What more can I say ? It just does not get better than this.Yes I am speaking about the observation session at RamanJeri,Tamilnadu.Actually my first trip with BAS for a star party and one of the best.Everything in astronomy you can think about could be seen and studied over there.Telescopes(from 4-12 inches),motorized and non motorized,reflectors and refractors.Just the right sort of an event for a beginner as well as an amateur astronomer to dig his shoes deep into astronomy.From setting up of the telescopes to capturing the celestial beauty through a canon 400D 300mm digital camera with 30 second exposures generated an urging interest to view more and more objects not visible to the naked eye.
With open fields around and crystal clear skies for most of the time the coldness of the dark night just disappeared into the thin air.Not to forget the astronomy pro's from BAS guiding our way into making observations from the night sky and explaining the importance of astronomy and astrophotography as a serious science to explore the vast universe.
With more than 30 objects observaed through 7-8 telescopes it was hard to differentiate
which was the best.Andromeda,Orion Nebula(M42),Horsehead Nebula(B33),Flame nebula(NGC 2024),The majestic Sombrero(M104) were some from the unbeatable lot.Open clusters,double clusters were the brightly shining jewels in the sky visible clearly even through 25x100 binoculars.
Apart from the observations there were a couple of lectures for newbies delivered by the TANASTRO club - our nearest active astro association) which was also present for the star party.They have some of the most enthusiastic stargazers who helped in showing objects and participating in this session actively throughout the night.
A couple of greats in the form of Mr Ajay Talwar and Dr Suresh Mohan are sure to light up the night with their presence and amazing equipment.
I can safely say that BAS is one of the fastest growing club which helps to learn,experiment and execute.
Surely am looking forward for more star parties like these.
Alde