I was at Leh during the first week of February, spending a few days in the Zanskar Valley. This is one of the regions in India with the clearest skies on earth, classified as Bortle 1.
While camping at Shingra Koma, Yokma Do and Tibb Cave, the skies were so clear and the amount of stars got my trek-mates mesmerized (along with me). I had the green laser with me as I knew the skies would be clear. Living under Bortle 5 class skies, makes an amateur astronomer like me startled at the sheer amount of stars that the class 1 skies provide. Took me a while to identify Aries.
With such clear skies, I took this opportunity to acquaint my fellow trek-mates with the several stars and constellations visible in the night sky. At the various campsites, the mountains around us, rising around 30° altitude or higher.
I introduced them to the constellations Orion, Canis Major, Cassiopeia, Auriga, Pegasus, Taurus, Gemini and a few others, pointing out the bright stars, asterisms and the mythologies associated with these constellations. Andromeda was clearly visible along with Orion Nebula, Beehive Cluster.
Not having much to do in the -20°C degree cold and windy night, we also tried our hand at photographing the night sky, as I taught them the basics of astrophotography using their mobile phones and got some great results and between shots, waiting for the sky to reveal more stars, we tried a little bit of light painting:
Mobile Astrophotography
DSLR and Processing
We also pointed the camera at the Milky-Way band and got these photos:
And finally…
Since Polaris was visible, I clicked a long duration photo to see star trails. But the temperature was so cold that I had to stop it quite early, which is not enough to observe large trails.
And just before I got back in my tent for the day, we captured this beautiful shot:
Just Amazing.