Stargazing - Vangani

 Journey Date : 2nd and 3rd March, 2024

A mess created by friends and travel experience.

    Stars and planets are not a matter of hiking, but if you get lost at night in the forest, how do the stars help you find the right direction? The important information I want to tell you all. Also, a small attempt to tell you all about the unforgettable stargazing experience I had. In the 21st century, adults, children, old aged people, people of all ages are obsessed with social media, and I am one of them! While scrolling through the reels on Instagram, I came across a post about stargazing. Big telescopes were shown in the photo, hence I became more curious, to have a unique experience and also to get new information about the universe. I called the given contact number (+91-8169167678). Mihir Gilbile picked up the call. At first, I thought that Mihir might be working as a volunteer for the organization "Horizon Astronomical Society", but while chatting with him, it was revealed that he himself is the owner of the organization. Talkative and open-minded person! According to the information given by him, if you want to stay in the dormitory, Rs. 1500 and if you want to stay in the tent, Rs. 2000 per person is charged. This fee includes an evening snack, dinner and the next day's morning breakfast. It should be noted that the charges mentioned above are for February 2024. It might vary in the future.

    Instead of taking this experience alone, I decided to take my friends with me. Hence, I sent a message to all my friends, but the only three friends who came anywhere were confirmed their availability. Vinayak, Kaushal and Amey, but Vinayak was not sure, so I had booked the tickets for Kaushal, Amey and for myself. It was only two days after the booking, and Kaushal's first sentence when he called me was "I had made a mistake!". The sentence itself is self-explanatory. I understood that he was canceling his booking. Kaushal had taken leave on Sunday 24th February instead of taking leave on Sunday 2nd March, now it was impossible to get leave again. As a best friend, I said a few harsh words to him in anger before dropping the call and called Mihir to cancel the booking. It was good that Kaushal had informed early, if the booking was cancel 7 days before, the full amount would be refunded, but after the completion of the event, so he asked if the booking could be transferred to Vinayak's name. Mihir gave email and asked me to send the booking ID and details of Vinayak on it. Called Vinayak once again to confirm his availability and sent a email to transfer the booking. Mihir confirmed by mail that Kaushal's booking had been transferred to Vinayak's name a day earlier, i.e. on March 1.

Observing stars using telescope

    I had to stay up all night on 2nd March, so I took two days off, on 2nd and 3rd March. According to the information provided by Mihir, we wanted to board the Karjat fast local at 3:35 pm, which departs from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, but we decided to go a little early to get information about agro farming and decided to take the Khopoli fast local at 3:10 p.m. I left home around 1:00 pm, but due to a traffic jam, I reached Goregaon station late and the train to Dadar was missed. Due to which, I missed the connecting train Khopoli fast from Dadar. Now, according to the information given by Mihir, I informed Vinayak and Amey to board the Karjat Fast, because Amey was boarding the train from Thane and Vinayak from Dombivali. I boarded the Karjat fast local from Dadar and Ameya boarded the train from Thane, but Vinayak was late in reaching Dombivli station and missed the train. Amey and I reached Vangani station at 5:12 pm. Vinayak had only one option, which was to board the fast local of 5:25. We informed Vinayak that we were going ahead rather than waiting at the station for an hour and we both came out of the station at Vangani West and inquired about a share rickshaw stand in a nearby shop. As the shopkeeper told us, we were walking towards the stand. Suddenly, a rickshaw stopped nearby. When we told him that we wanted to go to Done village, he said that it would be 60 rupees. Note : If you go by share rickshaw, per head costs will be 15 rupees, but you have to wait until the seats get full. To save time, we paid 60 rupees and went down near Done gram panchayat office. We saw the board in front of "More Nature Tourism", we entered the farm house as per the direction of the arrow given on the board. I met Mihir Gilbile there and got to know that the stargazing program would start late, ie around 7:00 pm, due to late sunset. I immediately informed Vinayak and told him to take it easy, don't be in a hurry. Mihir took us to the dormitory. As there was a lot of time, Mihir asked us to see the flower plants planted in the farmhouse and other areas and to be present at the canteen for breakfast at 6:00. Amey and I walked around the entire area looking at the flower garden and reached the canteen for breakfast at 6:00.

    

Stargazing Experience!

    Mihir requested us to help him bring the telescope. The three of us went and brought the parts of the telescope and helped Mihir to attach the same. While helping him, we got information from him about the telescope. There was a telescope-like object over there. We held it in our hand and tried to see the planets, but nothing was visible! Mihir said that it is a small telescope. You will not see any planets, we use it as a spotter / finder scope. It was quite dark, creating a perfect atmosphere for stargazing. 17 people participated in this program, including young and old. Firstly, Mihir gave some important instructions to everyone, that is, less use of mobile phones, dimming the display light, so that the stars can be seen clearly with the naked eyes. When light falls on the pupil of the eye, it contracts and this causes difficulty in seeing the stars or not visible clearly. A good example of this is the blindfold of a pirate. Until now, it was believed that pirates would blindfold one eye after being blinded. But not like that, the bandaged eye helps to see clearly at a distance at night, as the pupil is not contracted due to the sunlight throughout the day. Stargazing requires the absence of light pollution, i.e. total darkness.

    Firstly, Mihir pointed to a star and said that a bright shining star is not a star but a planet, Jupiter. To our total surprise, Mihir showed us Jupiter and its moons through the telescope and then zoomed in to show us the wheather belt of Jupiter.

Pic1 Juptier and its moons. (source:Tom Lee - Internet).

Pic 2 Jupiter with its weather belt (source:Peter Hayman - Internet).

    After seeing Jupiter, Mihir showed Aries and Taurus constellations with laser light. Then the Greek and Indian constellation systems were explained. Further he showed the Orian Hunter and the Orian Belt constellations through Laser Light and after discussing the constellations, he showed the Orion Nebula through a telescope. A deep pink image was so beautiful that it looked like a rose blooming in space.

Orion Nebula
(Source: Ameya Vipat - Image captured through telescope using I-Phone 14)

    A nebula is a pre-star formation process, consisting of many gases that fuse to form a star. This was new information for all of us. After seeing the Orion Nebula, we saw the cluster of stars and the Kritika Constellation through the telescope. After this, another important information was found that the brightest star is not a Pole star, but it is Sirius star. Till now, it was believed that the Pole star is the brightest star, but the Pole star does not appear in the list of top 100 brightest stars. When we viewed the Sirius star through a telescope, it was only visible as light, no shape was visible like any planet. There is a big difference between stars and planets, even though with naked eyes we see planets shining like stars, when viewed through a telescope, it appear to have a specific or sphere like shape, but stars are made up of different gases and contain no metals, so when viewed through a telescope, will not see any shape, only bright light will appears. It was 9:00 pm, we all reached the canteen for dinner. Both veg and non-veg meals were available. The food was excellent and tasty, but the Kala Jamun served with it was very delicious. After the meal, we went to the dormitory to freshen up and came back to the ground at around 9:50 p.m.

    The stargazing session was resumed and information was given about how to take pictures of stars using a mobile, how to do astrophotography and also showed the pro setting of the camera on the mobile. Using the given information, we took a picture of two constellations, namely Leo and Ursa Minor. Ursa Minor constellation is used to knowing the direction, the shape of Ursa Minor constellation looks like a spoon or a head of a cobra snake. A straight line drawn on the top end of the spoon tip or of the cobra head, it gives the direction of the pole star, and the pole star is always at the north. The Pole Star does not change its direction like other stars . Although the Ursa Minor constellation changes its angle, the tip of the spoon or head of the cobra always shows the pole star direction i.e. north. Even if the pole star is not visible, we get an estimate of the northern direction. Ursa Minor constellation or Pole star is used to finding the direction at night when one gets lost while hiking or while wandering in the forest. In today's modern era, compass apps are used on mobile phones, but when the mobile battery runs out or you forget to bring the compass, you can get the help of stars. However, it should be noted that it is not useful during the monsoon.

    

Picture 1 - Saptarshi Nakshatra, photo taken by One Plus Mobile.

Picture 2 - Example of direction finding by Saptarshi.

    While the astrophotography was going on, Mihir got a call from Khopoli. Another team was conducting a star observation program at Khopoli and there was heavy cloud cover, which stopped their star observation program. Mihir had guessed that Vangani would also be clouded soon. After astrophotography, the wait was for the moon to rise. We all sat looking towards the east and estimating the position of the moon with the help of a mobile app called "Star Tracker". Around 10:35 the moon rose. Mihir turned the telescope towards the moon, it was amazing to see the moon so close! Around 12:00 am, once again, Mihir serves the tea to everyone. All those who were feeling sleepy drank the tea and freshened! Mihir zoomed the telescope further and asked everyone to look at the moon again. This time, the craters on the moon were clearly visible, as well as the moon's precession as it orbited the earth was clearly visible through the telescope! All was done by observing the moon through a telescope. Due to the moonlight, the stars were obscured. While observing the stars, suddenly a member's attention was drawn to a twinkling star-like object, which was moving forward at a speed. When asked, Mihir said it was not a star or a plane, but a satellite, and his solar panels were shining. Around 2:30 AM, Mihir stopped observing the stars and asked everyone to go to their tents to rest and be present on the field at 5:30 AM. Vinayak, me and Amey three went to the dormitory and rested. But I did not sleep, because if I slept, I will not be able to wake up in the morning.

    We three reached the ground at 5:20 am. When we called Mihir, he was in the canteen. He reached the ground by 5:30 a.m. Mihir first showed the constellation Cygnus by laser light, and Alberio, a star in the same constellation, was observed by telescope. Mihir's prediction had come true, just as the clouds had come to Khopoli, now they appeared in Vangani too. Mihir hurriedly showed the star Arcturus through the telescope as well. Arcturus can be found about 37 light-years from Earth and is the fourth-brightest star in the night sky. The star Arcturus is 25 times larger than the Sun and is known as a red giant star and also known as a dying star. Stars that glow red are called dying stars mainly because the hydrogen gas in these stars is being depleted and after a few years these stars will die/explode. (Some years mean millions or billions of years 😁). After seeing the star Arcturus, Mihir tells the mythological story of Ursa minor (Saptarshi) and his wives, by showing the hidden start through the telescope right next to a star in Ursa minor constellation, a star not visible to the naked eye! After that, Mihir demonstrated to us how to do light painting. After the light painting, Mihir turned the telescope towards the moon again, and gave all the participants a chance to take photos of the moon through the telescope on their mobile phones. We also took pictures of the moon on our mobiles as below.

Moon photo taken in mobile with the help of telescope.

    After taking the photos of the moon, with the help of the Moon Atlas, we tried to find out the names of the craters seen in the photos taken in the mobile phone. After that, we were waiting for the sunrise and to see Venus, but due to the cloudy weather, we could not see the Sun and Venus 😢. It was certain that the Sun and Venus would not be visible, so we went to the nearby Ulhas river. I sat by the river for a while and came back to the field. Suddenly, raindrops started falling and Mihir was in a hurry, as it was important to cover the telescope. Helped Mihir to cover the telescope and put it in the office. In the office we saw the different types of telescopes, as well as cut-outs of Mihir's articles and interviews in newspapers. Once again, everyone reached the canteen for breakfast, did breakfast and went to the dormitory, packed their bags and started the return journey with beautiful memories.

    

    A big thank's to Mihir and the Horizon team for an unforgettable experience and valuable information provided!

Group Photo at Vangani stargazing

Candid photo while observing stars

Truss Tube Dobsonian Telescope