Sky watching session with kids and elders!

✪ International space station like a bright moving star!
✪ Saturn rings, Jupiter moons and orange Mars
✪ Beautiful Pleiades cluster- A scene of 400 years ago
✪ Moon craters and surface features
✪ Vast universe thrashes egoistic delusion
✪ Wonders to be watched just through eyes
✪ Zestful parents and energetic kids

Hello. Currently conditions are best for sky watching. Except for a few passing clouds, we can enjoy beautiful sky in the night. I got opportunity to show kids and elders the wonders of sky on the eve of 8th December when Ayurveda Vyaspeeth, Parbhani arranged a sky watching session. For this, first of all I thank Dr. Kanhe madam, Dr. Sandeep Chavan sir and their team, the organizers, the kids and also their parents. Here I would like to share which wonders we did enjoy and what fun we had. Recently I had taken such sessions for three consecutive days in Aurangabad, but the sky was not this clear there. On 8th December, the sky was so clear.

When some kids were still to come, we observed an interesting object. From north, a bright artificial satellite was visible. It was as bright as Jupiter and it was slowly moving towards East. It was visible for five- six minutes and then it went to South- East side and got out of sight. When I saw its speed and brightness, I felt this must be International Space Station- ISS. On the next day, I checked its timing and visibility location and then it was confirmed! So the kids who had come on time could also see the space station!

We started telescopic observation from Saturn. Everyone could enjoy its rings! Then we saw Jupiter and its four moons. Also within short time, we could also experience change in positions of the moons. Mars was in opposition recently (i.e. Sun- Earth- Mars in one line) and therefore it is much closer to the earth- at around 7.5 crore kms. Its red disk was visible in the telescope. The most beautiful object was Krittika cluster- Pleiades M45. Kids counted number of stars there. This cluster is located around 400 light years from us. That means the light departed from the cluster reaches us after 400 years. The light that travels 3 lac kilometers in a second! That means the stars we observe there are actually from the year 1600!

While observing this so much vast distance and stars much greater than Sun- forget our earth- makes us speechless. It is something like meditation. We always have delusions about us like I am someone special, this or that. Or my sorrow is greatest in the world. But when we see this infinitely vast sky, these delusions fade away! After the Pleiades, we saw the most thrilling objects for many- the Moon. Initially we saw with 20 magnification and later on also 50 magnification. Anytime one sees it, it is just beautiful and everyone likes it!

 

While observing all this, I could show some stars seen through just eyes to the kids through a star pointer- Mainly Aldebaran (Rohini), Capella (Brahmahruday), Archenar (Agranad), 17 light years distant Altar (Shravan), Vega (Abhijeet), Deneb, Formalhaut (Meenasya) and stars in Cassiopeia (Sharmishtha), Pegasus (Bhadrapada) and also the pole star. While showing this to the kids, I could share many things with them, also ask them interesting questions. Why the moon looks reddish when it rises or sets, what is common thing in ears, eyes, spectacles, dish TV’s dish, torch glass? Magic of focus, linkages between various Nakshatras and Indian months, ways to observe sky were a few things which I could discuss with the kids. Due to enthusiasm of the parents and energy of the kids, it was very satisfactory to show these things to them.  

Once again, I thank all the kids, the parents and the organizers!

(Niranjan Welankar- Sky watching session and fun- learn for kids. Also fitness and meditation sessions for elders. 09422108376)