Sri Sharadamba High school at Bhairumbe, Sirsi recently procured 16″ reflector telescope with a GOTO tracker along with other astronomy equipment. A long-time associate of PAAC, they invited us to organize a Sky-Watch program there, under the guidance of Dr. A. P. Bhat.
The sky watch was organized on the evening of 17th November 2020 for a small gathering due to Covid-situation in the country, with all necessary safety precautions.
The skies in the region are very clear and are rated with a Bortle index of 2. With such clear skies, Andromeda can be spotted by the unaided eye with great ease. You don’t even need to know where to look. Just scan the skies and you’d clearly spot the galaxy located at 2.5M light years, as a faint white smudge.
In some cases, it was hard to identify certain constellations due to the sheer number of stars visible. Through the telescope we observed the gas giants as we’ve never seen before. The stripes on Jupiter and (luckily for us) the Great Red Spot were clearly resolved. Saturn’s rings were also highly resolved with a clear distinction between the various rings.
Clear Skies!
We waited the entire night having spotted Andromeda Galaxy, Pegasus, Perseus, Cassiopiea, Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Orion, Canis Major, Eridanus, Sagittarius Teapot, Pisces and many other constellations between the billion stars that were visible. We could also spot several star clusters like the Perseus double cluster and others. As time passed, clouds began to gather around and we waited for them to clear so that we could see the Majestic Lion, Leo rise early in the morning bringing us the many meteors from the Leonid Meteor Shower.
We saw several meteors leaving behind green trails that lasted for a few seconds in some cases. As clouds persisted with the sunrise approaching, we concluded the session and called it a day.
It was an experience of a lifetime seeing the planets in such high resolution and spotting so many celestial objects.
Kudos to PAAC for organising such a programme at a remote villege Bhairumbhe!
I am very sure the students and public of Bhairmbhe would have benefitted in the enhancement of theior knowledge of the space world around us.
I am very much sure the PAAC team led by Dr. A. P. Bhat would have also enjoyed this great experience at such a very suitable (considerably less polluted atmosphere) place for sky watch.
@P J Bhat Sir, Thank you