that I finally get to witness my first Messier Marathon. For noobs, a Messier Marathon isn't a contest on who can soil themselves more while running an inordinately large distance wearing expensive shoes. You can read more about a Messier Marathon here.

Meet the Passengers

Me (You know... me)

The wife (Simrat Sandhu D’Mello)

Fair to no interest in astronomy. But …

…loves road trips, and…

… taking pictures of her custom designed jewelry in exotic locales.

The son (Kabir D’Mello)

Likes chocolate, cars and anything that isn’t organised education.

Quite adjusting and hassle-free, considering the rigours of a road trip.

Middling interest in astronomy. Likes VY Canis Majoris (the biggest discovered star).

The wild card (H. V. Kumar)

A giant in the field of driving. Founder of HighvayKing.

Extreme knowledge of routes. Often called ‘The Human GPS’.

Has a massive repertoire of anecdotes, stories and trivia about almost everything.

The Machine

Nothing to shout about. A 4.5 year old Petrol i20 Magna that has seen the worse side of 50,000 kilometres. It is under-powered, gives my about 14 kmpl (with A.C.) on the highway and has a suspension that causes more suspense than suspension. However, it is my first car and I love it dearly.

Day 1 - Morning

As always, the adrenaline of the upcoming trip didn't let me sleep a wink. We had packed enough snacks and water to minimise halts. I was packing my binoculars (20x80 Celestrons), a Galileo tripod, a Canon EOS Rebel T3i DSLR and a Celestron EP and filter accessory kit, clothes, clean underwear and a list of miscellaneous items that I have already forgotten about. I decided against carrying my telescope as fellow astronomers in RoK had been kind enough to let me use theirs.

We began our drive at 0400 hrs on the 28^th of March from Mulund as planned. We had planned to pick up Mr H.V. Kumar (also called HighVay King in driving circles) at 0430 hrs from near his house off Ghodbunder road. As per plan, we met him at HVK Chowk. Post a ritualistic application of the yellow-sticker on the right headlight (apparently a must-do for GJ driving) I requested HVK Sir to also anoint my car with an HVK sticker. Here he is, obliging, with a big smile.

HVK does the honours...

With HVK on the navigator seat, I drove without hesitation. I didn’t consult Google Maps once for the next 700 kilometres. His extremely detailed knowledge of the Indian roads, an eidetic memory and over 25 years of hard-core driving made him an extremely informative (and affable) companion. I peppered him with questions. “What is the best and worst highway you have driven on?” “Which was the longest road trip you ever went on?” “Which cars are best suited for Ladakh?” That kind of stuff. We also talked with great concern about the health and condition of one of India’s best long-distance endurance riders Dr. Arnob Gupta. He had been injured in a road accident and was currently hospitalised in Rajkot. HVK was on his way to visit and help the Flying Doctor in any way possible.

Day 1 - Mid-Day

Sim and Kabir dosed off in the back seat. The mid-day sun gently heated our car to an uncomfortable level, but we didn’t break a sweat thanks to a modern miracle called air conditioning. We ate dry fruits, strawberries, grapes and peeled papaya, packed by yours truly. We got bored of fruits by around 1430 hours and pulled into Saffron Food Court, near Limbdi . We quickly ordered some Gujrati delicacies. Sev tameta and a stuffed potato curry with rotlas. Here’s what that looked like.

Lunch at Saffron Court

I was surprised as to how spicy the food was. I had always come to expect Gujju food to be sweet and mildly spicy. But these red creations were fiery and quickly resulted in a runny nose. I dug in with gusto. Like most foodies, I love spicy food.

I don’t remember what transpired between lunch and 1730 hours, but I remember feeling extremely sleepy. Even HVK’s animated stories couldn't keep me from getting groggy. I knew it was time to let HVK take the wheel. In the 13 hours it took to get to Rajkot, HVK drove for about 2. I rested my eyes and wandered into uneasy sleep. When I awoke, we were entering Rajkot.

We dropped HVK off near Sterling Hospital and headed deeper into the city. Summer had painted the city a disturbing orange, heat bouncing off the road and walls. We knew that we would have to find a hotel soon so as to make time for some exploratory shopping and a good night's sleep. We saw some hotels (Capital, K-Rose) and decided to bump up our budget a bit to stay at a more respectable establishment. We spotted a very swanky looking Sarovar Portico overseeing Shastri Maidan and I went it with my game-face. Managed to get a room costing INR 3800 for INR 3000. All inclusive!

Day 1 - Evening

Spent the rest of our evening exploring Dharmendra Road, the main market in Rajkot.Sim had her eyes peeled for some exotic beads, but since most of the shops were closed, we promised to return the next afternoon. Since shopping wasn’t on the cards for the evening, we shifted our focus to food. Now I was constantly in touch with astronomers from Rajkot – especially Mayank Raichura and Neelesh Rana. With their advice, we decided to grab a bite at Rajkot’s most famous Gujjuthali place – Thakkar’s. The city is quite small, and our hotel was centrally located, so the market and Thakkar’s were all just a few minutes drive away. We found Thakkar’s easily enough. Looked like the place for a serious foodie with a serious appetite. However, the thali was an only-lunch affair, so we settled for an a la carte choice – Undhiyu, dal, khichdi and rotlas. The khichdi had a hair in it, and upon pointing it out, it was quickly replaced. We decided that the food was good enough to justify another visit. Tired from the drive, we hit the sack.

Day 2 - Morning

We woke up early the next morning to claim our free breakfast. It was alright, as most 3-star breakfasts go. We checked out of Sarovar Portico when the mid-day sun was at its harshest. This would be the most expensive room we would end up renting on this trip. If you ever find yourself staying here, ask for a park-facing view. It’s not exactly spectacular, but then I don’t think many people would visit Rajkot for its scenic beauty. Here’s what we could see.

The uninspiring view from Sarovar Portico's park-facing room.

Day 2 - Mid-day

We headed back to Darji Bazaar, this time in day-light. The masala shops spread a blanket of smells over the market. Holy men and cattle ambled along. Shop keepers dozed off at the seats. Polarised sunglasses and sun block couldn't save you here, and I had neither. To keep myself entertained as the missus went about her shopping, I decided to get images of the sleeping shop keepers. Got a couple, but then someone ratted me out, and the shopkeeper woke up. He was gracious enough to let me take more pics of himself and his sweets shop. Turns out that his shop had been there for almost 100 years, and he was a 3rd generation owner. Vallabhdas H Mithaiwala was the name.

Another nearby shopkeeper, on hearing about astronomy suggested that I visit the Nav Graha Mandir, dedicated to the nine planets. I made a mental note to check it out around lunch time. Avoiding an unctuous sadhu, we headed back to Thakkar's to sample their famous Gujju thali. It was Saturday afternoon, and half of Rajkot had descended upon the same location, waiting in what might be the noisiest waiting room I have ever been in. We got our token number (!!!100) and I stepped back into the unforgiving afternoon to explore and find the Nav Graha Mandir. Turns out it was just 2 minutes of walking away from where I was. I found the Mandir soon enough, but couldn't enter the premises. Rajkot priests had a well-defined siesta regime. While the planetary alignment wasn’t conducive to temple visits, they did augur a Gujju Thali in our near future. And what a spectacular thali it was. Easily one of the best I have had. And I've had a lot of them. Going into the exact menu would be pointless; as I'm sure they cycle the menu. But here is a visual to give you an idea.

Thali (only available for lunch) at Thakkar's, Rajkot

This incredible meal cost us a little over 180 rupees per plate. These are the moments when you really, really wish you had the digestive system of a cow.

Next on the agenda was the reason for our detour to Rajkot. Our initial plan had been to head straight to Rann of Kutch. However, when Rahul Zota (one of Bhuj's best astrophotographers) told me about a Messier Marathon happening in Rajkot, I decided to swing by.

Day 2 - Evening

The marathon was organised by a very active bunch of astronomers called The Big Bang Astronomy Club. The venue was Prabhucharan Ashram on Tankara- Dhrol highway. At the helm of affairs was Mr Neelesh Rana, whose meticulous eye for detail and flair for edutainment immediately convinced me that tonight would be a good night. A good, good night. Overall, 52 people participated. Several MSc graduates, some businessmen, some doctors and some school kids - all demographics seemed to be represented. What impressed me was the friendly, informative and 'light' manner in which this event was conducted.

My 20x80 Celestron binocs on the Galileo tripod

I set up the only optics I was carrying - my binocs - and my recently acquired tripod. The sky was a mag 5 at best, and, through the scopes scattered all over, I ended up seeing several DSOs for the first time. Met several seniors in the Rajkot astronomy scene too - Chirag. Devani, Nikunj Rawal, Mayank Raichura, Rahul Phansekar and Deep Rajpara to name a few. Each taught me more in one night that I could learn by myself in a week. Mayank opened my eyes to settling circles and inclinometers, and the possibility of converting my dino-manual XT8 to a slightly more evolved push-to. Nikunj and Chirag's animated style of sharing their vast knowledge resulted in me seeing a lot more Messier objects in one night than I had ever seen before. Since we were viewing through a 4 or 6 inch scope, most objects were visible only through averted vision. I took their word for what I was viewing.

But the 'star' of this Messier Marathon for me was Dr Kiran Kumar, who had bought along his 8 inch go-to Celestron. Saw the Sombrero Galaxy and the Crab Nebula for the first time here through his scope. I also saw several globular clusters, but I have come to realise that if the scope is not resolving these clusters well enough, I tend to lose interest in them. The clarity and stability of the scope was stunning. One of the last objects I viewed in this marathon was a magnificently magnified Saturn. The image of Saturn seemed to fill the eye piece. The dark sky and the superior Celestron optics made Saturn seem intensely detailed and majestic.

We left the site at around 4 in the morning, with plans to reach Bhuj. The 190 km journey would take us about 5 hours, and I wanted to get into the city early enough to get some rest.

Day 3 - Morning

I started to get an idea of the flatness of the land on this morning. In Mumbai, one can never really see the horizon from any place at sea-level. Nearing Kutch, it was difficult to see anything but. Massive mountains of salt being tended to by excavators, windmills till as far as the eye could see and glorious, flat roads - if there was a place to engage my non-existent cruise control, this would have been it.

Massive salt dunes on the way to Rann of Kutch

Can you see the yellow excavator in the pic, dwarfed by the salt-dunes? My estimate is that these dunes would be approximately 4 stories high. The landscape continued to get more surreal as we sped down highway 8A. Modi's developmental magic was obvious, even in this far reaching corner of the state. The roads were spectacular.

Day 3 - Mid day

However, driving conditions quickly went south as we approached Bachau. With no HVK to guide us, we lost our way a couple of times, but I managed to hit the outskirts of Bhuj by around 9:50 am. Had a flat tyre. But, as the Salt Gods would have it, the flat was detected about 100 metres from a petrol pump, and all was well - in under 60 rupees. Since we would need our hotel purely to dump luggage in (most of our time there would be in the Rann), we decided to go for a less opulent Hotel Nityanand. Lunch was delivered to our room. Then, zzzz. In retrospect, I had some of the deepest sleep in Hotel Nityanand's windowless room. We found out soon enough that the premises were also being employed by Bhuj's local escorts. Seedy was never a problem for the D'Mellos. We stuck around.

At around 1630 hours, Rahul Zota drove up to our temporary quarters. He was accompanied by friends and a very BIG 10 inch reflector scope. Things were 'looking' good. We were quickly introduced to Gaurav Sanghvi, Darshan Sanghvi, Sumit Rajpura and Nishant Gor. Nishant is the son of Narendra Gor, a hugely respected astronomer and scievangelist from Gujrat. The drive to Rann of Kutch was surprisingly smooth. I suppose the recently concluded Rann Utsav had something to do with this. While it was narrow stretch of road, it was smooth and straight.

First sightings of the bhungas (traditional, conical shaped Kutchi huts) had me fascinated. Nishant later informed us that these huts had a strange property - they were always cool in the extreme heat and vice versa. Like a climate-controlled habitat. About half way into our journey, Rahul and co. pulled over at a small bunch of roadside shops. They pointed out that the mava (a rich caramel-milk paste) from one particular shop (Bhirndiyara) HAD to be had. I promptly got 2 bags of the golden stuff packed. Apparently, it didn't need refrigeration and wouldn't spoil for days - so YAY! A few more minutes, and we hit a fork in the road. This bit is important (if you ever decide to venture to these frontiers).

We saw a police station that was shaped like a bhunga. (YAY again). Here's what the place looked like.

The bhunga-police station mid-way in between Rann of Kutch and Bhuj

Observe that I have been awesome and marked the pic with A,B and C. Here's the legend -

A - This is where we drove in from.

B - This is the road to Rann of Kutch (40 kilometres from here).

C - This road goes to Kala Dungar (30 kilometres from here).

Every visitor that travels to RoK needs to stop here and get a police permission. The guys at this station wrap up early (around 5), so try to get here early. Without this permission slip, you will not be allowed into the RoK by the BSF, whose checkpost is situated on the rim of the Rann. Although we had reached late, we had a strong local connection - the sarpanch of Dhordo (the last village leading to the Rann). We got into our cars, took the road left and hurried onwards to the great wide open.

We pulled into the BSF checkpost at 1830 hours. The solitary machine-gun toting guard had a word with the local (the Sarpanch's main man, apparently) who had accompanied us and the final gate to the Rann opened before us. We would be allowed to stay in the salt desert till 9 pm (a special extension).

Most people would go to the Rann on a full moon night to be enthralled by the silvery glow that moonlight plays out on the salt. But not the dark sky hunters. We are the opposite of the bright light-seekers. We seek the faintest light ... and to see the faintest light, once must visit the darkest lands. Preliminary research had led me to plan the trip such that we would be at RoK when the moon was less than 2% illuminated and mostly below the horizon at night. With help from Arun Kandal and Abhijit Juvekar (astro-buddies from Mumbai), I'd learnt that the Milky Way rises and sets too. I didn't know this. So, if I was to see the Milky Way, it would have to rise. Using SkySafari on my iPad I knew that the rising of the brightest part of the Milky Way (the core) would be at around 0330 hours. However, since the BSF wanted us out by 2100, I felt a bit of disappointment.

The last 200 metres of road into the Rann

The last 5 minutes of drive was the most incredible. I could see the desert all around us. A thin sliver of road ran into the belly of the white-salt desert. Ahead, I could see the road end in nothingness. A faint feeling of deja-vu (had I dreamt of this lands-end before?) lingered for a second, but then the vastness of what the eye saw switched me back to the present. The Rann is 8,000 square kilometres of white, salt desert. Hundreds of years ago, a river traversed these lands, but an earthquake changed all that. It raised a 6 metre tall natural dam that stopped all water from reaching the once fertile Kutch. The Allah Bund dam created the waterless Rann of Kutch. (Once again, this incredible bit of trivia was shared by Nishant Gor.)

For those itching to drive into the Rann itself, it seems to be discouraged. Note - if your car does get stuck in the salt, the nearest tow truck is 80 kilometres away and will cost you about 7000 bucks. Best to just walk into the Rann. The only car we managed to get into the Rann was this one right here...

The only car in the Rann that evening

The evening was beginning to get cloudy. There's nothing quite like a cloudy night to ruin visibility. I figured that since the Milky Way itself looked like a cloud, any extraneous clouds would completely annihilate my chances of spotting what I had come for. Here's a look at the clouds. All these pics have been shot by my (drum roll) talented wife.

Screw you clouds!!!!

Day 3 - Nightfall

As the sky got darker, I gave up on my astrophotography efforts and just lurked around Rahul and Nishant. They seemed to be getting pics. I was just getting out-of-focus stars. But they were so many of them. The sky could have been a 5.5 magnitude easy, but the clouds made visibility poor. At around 2100 hrs, the visibility plummeted further, and staying back and risking BSF ire was getting more and more pointless. With damp salt in everything we were wearing, we packed up. I felt, and rightly so, a little miserable.

The kind gentlemen with me might have sensed my disappointment and promised to stop at 1 in the morning at a place called Vekariya to try again. Vekariya is a mini-desert of sorts that crops up half-way between Bhuj and RoK. We did stop there at night, but the clouds continued to roll over our heads, oblivious. At 3, when we pulled into our seedy hotel room, we were too tired to even talk. But it wasn't all bad. We had seem the Great Rann of Kutch, in all it's beauty.

If only we knew what Day 4 had in store for us.

Day 4 - Morning

My first attempt at a panorama

(To be continued.)

Happy Holi

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 17 Mar 2014 04:32:00 +0000

Image credit: http://astrojan.ini.hu/, retrieved from Margaret Hanson, U. of Cincinnati.
It's the festival of colours. Have a safe Holi everyone :)

Apply oil all over your hair and body before playing.
Wash off colours as soon as you are done playing.
Do not sit in direct sun light with colours on your skin.
Choose your colours carefully.

And especially for the eyes -

Do NOT wear lenses in the eyes.
Apply coconut oil around the eyes to help washing.
Tie your hair back to prevent dripping.
Protect your eyes from a direct balloon hit.
If colours enter the eye, try rinsing them off.
If pain/burning persists, consult an eye doctor immediately.

This message was brought to you by The Concerned Parents Union and Astronomnomnom.

Of dark skies, IDA, Galileo and John E. Bortle

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 15 Mar 2014 19:23:00 +0000

(picture (Milky Way rising over Kaza, Spiti) courtesy Mr Arun Kandpal.)

These last few months of my astronomical pursuits can be summed up in 2 words - dark skies. Through a series of seemingly random events, I seem to be on a path to seek the darkest skies and work against the evils of light pollution. Let me break it down serially. This post is mostly a controlled-stream-of-consciousness activity for myself. However, if you wish to educate yourself a a bit about dark skies and photopollution, read on.

It all started about 2 years ago, when I got myself a telescope. I was thrilled to see Saturn and Jupiter, Orion's Nebula and Venus. But what I always wanted to see were the galaxies. I got a part of my wish granted when I spotted the faint cloudy Andromeda galaxy from a 10 inch reflector at Vangani, at a Khagol Mandal trip. But, that has been the extent of my galaxy-quest. Slowly, I realised that it wasn't my scope that was the problem. I have an 8 Orion XT8, which has a limiting magnitude of 14.2. (For those who do not know what 'magnitude' or 'limiting magnitude' is, please check this link.). All Messier galaxies were under 11-mag. The problem was not with the optics. It was with the place I was viewing from. Mumbai is almost completely unaware of light pollution, like most metropolitan cities. With skies rarely getting clearer than Magnitude 2, the city was drowning out any faint DSOs before the light could be hit the eye. Even travelling 100-200 kilometres away from the city cleared up the sky by about 1.5 mags, letting the naked eye pick up the Andromeda, at 3.4m.

The limiting magnitude scale has been mentioned above, several times. There is another scale to measure the dark sky. The second system of measuring the sky's darkness is called the Bortle Scale. It was devised by John E. Bortle in 2001 as a method to standardise night-sky clarity. And since it requires no hardware (a device called the Sky Quality Meter, made by Unihedron and sold at about USD 120), amateur astronomers can be trusted with documenting their skies as per this scale. For more on J.E. Bortle's work and to learn incredibly cool German words like gegenschein, click here.

A series of seemingly random events (I say seemingly because these random events fit rather snugly with the whole dark sky fetish) involving a flame-war against Google and a sail-boat ride resulted in my meeting Mr Aashay Samant, a member of the Indian chapter of the IDA. We soon started talking about IDA's agenda and how we could help kick-start it in Mumbai. The head of the Indian chapter Mr Arun George had done his share of campaigning against LP (light pollution) in Kerala. We wanted to do our bit in Maharashtra. Things have moved quickly since that day, and as of right now, there have been 3 major developments.

One - We have approached respected astronomers all over India and built a team of advisory members, who will guide our scope of work in India. This exclusive and updated list is available here. If you would like to join this advisory committee, please mail me astronomnomnom@gmail.com.
Two - I have asked IDA for a lowering of membership fees (currently USD 35 per year) so that more Indian students/teenagers can join in, to which (and this is incredible) IDA has responded positively.
Three - IDA has mentioned an SOS (Save Our Skies) program which we will be spearheading for the Mumbai-Pune region. Will know more about this when the program kick-starts in September in the US. Looking forward to hearing more from Susan Ciarniello (Membership Director) and John Barentine (Program Manager).

All these developments have occurred from the 1st to the 15th of March 2014.

Last week I also had the privilege to meet Mr Nilesh Vayade, owner of Galileo Telescopes. Not only was Nilesh kind enough to spend an hour talking to me about life as a pioneer in the astronomy-business in India, he also gave me a great deal on a camera/binocular stand that I will be using in my next dark-sky viewing session.

Which brings me to now. I am currently battling against several work-related issues to set forth on a road-trip to the Rann of Kutch. The single purpose - to view the Milky Way cloud with the naked eye. Now most people would go to the Rann when the moon is full. But a full moon would kill any remnants of a dark sky, blotting out the MW. So, my trip is planned for the last 3 days of March, with the moon never more than 4% illuminated. Accompanying me will be my astronomically-ambivalent wife, my 6 year old son and 2 others whose names are yet to be decided. Arun Kandpal, Ajay Bhatia - really wish you guys could've made it. Rahul Zota and Narendra Gor, both respected amateur astronomers from Kutch, will be there to guide us and even lend us a 6 inch scope. We will be carrying a pair of giant binocs (20x80 Celestron Skywatchers), a tripod, a Canon T3i Rebel with kit lens and a Celestron EP kit. Since most of our viewing is planned from Rann of Dhordo, a place abut 40 kilometres from the Indo-Pak border, and since we will be taking pictures at night, we will need permissions from the Border Security Force and the Police. Mr Mayur Mehta from HighVay King Club will be helping us with all BSF/Police related permission issues. Our road trip to and from RoK will take us 2000 kilometres across the west of India, with temperatures touching 38-40 degrees. I just hope and pray that the weather stays clear and we get to see the fabled Milky Way. I have never seen it. And I'm 34. I hope my son doesn't have to wait till he's 34 to see it himself.

Signing out with a beautiful video showing the night skies over Yosemite National Park. Drooooooooollll.

A different type of dark sky

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 14:03:00 +0000

A fire in CEAT, Mulund. A different kind of dark sky.

Khagol Mandal's new dark-sky site - Saguna Baug

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 02:26:00 +0000

KM's old observation site at Vangani was light-polluted (this was not news to anyone), and we all were waiting for them to choose a new site. I am super-pleased to inform anyone into astronomy in Mumbai that Saguna Baug is one of the nicest places I've visited for sighting within 2 hours of Mumbai.

Getting there

There are 3 major routes you can take.

1 - Train.

2 - The blue route is for people travelling from anywhere south of Chembur.
3 - The grey for those north of Chembur.

Note that the last 20 km of road from the grey route are under construction and pretty messed up (as of Jan, 2104). We chose to take the blue route though we stayed in Mulund to avoid this bad patch. While the blue route had a 10 km bad patch, it more than made up for this with good roads up until Karjat. The 80 km drive took us 3 hours while going (1630 to 1930 hrs) and 2 hours on the way back (0500 to 0700 hrs). Expect to pay the toll-leeches 60-100 INR one-way, depending on which route you take.

The Venue

Saguna Baug is a farm house built on the banks of the Ulhas river. While we reached too late to really see the whole resort, I can tell you about the small clearing where the astronomy session was conducted. We paid our fee of INR 250 per head, along with an extra INR 150 for a veg dinner and were ushered in by staff towards parking. The paths were lined with the dull ruby red and emerald green of tube-LED-pipes that marked out the borders of the viewing and bathroom areas respectively. In true Khagol style, the presenter was placed in the middle, with clean mats (provided by Saguna, I guess) forming a circle. No mike-speaker system was required as the crowd was small, and the place was quiet and peaceful. The sky was a Mag 4.5, but an army of Altocumulus clouds moving in from the west had me worried.

The Hardware

The night progressed with what started as clear skies, then a patch of cloud-cover, and then clear skies again. I was there in Saguna for 2 reasons. One was to see KM's new haunt, and the other was to break in my new 20x80 Celestron Skymasters. Here they are, with my Celestron EP and filter set (below).

Here is a pic to give you an idea of their GIANT size (below).

They performed beautifully, picking up Orion's Nebula and the major clusters (Beehive, Pleiades) with startling clarity, brightness and FOV. The 2+ kg bins tended to get unwieldy, but not unreasonably so. I even had a chance to get KM's Mr Milind Kale give them a once-over, to check for collimation. He said they were mostly all good but needed a bit of adjustment to avoid minor double-imaging. He was kind enough to share an astronomy optics expert's number. I will review this person's services and post contact details once I have approached him.

One of the biggest surprises at Saguna were the scopes that KM carried to the field. I counted about 4 medium sized reflectors/refractors, none above 4 inches of aperture. There was also a similar-sized Maksutov-Cassegrain that was showing some clear views of Jupiter's bands. While I did miss the 10 inch dob and the larger scopes from Vangani, I really can not complain, as I had seen most of the objects on display multiple times using my own XT8.

It was nice to not wait for ages in line. It was nicer to see the scopes deploying Televue eyepeices! The Maksutov wielded a 10 mm Televue EP that itself was worth more than my scope. These 'grenades' are such a treat to look through. No image distortion, even on peripherals, and a surprisingly large field of view. Now I know why they retail for USD 600+.

Overall experience

The total turn-out was deliberately controlled to be under 80 people, and this in itself was such a change. The crowds in Vangani frequently grow above 400, so one has come to expect the noise and bustle, the queues and bright torches. But in Saguna, the crowd was really well behaved. The venue, being a gated-resort, felt safe. Phone networks were all working fine.

I wish I had some pics of the place to show you. Will check around with the group I went with if they got any. Here is a 150-frame video, with each frame captured over 50 seconds. Shivani Sharma used a Canon T3i Rebel camera with an intervalometer to capture this.

The all-veg dinner was great. Light, grease-free and fresh. The staff seemed a little confused once in a while, but they had good intentions. That's what matters.

The place is kid-friendly, with no precipitous edges or marshes to swallow up your little ones. The men's loos were a little difficult to use, with the seat covers coming down before one could go about their bees-knees. All the best with that.

Remember to

1> ... take everything they ask you to carry.
2> ... carry a GPS-phone (in case you're driving).
3> ... withdraw cash (at least INR 400 per person if you want dinner, else INR 250).
4> ... like Saguna's FB page. They will remind you to do this, with plastic placards swinging from trees. I just did. Why naat?

The Intrepid Star Seekers

L-R - Faiz, Me, Sim, Genevieve, Shivani, Pranav and Munaf

Dark Sky Sites - Expectations and Realities

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 21:55:00 +0000

Most people, me included, get drawn to Astronomy after seeing full-colour images of galaxies, nebulae and planets. Who doesn't love to just gaze at Saturn's ringlets as resolved by the Cassini probe. And watching the blues and reds of the Orion's Nebula can give even the fledgling amateur astronomer the proverbial astroboner. It's space-porn, and each and every object in the sky packs enough colour and clarity to 'star' in their own 3-parter.

The next step, if the amateur astronomer does ever get to it, is the scope stage. This is the time when books and the internet have whetted his or her appetite to the point where he or she just MUST look for themselves. While scopes in India aren't impossible to come by, they aren't as ubiquitous as in the US or in Europe. Yet, thanks to some astro-clubs (Khagol Mandal, BAS etc.), our budding astronomer finally fixes his tryst with telescope-destiny. And 9 times out of 10, they come back disappointed.

And rightly so. All our expectations have primed us to expect sights like those we saw in the magazines. I mean, who will resort to logic and remind themselves that it is impossible to match Hubble-quality images from the dusty, light polluted skies that we deem to call dark-skies. So, when we are show Andromeda for the first time, instead of being bowled over by looking at the furthest, largest object that you have ever seen, we nitpick. "I can't see the spiral". "Where's the rest of it?" "I think this scope might be broken." If Andromeda was the Greek goddess she was named after, she'd shed a tear and try to distance itself from our critical and unappreciative eye.

So here is the truth. When you head out to that dark sky sight, do not expect anything but a clear sky. DO not expect colour and majesty. Do not expect to weep at the beauty of the heavens. Instead, expect to see Jupiter as a light brownish-red disc with 4 sparkling moons, Saturn as a dirty white coin with a sharply defined, single disc (all no larger than an M&M, and that too if you're viewing at 100x+) and Andromeda as a puff of smoke. Orion's nebula will be a white cloudy wisp with 4 points of light (baby-stars) in it's heart. Even from a reasonably clear sky, with an 8 inch scope, this is what you can expect to see.

The real magic starts when you know a little bit about what you are viewing. Like trying to catch Jupiter's red-spot in view and knowing that it's just a massive storm that has lasted centuries. How about looking at the smoky cloud that is Andromeda and reminding ourselves that the light from this 'cloud' left it's source over 2 million year ago - a time when man didn't even exist on Earth. And viewing Saturn and feeling a strange bond with Galileo - after all, you and him and a few million others will constitute less than 0.0001% of all humans who have ever lived and known that Saturn has something going on. Or even just checking out our nearest neighbour, the Moon, and trying to use maps to locate the site of the Apollo 11 landing. (If you have a scope that inverts images at eye piece, this will be tougher than you imagine.)

And then comes the realization. I can see MUCH more if I go to a REALLY dark site. And this is where I find myself. I have been to some relatively good dark sites - almost all of them on moonless nights. Here are some of them of them with ratings.

Rating Legend -
1 - Can view Jupiter, Orion's belt easily. However, very few other stars are visible to the naked eye.
2 - Can view Jupiter, Orion's belt and even see the Orion's nebula with averted vision
3 - Can view Orion's nebula without direct vision
4 - Can view Andromeda with averted vision
5 - Can view Andromeda with direct vision

Vangani - The haunt of Khagol Mandal. Used to be great, but of late, rampant urbanisation has increased pollution (both light and aerosol). My last trip there in November 2013 made me realise that the sky there was only slightly better than Mumbai. I hope the guys at KM find a new hunting ground.

Rating - 2

Kelve Beach - Many people recommended this place. However, it proved to be nothing but disappointing. The sky was clear, but for reasons I can not be sure of, the viewing just was not worth the 2 hour drive.

Rating - 2

Bhivpuri - In all honesty, this trip was done on a full-moon night (don't ask). SO, obviously, I can not verify as to the quality of this place as a dark-sky site.

Rating - NA

Kaas - This place has been my favourite dark site thus far. When we drove into Kaas, the valley and lake were covered in a mist that I think has something to do with the forest fires that the farmers employ extensively. However, at around 7 PM, when Jupiter popped out of an inky blue sky, followed quickly by it;s entourage of celestial comrades, I knew all would be well. And I was NOT disappointed. THe Kaas night was scintillating. Over a thousand stars twinkled all around us. Yes - there was some light pollution glare over Satara, but the lights were dim enough to not overpower anything over 45 degrees of sky, right upto the zenith. We observed (through scopes) Andromeda, Orion's Nebula, Saturn, Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and even saw several artificial satellites streak across. While Kaas is a good 6 hours from Mumbai, the drive is totally worth it.

Rating - 4

Now, the next site will, by law of greed, have to be better and clearer than Kaas. A place where I can see the Sombrero galaxy. Or even the Leo Triplets. But who are we kidding. Even a glimpse of the elusive Milky Way dust lanes will be a massive SCORE! While Harihareshwar has been recommended, several well-travelled astronomers / photographers have let me know the following truth - for truly spectacular stellar views, one will have to travel equally spectacular distances. Kutch, Ladakh, Uttarakhand - all have been recommended. There is always going to be the dream astro-tourist spot of Chile or Hawaii. But where I will scope from next is anybody's guess. Wherever it is, I hope the Gods of Astronomy grant me clear skies and a clear mind to appreciate what I behold. Basically, not be a dick and be more thankful.

(most first-hand accounts might not prove useful to anyone not viewing in-and-around Mumbai. Sworrrry)

404th Anniversary - Jupiter Moon Observation

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Tue, 07 Jan 2014 16:03:00 +0000

It's been exactly 404 years today since that cold night in Italy, on the 7th of January, 1610 when Galileo had fine tuned his telescope to greatly increase clarity, and turned it towards Jupiter. He saw Jupiter, and 3 bright points of lights strung in a line near it. He thought them to be stars. He made an entry in his journals about the sighting, but it wasn't till the 15th of January that he realised what he was seeing. For the first time in human history, he had observational proof that not everything in the Universe revolved around the Earth. The significance is stupendous and literally Earth-shattering.

My connection with the planet has been special. It's the easiest planet to view from our location here in Mumbai. Always high in the sky, early in, late out. It doesn't play games like Venus or Saturn. It's bright, clear and a joy to view through even a low-powered telescope. Jupiter was the first planet I viewed, almost by mistake. I was still very new to astronomy and I turned my telescope to watch what I thought was a bright star. When I tweaked the telescope to focus out the blurs, I realised with a gasp that I was viewing, for the first time in my life, a new disc in the sky after the sun and the moon. I spent hours peering and learning about the planet. I felt weirdly connected to all other astronomers before and with me, who had seen the planet not as a bright spot but as a reddish brown striped disc.

Finally, on the 28th of January, 2014, thank to the invaluable help of Abhijit Juvekar and in the company of Shyam Nair, I photographed Jupiter for the first time. Results attached. Created using the Prime Focus method, an 8 inch Orion a Dobsonian telescope, a Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera and softwares (Photoshop, Registax, PIPP).

Year end resurgence

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 09:34:00 +0000

After the disappointment of ISON, the rains, clouds and smog, and a general dip in interest, this last week has seen a renewed interest in astrophotography and astronomy for me personally. I've had the Orion 8 inch dob for over a year now, and also had recently acquired a Canon EOS Rebel T3i. However, other than one session photographing Jupiter last year, I'd had little or no success. This mostly had to do with a simple issue. I didn't remember how i'd configured the adaptor to fit the tele.

Abhijit Juvekar was kind enough to spend so e time helping me learn the set up and post production steps involved. Abhijit is a respected astrophotographer in Mumbai, and I had been avidly following his work for a long time. Obviously, I was thrilled. Finally, I could put my set up to use for photography. All the obfuscation surrounding stacking and tracking would finally be cleared.

On the 28th of Dec, 2013, Abhijit and I headed to the Cypress terrace. Shyam Nair, an avid photographer joined us - his first foray into astronomy. We observed Jupiter and photographed it at around 2130hrs. The image, post PIPP and Registax processing is attached.

On the 29th, Shyam and I head out by ourselves, this time with a little more ambitious plan - to photograph a phasing Venus. With mountains blocking our western horizon, we would have a narrow window. Too early, the sun would be too bright. Too late, the Evening Star would dip out behind the mountains.

Just when we were giving up hope, at around 1830hrs, I visually located Venus. We quickly viewed it through the tele. This was the first time I'd seen a phased planet. The tiny image could have been is mistaken for the moon, but it was too small and red in colour. After the initial burst of excitement, we settled down to fix the camera into prime focus with the faithful Dob. Our work is attached in this posting.

The third pic is of me, about an hour before viewing Venus, just waiting it out, gauging the anticipated direction of apparition.

Bloody Mary times three

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:40:00 +0000

A thought occurs. Like Dr Arroway, struggling to understand the paucity of life beyond Earth, drawing conclusions that life might exist, but remain behind comprehension. I closed my eyes for a few seconds this evening, and called out to aliens the way kids call out to ghosts. I asked the aliens, if they were present, to give me a sign. They could be living inside the electron or they could be my whole room. It didn't matter. What mattered was that I had opened up one channel in a two way communication system. I tried to make my communication clearer by assigning a call sign ... " if you exist, make a sound" or "if you hear me, make my finger feel heat". But both call signs seemed inappropriate. A sub-atomic being could scarcely vibrate air waves to produce sound. They couldn't even vibrate millions of atoms to generate heat. So how could they possibly communicate?

They could talk in thought. There is a beautiful concept I read about many years ago. It's called Bicameralism. This was theorised to be an ancient state of mind, with 2 halves... One making decisions and the other following them. Over the centuries, due to rapid urbanisation, this 'voice' was forever lost. A vast number of intelligent beings with the mind to do, but no voices telling them what to do.

When I think about it now, why couldn't this 'God' half of the bicameral mind have been extraterrestrial? That could explain the rapid evolution of mankind, from animalistic to civilised, in a span of a few hundred thousand years. Constant whisperings into millions of minds, guiding and helping, all purely through thoughts.

So why can't we hear them now? Have they stopped talking? Have we lost the ability to listen? Can we hear them only until the outbreak of puberty? Did we as children hear aliens, without remembering or realising it? Are some adults able to hear the Gods even now?

Close your eyes. Try to talk to aliens. We've tried all possible frequencies to communicate. Lets try the one that comes naturally to us. The frequency of the mind.

Dandelion - 2

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 14:34:00 +0000

Apparently, one can never have researched enough. This post is to be read after the first 'Dandelion' post.

"Exponentials are also the central idea behind the world population crisis. For most of the time humans have beef on Earth the population was stable, with births and deaths almost perfectly in balance. This is called a "steady state." After the invention of agriculture—including the planting and harvesting of those grains of wheat the Grand Vizier was hankering for—the human population of this planet began increasing, entering an exponential phase, which is very far from a steady state. Right now the doubling time of the world population is about 40 years. Every 40 years there will be twice as many of us. As the English clergyman Thomas Malthus pointed out in 1798, a population increasing exponentially—Malthus described it as a geometrical progression—will outstrip any conceivable increase in food supply. No Green Revolution, no hydroponics, no making the deserts bloom can beat an exponential population growth.

There is also no extraterrestrial solution to this problem. Right now there are something like 240,000 more humans being born than dying every day. We are very far from being able to ship 240,000 people into space every day. No settlements in Earth orbit or on the Moon or on other planets can put a perceptible dent in the population explosion. Even if it were possible to ship everybody on Earth off to planets of distant stars on ships that travel faster than light, almost nothing would be changed—all the habitable planets in the Milky Way galaxy would be full up in a millennium or so. Unless we slow our rate of reproduction. Never underestimate an exponential."

- Carl Sagan, Billions and Billions

Reading Sagan is the best thing to do.

Dandelion - Initial thoughts on Embryonic Space Colonization.

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 19:31:00 +0000

Stephen Hawking knows how to get press. His latest quote about humans moving out within 100 years or facing extinction might reek of sensationalism, but could he be far from the truth? Look at the times we live in. We have a rogue country in the East sitting on a nuclear stockpile, which seems to show all the signs of a cult. Only difference - the cult in this case is sponsored by the State. Hell - it IS the State. Sure they might only have 10 warheads and no allies. But how much time till another nutter learns to make nukes more efficiently? 100 years seems a fair estimate.

Human beings have had their eggs in one cosmic basket for too long. A little over 100 years ago, the race had discovered sustained flight. Through a rapid series of scientific breakthroughs, we burst free from Earth's gravitational shackles when we achieved the magic speed of 11.2 km per second - all thanks to rocket propulsion. We hurtled around in space, landed on the moon and even sent unmanned probes that only recently seem to have exited the Solar System. However, the last few decades have been a bit of a bummer. We have not landed humans on Mars. We have not perfected the supposedly quicker, cheaper and cleaner nuclear propulsion drive. We have not even moon-walked since December, 1972. While our intellectual knowledge of the Universe grows by terabytes every day (all thanks to hundreds of terrestrial and orbiting telescopes), we are still as far away from physically leaving the gravitational pull of our Sun as we were 4 decades ago. We might have even taken a step backwards. Our race seems content in fighting wars, watching the stock market and hosting the occasional barbecue party. While we back-up our computers with devotion, and save multiple copies of our family photographs and videos, there exists no backup to our genetic codes outside of our own home planet.

The reason? Several. Governments prefer to spend the taxpayer's money on something that the tax payer will approve. And a tax payer will prefer a neighborhood park to funding a trillion-dollar ark that will carry human life beyond this planet. There is the issue of awareness - do people believe or consider that mankind faces extinction or are their mind too wrapped around earning that daily bread? The worst possible reason I can think of would be that deep in our hearts, we believe that we are not worth saving. Is this repressed idea a passing, fleeting moment of clarity or is it deeper truth? After all the wars and the megadeaths, all the starvation and genocide, would the universe not be a little better without us in it? The very idea depresses most people, but it has to be considered. Are we worth saving? Are we worth replicating? Are we worth a second chance?

Hypothetical situation - The Earth is 10 years away from total destruction. You are in charge of Planetary Evacuation. What would you do? How would you ensure that our species survives?

There's always the inner rocky planets - Venus and Mars. Scientists have been contemplating ways of terraforming them for a long time now. The technology to do this exists, but the time-frames involved are massive. Most simulations require several centuries to convert their hostile environment into something more palatable to us. Here then is good old cryogenics to the rescue. While most of the colony is cryogenically frozen, the pioneers work hard to terraform. This is possible, if we can somehow manage the economics and logistics of sending even a few thousand people to Mars (Venus's colonization plans involve floating cities in a toxic atmosphere - a little more extreme, and a lot more expensive I would presume).

While this plan seems to be the quickest way to back-up our gene pool, it has it's down-side. We still would have all our eggs in one basket. And now, we'd be living in artificial colonies, surrounded by unbreathable atmosphere and dangerous levels of radiation. The phrase "from the frying pan into the fire" might seem apt. And we would still be gambling on the fact that we can effectively terraform. After all, you just need to watch your local weather news to know this - we can not predict macro systems like weather with any certainty. And now (the best part) we come to realize that interstellar is the way to go. The idea of spreading our race to other stars is, in my opinion, the ultimate quest. Once this has been achieved, there isn't much to do except maybe score a higher grade on the next Kardashev exam. Or have a barbecue party.

So then? A habitable exo-planet? Microlensing is helping us find more and more planets. In fact, NASA's Kepler has been averaging about 1 new confirmed planet a week since it's launch in 2009. We now know of more than 800 exo-planets. Some like Gliese 581 c are 20 light years away, but a bit out of the Goldilocks zone. Some like the newly found Kepler 62e and Kepler 62f seem more habitable but they are orbiting a star more than 1200 light year away. But with rocket-powered flight maxing at around 70,000 kmph (44,000 mph), the journey to Gliese 581 c would take around 308,571 years. The ETA for the Kepler 62s would be 18.5 million years. Using current rocket propelled spaceships, the journey to the nearest habitable planets would take thousands of lifetimes. And we would still be stuck with the old problem. We would still have occupied only one planet. After traveling for hundreds of thousands of years, we would still be just one meteor strike away from extinction.

The problem starts to solve itself when one realizes the question. The question is not how to colonize one planet. It is this - how do we colonize a thousand planets. Embryo Space Colonization, it seems,is the most feasible way ahead. Here is roughly how ESC works -

1 - Pack up a sperm and an egg in an artificial womb and time them to fertilize when...
2 - ... the pod they are in lands on a habitable planet. Hundreds of thousands of such pods are sent out...
3 - ... with explicit programming to initiate various parental programs upon arrival at a habitable location.

The advantages here are obvious. Since a sperm and an egg are far smaller than entire human beings, we'd need far smaller crafts with far, far lesser fuel to launch the embryo-Pods into space. As Michio Kaku so brilliantly points out in one of his thousand or so television appearances, the gravitational force of Jupiter could be used as a slingshot, and once they left the gravitational pull of the Sun (1 light year away from here, the outer limits of the Oort cloud), they would need almost no energy to continue the rest of their journey. Lighter payload means lesser fuel. Lesser fuel means lower costs. Lower costs means that we'd be able to send a hundred thousand of these Pods. The Pods would have to be loaded with a lab to 'birth' the children, a hard drive with information (educational and mission related) and robots to help the children survive for the first decade or so. Since communication, even at light speed, would have lags of tens of years, it would be used only 'FYI'.

On a more whimsical note, imagine a hundred thousand pods leaving the planet, all at the same time.

Reminds me of the male ejaculation (conceptually) - the explosion of genetic material, with the purpose of replicating and preserving itself. The dandelion that flies in search of a home- driven by chaos, engineered to survive.

All this is easier said than done. Or is it? In the 10 years we have to D-Day, we can focus our efforts on creating Pod systems. Our hard drives can hold exabytes of information. And with the whole of humanity united in its desperate hour, I am sure we will witness the most glorious era of invention and concentrated thought in the field of astronomy, astrobiology, cybernetics, mechanics, genetics, pedagogy and every other possible field that could be involved in this final (forgive me, I just have to say it) thrust.

P.S. - (I will blog in more detail on ESC in the future. The subject is too vast and deserves more detailed attention.)

Phreaky photons & Eccentric electrons

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Anyone watched 'Hyperdrive', the BBC science fiction show? Remember the king of the Queppu? The one who kept insisting that everyone is marveling at him and his empire? Well, I would like to dedicate this post to the great Queppu king. And to marveling.

The more I read about science's greatest discoveries, the more It fills me with wonder. And nothing awes me more than the Double Slit Experiment these days

The Double Slit Experiment

As far as experiment nomenclature goes, this one is pretty obvious. It's an experiment involving 2 slits. However, if the ramifications of this mind-boggling finding is anything to go by, they should've called it something more grandiose. Like 'Intelligent Electron Syndrome' or 'Observational Universal Evolution'. I like the second name better. Here is why.

The DSE fires electrons at a screen through 2 slits to get 2 streams of sub atomic particles that are in phase. These 2 beams interfere with each other and form a diffraction pattern on a screen in front of the double slits. Much like you would expect a wave of water to do. So, the electrons exhibit wave behavior However, when electrons are fired one by one at this screen, you would expect no interference patterns to form, right? Wrong. The single electron seems to interfere with other electrons fired in its future (or past?) to continue displaying wave-like interference patterns. One would find this to be the find of the century. But it gets better. When the experimenter starts to observe both slits, trying to figure out which slit the particle passes, the wave waves us goodbye, collapses and becomes a particle. The mind numbing implication being this - that the particle behaves as a wave or a particle, decided by nothing more than being observed.

For a clearer picture of this experiment, check this video.

There is literature that states that the reason this happens is because observing anything involves firing photons at it - which in turn changes behavior of the electrons. While this is the rationale, I still think it is amazing that duality is present in almost everything we see and know. Energy and matter are inter-convertible (you know it - E=mc²). Even time and mass are connected.

A small part of me knows that it's impossible to understand these theories. Not know them. Feel them. But every time there is a small little quantum leap in what I understand of these theories, it fills me with so much joy. Like when I understood vaguely what the Grand Unified Theory is.

Currently, I'm soaking in The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. So good.

The vocalist of Coldplay is a liar.

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:54:00 +0000

I had my first disappointment with astronomy this Friday. The 12th of April. 2013. And now when I look back, I really feel like a bit of an ingrate. After all, it wasn't I expecting too much on my first 'Deep Sky' trip? But I get ahead of myself. Let's start at the beginning.

I had exhausted all the night sky could show me from my terrace here, in Mumbai. I waited for the right time and opportunity to escape to some darker skies as I had been since January or February this year. I almost got to it in March, but thankfully, I was reminded by my Dad that the full moon was upon us.

And so it came to pass. Another passionate amateur astronomer and philosopher, a friend I had made from a Khagol Mandal trip to Vangani, Mr Ajay Bhatia and I locked in on the 11th to go scoping for deep sky objects at Kelve beach. The beach was recommended for it's low levels of light pollution by Vikram Virulkar, and he even went as far as to say that the night sky in Kelve (a beach) was better than the one in Vangani.

There were 2 cars driving towards the beach. One with me and my family and the other with Ajay and his friends. (Hello Priya). The drive from Mumbai to Kelve is around 100 kilometres, and takes around 2 hours if you leave early enough. Once in Kelve, through a series of incidents, we landed up shacking at the Kelve beach Resort. pretty decent place, if a tad overpriced.

I caught as much sleep as I could in the afternoon hoping to stay awake all night, getting knee deep in Messier objects. My timing was perfect. By the time I was awake and setting my XT8 on the beach, the sky was just about starting to go dark. The time - about 1830 hrs.

We quickly spotted Jupiter. Everyone had a glimpse. The Jupigins (Jupiter Virgins :)) oohed and aahed. But I had my heart set on the Cat's Eye Nebula. The position seemed just right. From where we were, facing West, the Cat's Eye should've shown up around the Zenith.

I spent almost 45 minutes looking for it, and I'm very sad to report that I did NOT see it. Which brings me to the title. You see, the stars did not shine for me that night. Nor did the nebulae. Or for that matter, any object above magnitude 3. Andromeda has dipped below the horizon too early in the evening to have any visibility. I set my sights on seeing it rise again at around 5:30 in the morning the next day, but the direction it would rise from was obscured at horizon.

And so, while we did end up seeing Jupiter and Saturn and the Orion's Nebula, we saw nothing that I hadn't seen from the city. What was, I ask you, the point of heading to a dark-sky site then? The sky was beautiful - don't get me wrong. The stars were hyper-twinkling, as they would seem to do to any one accustomed to the city sky. But I couldn't find one deep sky object. I tried not to be all bitter about it, but I guess I didn't do a good enough job at it. Guess that is why it's taken me almost a week to post this.

If there are any experienced astronomers reading this - is this normal? Shouldn't I have seen the Cat's Eye Nebula with an 8 inch Dobsonian, using a 1.25 inch Plossl, especially on a moonless, pollution-free night?

Seems a little unfair to Indian amateur astronomers. We have no high power observatories that we have access to. The one that we did (Vainu Bappu) seems to have closed the doors on general public viewing, and is open only to students. My best bet would be to find Akarsh (from the Bangalore Astronomical Society). He owns the largest amateur telescope in India - at 17.5 inches. Maybe then, I can finally view my precious Cat's Eye.

I will try this again. Giving my disappointment some time to seep off. Om!

Monsieur Messier hated messes

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 05:24:00 +0000

So I bought a telescope? Congratulations? Why, thank you. I quickly set it up and got down to viewing.

The first few months of observing was done in isolation. I did not have any astronomer buddies, and all information was derived from the internet, my iPad sky maps and eBooks. The first thing I saw was the moon at 48X magnification, my jaw dropped. I spent a lot of time focused on the satellite, marveling at its brightness and detail. I even tried to locate the Apollo 11 landing spot in the Sea Of Tranquility, which proved more difficult that expected, thanks to the inverted imaging on my Reflector. And while the moon is pretty, and stunning, I felt the sky was too big a thing to ponder on half a degree of it. I quickly developed a list of my favorite night-sky things that I had easy access to.

The Moon
Jupiter + the 4 Galilean moons
Saturn
Artificial satellites (by chance)
Asterisms like Orion's Belt and The Big Dipper
The lights of an aeroplane, heading straight over to you

About 2 months passed and I was done looking at the Top 6. I still loved watching Jupiter because it reminded me of the first time I saw it -the wonder and excitement at thinking you'll see a point of light, and then, to actually see a reddish brown disc. I felt a kinship with Galileo that night, and realized that no more than 0.5 percent of the world's population had seen what I saw. Saturn too was far from dull, with the perfect chicklet sized disc and the perfect rings. Like a sticker on a black board. But I needed to see something even more mysterious and powerful device - something whose mystery is exceeded only by it's power.

It was around then that I started hearing and reading about Messier objects and the messier Marathon. I had heard of the objects themselves; objects like Andromeda Galaxy and Orion's Nebula, but I didn't know that these objects had been cataloged by one Charles Messier into a list of 110 deep sky objects. I quickly got down to finding these in the city sky, but smog and glare meant that I could only see less than 10% of the objects on this list, even with a reasonably powerful 8 inch Dobsonian (Orion XT8). So, while I made plans for a trip to someplace with clearer skies, I read a bit about Charles Messier himself. And what I found out was amusing.

His interests in astronomy were borderline obsessive when it came to discovering comets. He would spend hours a day, every day, for decades, discovering and cataloging comets. He discovered 13 in all. It was while he was looking for comets that he found certain objects in the sky that did not fit regular classification. They were not stars or planets or comets. They were faint, fuzzy and inexplicable. They threw him off his comet chases, and so, to avoid frustration, he got down to cataloging them. The Messier list started off as a "What Not To Do" guide. Today, Messier is remembered more for this list than for the 13 comets he discovered. Would give him a laugh if he was still around.

I plan to do a mini Messier Marathon in a week's time. Wish me luck.

Would Neanderthals have made for better astronomers?

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 04:37:00 +0000

My fleeting beliefs in parallel universes drive me to wonder what would happen if Neanderthals had somehow made it to the discovery of the telescope. The very things that scientists say killed them could have made them marginally better at optical astronomy. Here's why -

They had really big eyes. 20% bigger in fact. Boosting the average human adult dilated pupil of 8 mm by 20% to get the approximate pupil size of our extinct cousins, we can safely assume that their dilated pupils measured 9.6 mm on an average.

Since the area of the circle (which is the approximate shape of the pupil) is a factor or the square root of the radius (π r ²), we can then extrapolate that the area of the dilated pupil for human eye is π4² (since radius is half of diameter) or 16π.

Similarly, the area of the dilated pupil for the neanderthals is π(4.8² or 23π.) That's a ratio of 1:1.4, with the neanderthal pupil covering 1.4 times more area than the human.

The reason behind this elementary derivation is to show that a 20% increase in eye diameter results in a 44% increase in area. No matter what human pupil size you extrapolate from, the end result with a 20% increase is always a difference of 44% in area. I wonder why? Any guesses?

Now, any amateur astronomer will tell you that the power of the telescope is purely based on the amount of light it captures. The wider the aperture, the more light it can capture. However, it's quite pointless capturing massive amount of light through the entry-aperture, if the exit aperture is massively larger than the pupil of the observer. Much like pouring wine from a barrel into a bottle, a lot of light will be lost and never received. So, an exit aperture above 8 mm would be pointless for most humans. However, an exit aperture of 9.6 mm (for the same size of telescope) would be about right for the neanderthal who's gotten tired of clubbing and just wants to stargaze.

With 44% more light being received, the N-man will see richer, clearer images, no matter what the magnification. In fact, the Galileo contemporary in the Neanderthal universe might have described Saturn differently. Galileo, when pointing his low-power tele at Saturn in 1610, saw a planet with ears, much like Shrek.

Neoleo, with 44% more powerful eye-sight, could've resolved that Saturn had a disc, even with the same tele that Galileo used.

Unfortunately, we'll never know for sure. The Neanderthal eyes got so big, their brains got overloaded, and they were left with very little processing power to devote to higher cognitive thinking. Some say they died out completely and some say they interbred with Homo Sapiens - us! If that's the case, then , on the next astro-camp trip, watch out for the big headed dude who swears he can see Pluto through a 6 inch Dob.

New astronomers guide - Mumbai edition

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:25:00 +0000

Being an amateur astronomer in Mumbai isn't easy. Most people you meet aren't interested in the subject, and the ones who do get excited when you say "astronomy" usually do so because they think we're asking them for their Zodiac. Constellations are mostly obfuscated behind thick clouds of smog and the orange hue of urban light pollution. Most nights, the naked eye seems to catch little more than Jupiter, Orion, Sirius and about 20 more stars - tops! The appearance of the phasing moon reduces this number gradually, by up to half. Most stars above magnitude 2 are not visible to the eye. Good astronomical equipment is either state-owned or controlled by restricted-access universities. And NO ONE has ever seen the Milky Way. One might say it is an hostile environment for star-gazers.

If you are a budding astronomer and happen to live in or around Mumbai, here are a few things you could do to break the mag 2 barrier. It is possible, with humble equipment, to view the gas giants, nebulas and even some galaxies. Here's a bucket list of 2³ things to do -

Attend a Khagol Mandal session. These astronomy enthusiasts have been active for almost 3 decades. They keep the city's star-gazing alive, almost single-handed. Once every month, on a New Moon night, they arrange for an over-night session at Vangani. The sessions are in English or Marathi and cost about INR 150 (that's less than $3) to attend. The club provides 4-5 telescopes on site, ranging from a sturdy 4 inch all the way to a mighty 10 inch Newtonian. But be warned - upto 400 people attend each session, and the waiting time for the powerful scopes can be upwards of 30 minutes. It still is totally worth it, especially if you have never seen the Great Red Spot on Jupiter, the rings around Saturn or the trapezium of stars in the heart of the Orion nebula. I myself saw the Andromeda Galaxy for the first time at a KM session. No, I didn't see spiral arms. All I saw was something that could be mistaken for a wisp of cloud. But it still gave me an huge astroboner. Make sure you carry food, bed sheets and a red-cellophane covered torchlight. Another great plus - you meet astrogeeks. Link - http://www.khagolmandal.com. (Note - while there are more astronomy clubs, I have no first-hand knowledge of these.)
Visit the Nehru planetarium. Sometimes, they have special events. Read more about show timings and workshops on their official website. While I wouldn't describe the visuals as jaw-dropping (esp. once you've seen anything at the 3D Imax dome), it is a beautiful experience. A must for kids.
If you have a smart phone, download free astronomy sky maps so you can point and learn to recognize stars / constellations / planets and asterisms (don't bother Googling ... it's just a small constellation - like the 3-star belt in Orion). Apps like Sky View and Google Sky Maps are free. Try them out. You'll be surprised how one of the brightest stars in the Mumbai skyline isn't a star at all. Also, a great conversation started! (Oh ... you're Taurean? The moon's in Taurus - right under Aldeberan. Come closer so I can show you here.)
Visit beaches and villages 100-200 kilometres away from the city. Places like Kelva, Vangani, Mahuli and (if you really want to go much further) Tarkarli have beautifully clear night skies because of low levels of light pollution. Just remember to plan these trips on New Moon nights, as the moon's brightness can suppress all FFT light from most of the sky. Best if you have some magnification for better viewing. If you have no access to telescopes/binoculars, wait and ....
...watch out for special travel packages that are arranged by groups like Beyond Earth. These guys arrange for small groups to travel to clear-sky venues like the Lonar Crater, and they come fully armed with telescopes and expert astronomers. While these packages work out more expensive than a session with Khagol Mandal or a trip to the planetarium, they are highly recommended if you require a deeper, one-on-one experience. One of my fondest astronomy trips was arranged by The Blueberry Trails and conducted by Vikram Virulkar (of aforementioned Beyond Earth).
If you have the money, buy a pair of binoculars. You'll be surprised how much detail can be seen with a reasonably cheap pair of binoculars. A friend of mine picked up a pair from Croma for INR 3000 (about $55) that allowed for clear views of Pleiades and Jupiter to name a few. Binoculars also double up as great spy-tools and vastly increases your peeping-range. However, this is generally frowned upon and might be illegal, so best to point them upwards and beyond.
If you have the budget and the passion, invest in a good telescope. There are loads of retailers in Mumbai. Let Google be your guide here. I myself bought my Orion XT8 Classic Dobsonian from Tejraj. Which telescope to buy, what to buy and how much to pay - this is another post altogether. Maybe if there are requests for this information, I will put together something researched and cross-reffed.
Have a vada pav. You can't be very far away from one.

If you are in any other city in India and would like to send me your bucket list, please mail me on astronomnomnom[at]gmail[dot]com. Oh - and do find me on Twitter @astronomnomnom.

The E=mc² obsession

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 17:57:00 +0000

2012 was my period of personal renaissance for science. I felt a tremendous resurgence of interest for the subject after almost 15 years since it had been killed by the schooling system. Documentaries, eBooks, lectures - I was soaking it all in. The subjects were varied - advanced Mathematics, Physics and even History. But they all seemed to revolve around my one basic interest. The hunger for Astronomy (or Astronomnomnom :)

However, like every casual interest that is fueled by layman interest and research, I hit a wall several times. Over and over again, the issue was the same. Documentaries tended to be too 'simplified' in an attempt to reach out to the widest possible audience while eBooks got into such detail in their Mathematics, I found myself skipping pages of reading, till I had no clue what was being discussed. Every time I hit a wall, I would turn to torrents of self-help books and TTC videos. As of right now, I am sitting on over 100 eBooks and over 20 hours of lectures that I have not yet read/watched. And yet I continue to torture my myself. I feel almost retarded admitting this - but I tried to read a book on "String Theory For Dummies" to understand what was happening at CERN. A bit like watching the History Of The World (the Mel Brooks one) and believing it to be what really happened.

The road to absolute scientific wisdom (or at least knowledge) was a regressive one. I started with trying to learn about String Theory, then regressed to Hawking, then to Einstein, then to the happenings on the 1700s, and then to relearning Calculus. This has been my road of discovery. A bit like jumping head-first into what seems interesting, and then feeling in the dark for what might be the tricks of that particular trade. Understanding (trying to would be more apt) Einstein's beautiful thought experiments by watching DrPhysicA, coming to grips with astronomy through the beautifully inspired words of Dr. Alex Filippenko and the constantly incredible quality of BBC Documentary programming - these are my tools. These are the constructs for my 34 year old mind to come close to satiating an urge to resolve a tiny, tiny fraction and make sense of this. This being everything. And everything connects back to Astronomy, right?

The weird part was this - almost all the science I was trying to understand was over 50, if not 100 years old. All the work of Einstein, Bohr, Maxwell, Planck were worked on almost a century earlier. And here I was - painfully unaware of their thoughts and philosophies. The word 'philosophies' seems a little archaic here, one might say, for what is the role of something as nebulous as Philosophy in the world of cold, clear, mathematically precise scientific logic. The schools still taught Physics over a century old. The students still hated force-fed concepts that had been born before their grandfathers. And I still didn't know why Einstein saw beauty in Maxwell's equations. I recently met an engineering student who said I need to study the working of Laplace and Fourier to understand Maxwell, but I haven't really gotten about seeing if it was good advice.

My ultimate goal for now is to teach myself how relativity works. Why is E=mc²? I am reading a book by Brian Cox that has this very title. But I'm going about it slow right now, and I don't really know if its really going to explain the whole deal, or dumb it down. While I have grasped the concepts of Special and General Relativity (I wouldn't pass any exams, but it's there somewhere), the Maths of it all is still beyond me. Am working towards it and I will post any new learnings and revelations so that any other layman trying to understand relativity can learn from my process.

To summarize, I am trying to make sense of concepts thought of by minds that were almost supernaturally gifted by using a recent surge in curiosity, a powerful broadband connection and a jump-first-think-later approach. There are no teachers except the ones I choose. Every choice leads to both new questions and dead ends. Every new questions leads deeper down the rabbit hole. I know it's only rock n roll, but I like it.

PS - Thank you Phil Plait @badastronomer for making me want to write again. Love your work.

Some wikis worth wiki-ing

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 07:09:00 +0000

If you, like any reasonably curious sentient being, have wondered why The Drake Equation has never resulted in any actual proof of alien life, here's the anti-Drake. Presenting the much lesser known Fermi Paradox. I stumbled upon this while wiki-bouncing aimlessly from the 'Carl Sagan' wiki.

Fresh out of reading Clarke's 3001 - The Final Odyssey for the second time, I was obsessing on the existence of ET. Clarke paints some pretty startling images of life as they could be, right here in our Solar System. The gas-beings of Jupiter, the bushmen of Europa and the machine-human-machine triumvirate that is HAL-Bowman-TMA - these diverse forms of life highlight beautifully how diverse life can be, evolving just a few light-minutes away from each other. This is of course a work of fiction. But we do have the biodiversity of Australia and Foster's Rule to look at to know how separation can switch the DNA code dramatically and quickly.

What I'm trying to get at, with these talks of biodiversity, or specifically, alien biodiversity, is this - how do we know we will recognize alien life when we see it? In fact, one of the basis of SETI is to look for life as WE understand it. Why would anyone spend billions of dollars on searching for something that MIGHT be. It seem like a safer bet to just look for something we might recognize. What if alien life visits us once a year, on Easter? What if they are creatures of such rapid time-signatures, they communicate anthologies in nanoseconds? Or, the opposites - what if they are so time dilated, they speak one word every million years? A million years on the Cosmic timescale, can be equated to a toddler standing next to Mount Everest. While we seek life in ALL forms, we can not possibly understand all intelligence.

So, this is the Red Pill - Blue Pill situation. Do we believe in The Drake Equation, which estimates about 100,000 species with whom communication might be possible, in our galaxy alone? Or do we side with Fermi, which seems anthropic, making us one of the only lives ever to EVER exist? Could it be that you have heard an alien speak, but thought it was a smell of rotting strawberries? Will someone - anyone - conclusively prove one or the other? In a (seemingly/actually) infinite Cosmos, it seems clear that just ONE proof of extra-terrestrial life will forever eclipse the Fermi-gang. However, proving that no life exists anywhere else will always be a matter of belief, with no possible proof. It is this stacking of cards that makes one pill a safer bet over the other. Seems to be only matter of time.

We will talk about time and Einstein in our next post. Till then...

Statement Of Purpose

noreply@blogger.com (MelloLikesJello) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 21:31:00 +0000

I believe in purpose. It only makes sense then to have a 'statement of purpose' for this blog. Here it is -

This blog will serve as my personal journal for my astronomy/science musings, discoveries and research - causa scientiae. I have been doing a lot of reading and documentary leeching on astronomy for about a year now, and this will be the much-needed log to store the highlights. Also, I seem to forget some really cool things I read (and I read a lot of this stuff), so I'm hoping that writing about them will help retention.

I hope to reach out to amateur astronomers to hopefully help them find a better and easier path to find the information they seek. I would also like to reach out to astronomers who are more evolved in their knowledge, purely for sake of networking with like-minded people and accessing information that they wish to share.

Lastly, I would like this blog to bring together a group of passionate minds in and around Mumbai, so that our quest for knowledge goes beyond bits and bytes, to something more 'real world'. Don't worry - am not talking about starting a cult ... yet.

The posts you might find here might seem to have nothing to do with Astronomy - but I assure you - to me, most things have something to do with astronomy. I am no expert. This is a journey. For someone who is interested in Astronomy, my Maths skills are embarrassingly crippled. If you know more than me, please feel free to share / correct. But please don't be a dick about it.

Someday I'll get this tattooed on my back. But for now, it gives me inspiration. It reminds me to live for moments that are sparked by curiosity, happy in thought, full of wonder and wide-eyed wideeyedness. If you think of Einstein and/or Carl Sagan and/or Maxwell and/or Galileo and/or E. Hubbard and/or Newton and/or Hawking and/or <insert awesome thinker name here> MORE than you think of the next Vampire flick, you may enter.

Oh - and I pledge to give 1000 dollars to whoever discovers/invents the Grand Unified Theory first. (Conditions apply).