A starry night show! तारें ज़मीं पर!!

Treat of sky treasures with students of Kalpana Chawla Space Academy

✪ A night long camp near the base of Tung fort, Lonawala
✪ Bliss for the children and what a treat the sky is
✪ “रात है या सितारों की बारात है!”
✪ Orion constellation? No, it is a huuuuge cluster!
✪ Excellent sky without light pollution and treasure of clusters
✪ Joy ride of the children in severe cold night
✪ Trek near Tung fort and new exposure for the children
✪ Remarkable experience of staying in wonderful nature

Hello all. Last weekend, I had a great opportunity to accompany the students of Kalpana Chawla Space Academy, Lonawala for a sky watching camp. While teaching them astronomy as a subject, sky watching is a regular activity. But watching the sky from city and from a remote place almost free from any light pollution is vastly different. Here it was all shining stars! These days such dark skies without any light pollution is a rarity. Actually it was a great delight. In astronomical terms, you could just see stars as faint as 5th magnitude with just your eyes. Those clusters which are difficult to spot in cities in a telescope, were readily observable here! Even finderoscope was sufficient! The great Omega Centauri cluster- it was visible to the naked eyes! When the early morning Venus suddenly erupted from behind the mountain, it was just a search light! But let’s begin from the beginning!

 

 

Lunar occultation of Antares star

Opportunity to observe this wonderful event on early morning of 5th February

✪ Opportunity to observe an astronomical wonder of occultation
✪ This can be observed through naked eyes in the dawn
✪ Venus and Mars can also be observed
✪ Ursa Major, Scorpion, Arcturus, Spica, Vega, Alpha centauri, Beta Scorpii etc. stars and constellations can also be observed
✪ M 7 and Omega Centauri star clusters can be observed

Hello all. On 5th February 2024 at the dawn, we have an opportunity to witness a wonderful astronomical event. When moon obstructs light of some planet, asteroid or a star, then it is called an occultation. At around 4:46 am (for Maharashtra) on the dawn of 5th February, Antares star will be obstructed by the Moon. It will get behind illuminated side of the Moon and at 5:59 am, it will come from behind the dark side of the Moon. Even then also it will be dark so that its reappearance will also be visible to the naked eyes.

This occultation will be visible in South East side in the sky. At that time, the Moon will be around 29% illuminated. Antares is the brightest red giant star in Scorpion constellation and it appears reddish to our eyes. It will be visible right till it gets behind the Moon and it will be again visible after it reappears from behind the Moon. With a binocular, this can be observed in more details. A star visible to us suddenly becomes invisible in a moment and after some time, it again reappears out of darkness! This sight is a wonderful experience.

Approximate position of the Moon and Antares just before the occultation is as shown above.

(My article about observing Mars occultation by the Moon and its video is available here: http://niranjan-vichar.blogspot.com/2021/04/blog-post_18.html This blog has my articles related to sky watching. It has one more similar article about the wonderful Venus occultation by the Moon:  http://niranjan-vichar.blogspot.com/2023/10/thrilling-experience-of-watching-lunar.html)

The Moon generally moves around half a degree towards west along the Ecliptic path in the sky. Stars close to this ecliptic are likely to be obstructed by the Moon and such stars include Antares, Spica and Alpha Libra. Such stars are many times occulted by the Moon. The Moon daily obstructs light of many faint stars. But as Antares is a bright star, it will be visible till it gets obstructed. This star is thousand times larger than our Sun and its distance is around 700 light years and still it shines so bright! This distance means that although we watch it now, its light has left the star around 700 years ago.

On this occasion, other astronomical objects can also be observed. Towards west, Regulus star and Denebola star in Leo will be visible. Towards North West, Ursa Major will be visible and they will be about to set. In the zenith there will be bright stars Arcturus and Spica in slightly southwards. Towards east of Antares, there will be Beta Scorpii star. If the sky is clear and there is less light pollution, then M7 open cluster in the Scorpion constellation can also be visible. Also, in the South, Omega centauri- a great globular cluster will also be visible through a binocular. Also bright stars of Alpha and Beta Centauri will be visible with the naked eyes. Alpha Centauri is the second closest star at 4.3 light years after our Sun. Towards East, Vega star will be visible near the horizon. Bright Venus will be visible to East of the Moon and just before twilight, Mars can also be observed near the East horizon.
 

Do observe this unique sky event. Along with that, observe other stars and constellations too. You can share this post with your near ones. Thank you.

(Thanks for reading! Niranjan Welankar 09422108376. Conducts sessions for fitness, meditation, sky watching and fun- learn for children.)