Wonderful experience of watching the Space station and glorious night sky!

Hello. Last Saturday on 8th March, me and my friend Gireesh Mandhale conducted a sky watching programme at Anjanvel Agro Tourism near Lonavala. We had excellent skies with wonderful stars! On the women’s day, everyone was thrilled to see the Space station with Sunita Williams onboard! Also, crescent Venus, movements of moons of Jupiter, plenty of craters on the Moon, clusters in the dawn, white Milky way band, the morning trek, meditation and last but not the least, the Sun- spots! Overall it was so much of joy and satisfaction. Sharing its experience with you.

Afternoon of 8th March! Gireesh's giant 8 inch telescope, my 4.5 inch telescope, binocular and other kits, we two and in remaining space my daughter Advika- Adu, thus we left from Pune! Specialty of this program was that my daughter and other dear children were also attending it! As we let Pune behind, slowly Sahyadri mountain range started! Mountain ranges everywhere! Crystal clear blue skies! We knew we were in for a wonderful sky in the night! We reached Anjanvel farm house. Entire the surrounding is just marvelous.

All the telescopes were set and all arrangement was done. We enjoyed Anjanvel campus before it was dark. Anjanvel! Here so many things are there to explore! We just don’t understand that till we properly explore it 3-4 times. Also new developments continuously take place. Swimming pool is being constructed. Zip- line thrill is there for the children. We can also experience pottery. We can play shooting arrows. We can enjoy the lawn. In the monsoon, we can enjoy water stream. And just the serene nature! Any way. We met people came for this programme. Got acquainted with new people. One of them was a 75 year old young man- Shri. Kamlakar Kutte from Sangali who runs an artifact museum. We also saw a telescope purchased by his son Shri. Pramod Kutte!

Before it was dark, we had a small discussion with the group and the children. What we are going to observe, how we will observe that was discussed. Before the darkness fell, Crescent Venus started the party like Rohit Sharma! Venus is so large, around 58 arc seconds! And it is right in the middle of Earth and the Sun. Soon, it will move to East of the Sun and therefore soon, it will disappear from Western horizon at the dusk and will be visible at the dawn by first week of April. Therefore despite of his large disc, its crescent phase is just about 10% illuminated! Due to its large disc size, even my 15 X 70 binocular is showing its crescent shape!

Thus, the session started with my Startracker 114 mm tabletop reflector telescope and Gireesh’s giant 203 mm Dobsonian reflector telescope! Crescent Venus was amazing. Everyone felt as if it was the Moon crescent. There was Mercury just west and south to Venus. It was seen through the binocular. Even after it was dark, Mercury was not visible to the naked eyes. But observing it through the binocular, we did a task that the scientist Archimedes could not have done- he wanted to see Mercury, but he could not watch it. Due to vicinity with the Sun, Mercury does not go much away from the Sun in the sky and it is visible just for some weeks in the year- sometimes in the Evening and sometimes in the Dawn. Being inner planets, Mercury and Venus show phases like the Moon.When Venus was done with, it is complete darkness and now the star party has truly began! With the help of the pointer, we observed major stars, Nakshatras and constellations. Nakshatras are 27 parts of sky path of the Sun, the Moon and the planets and 12 parts of this sky path are called Rashis. Constellations are standard groups of stars. Nakshatras and Rashis can be constellations, but not all constellations are Nakshatras or Rashis.

After Venus, we observed Jupiter and its moons. Actually at this time, shadow cast by Jupiter’s moon Europa is there on Jupiter. But it was not clearly visible. Due to large group, we could not use highest magnification power of the large telescope. But large disc of Jupiter, belts in its atmosphere, its moons not visible due to them being behind of just after it and later on their changed positions- all this was visible. After Jupiter, we observed Orion Nebula at a distance of 1300 light years. Then we observed 400 light year distant- Pleiades cluster. Through the large telescope, the reddish Mars, its surface features and its polar ice caps were also visible. At the same time, there is continuous questioning from the children! Name of one child was Antariksha!

But then everyone was alert and at 7.58, we all stood up facing the South direction! And ISS- Space stations rose from South! It was brighter than Venus. As it climbed in the sky, its brightness increased! Everyone enjoyed this moment! Many also clapped in joy! It just touched Sirius star and as it entered the shadow cast by the Earth, it slowly disappeared! But before disappearing, it also became slightly reddish! Because before entering into the shadow, it had reddish Sun light and the red colour was there due to diffraction of light in the atmosphere. Then we observed the Moon multiple times and with different magnification power! Just wonderful! Then with the help of Pleiades and other bright and faint stars, we hip hopped to Uranus! But then it is the time for the dinner break!

In the post dinner session, we observed M41 cluster near Sirius. Then Regulus with its faint binary star, followed by Zeta Ursa Majoris binary star with Alcor. We also observed the beautiful- Beehive cluster M44. We also saw changed positions of the Jupiter moons. We observed new constellations arisen in the East with the help of the pointer. We also observed the binary star Gamma Velorum at some distance from Canopus star. The large telescope even revealed its two more faint companions. Through the binocular, we observed Pleiades cluster and Aldebaran star! Despite of the telescopes, the binocular has its own beauty! Also through the binocular, we freely surfed in the sky and enjoyed many clusters and double stars! In order to enjoy this, Anjanvel’s Rahul Jagtap sir arranged three beds for us to lie down and enjoy the sky! Also, he took care that nearby lights would be off at the time of watching the sky!

Slowly the Moon moved towards the West. Even the bright Jupiter bade adieu. Now the rule of coldness started! People told that they would be coming at the dawn and left. In the dawn, there will be another fly- by of the ISS! For some time I and Gireesh continued observation. We observed M81 galaxy near Ursa Major constellation. Mind still wanted more, but the eyes got tired. So we decided to rest for some hours and start by early dawn. We went to our tent near the machan (raised partition)! It was cold and cozy! Tranquility of the night! Some barking of the dogs! And growing coldness!

We did not have sleep. In the midnight, my daughter came to my tent from the nearby tent. The dogs continued barking. Finally got up at 3:30. Plenty of stars are there for sure! I and Gireesh went to the telescopes at 4 am and my daughter also came at this hour and in this cold! She too enjoyed the feast!

As we came to the open ground, we saw stars in every directions! In the South, it is Scorpion in its full glory! Towards South, it is sea of stars in Centaurus! We captured some photos through the mobile. Massive cluster of Omega Centauri in Centaurus is almost visible to the naked eyes. It is a delight when observed through the telescopes and the binocular! At a distance of 17000 light years, it is a broken galaxy, some say. It set the tone of the session. Then we observed Hercules Great cluster M13, M92 and when Scorpion rose sufficiently, it revealed its special zone of clusters- M7, M6, M24, NGC 6231, Lagoon Nebula and others! Even the finderoscope of the large telescope is revealing so many stars! Slowly we also observed our own Milky- way band. People slowly started to come after 5 am. I called Pallaviji, Aalap and Swarada. They should not miss this treasure! Shri. Shah took photos of the milky way through their camera. The 75 year old young man- Shri. Kutte uncle is also observing with zest! Showed the present nakshatras and constellations through the pointer. Many also observed shooting stars- the meteorites and plenty of artificial satellites! And again at 5:51 am, the ISS was visible.  Its this pass lasted for six minutes. It was visible near the Northern horizon. Then passing near stars like Dubhe and Altar, it reached near the Sagittarius area and then slowly disappeared near the Southern horizon.

After this, we telescopically observed objects such as Beta Scorpii, Alberio binary star with blue and yellow companions and shining Arcturus star at a distance of 36 light years. As the Summer is approaching, it got orange in the East. Slowly the faint stars started to depart. Then Antares, Beta Scorpii, Altar, Deneb, Spica stars also bade adieu. Bright Arcturus and Vega stood till last and they too disappeared finally. East was bright and this ended an enchanting start party full of treasures!

We rested briefly. After the tea, we went to a nearby trek with Amolji! Everyone sat there for a short meditation session. Actually, when we are in the nature, meditation happens on its own! Also while watching the sky, we do a sort of meditation. When we watch the sky, we realize how small we are, how feeble we are! And whatever we think about ourselves- either we are so important or our sorrow is the greatest in the world- these perceptions change when we watch the sky! So the meditation automatically takes place. But here we just added some soothing music and very short instructions for relaxation. A 25 minute meditation session took place. Then we returned while staring at the mountain ranges! Children- Advika, Aalap, Swarada and Radni also enjoyed the trek. 

Now the last, but not the least! Solar observation! With the help of solar filters, we observed a very soft image of the Sun! Such massive and fiery Sun! But very soft and gentle! We also observed many small black dots- the Sunspots! But they are larger than our Earth, as our Earth is so small!

Thus, this feast ended with the day time star, the Sun! Anjanvel means- Weekend spent well! But it is also new every time! On coming 22nd March, there will be sky watching programme. You can inform to persons near Mumbai and Pune who would be interested in this. Thank you!

(Niranjan Welankar 09422108376. Sky watching, meditation, fun learn and fitness sessions. Date of writing the article: 12 March 2025)