The Kavalur Observatory, located approximately 170 km from Bangalore, on the Yelagiri Ranges houses among many telescopes, Asia's biggest optical telescope, which has an aperture of 93 inches. Interestingly, the super structure of the telescope, and the mounting is a scaled down replica of the 200 inch Palomar with a combination of a Horse shoe and Yoke Equatorial mount. This observatory is a destination for ones who want to understand our Universe a little better and the occasional amateur astronomer. Our group consisted of Aditya, Sanath, Sundar and myself, very eager to visit the place once again to rejuvenate our souls. After a high speed 4 hour drive and stopovers at Mc Donalds restaurant we reached Kavalur at about 7:30 PM. We had the customary and sumptuous dinner at the mess hall and headed to Lab-B, the guest quarters. After resting for a while we looked up at the sky to notice clouds and rain eventually followed.
We amateur astronomers in Bangalore are a positive lot. A common saying between us is "It will clear after midnight", this chant somehow keeps us awake and enthusiastic. The weather did not disappoint and it did clear at about 11:30PM. We then headed towards the iconic 93 inch Vainu Bappu Telescope at the very top of the hilly facility. This is where we decided to spend most of the night. Aditya was in a very good mood to do wide field photography and setup his 8 inch Sky-watcher newtonian on the NEQ6-PRO mount, piggybacked his Canon 550D DSLR and manually guided the mount to take the photo below. Sanath being a visual astronomer was excited about the number of targets he could cover in a single night with skies that I would rate as Bortle 3. I was also looking forward to using my astrotrac setup for the very first time under the stars. Owing to the clouds I could not have first light.
We amateur astronomers in Bangalore are a positive lot. A common saying between us is "It will clear after midnight", this chant somehow keeps us awake and enthusiastic. The weather did not disappoint and it did clear at about 11:30PM. We then headed towards the iconic 93 inch Vainu Bappu Telescope at the very top of the hilly facility. This is where we decided to spend most of the night. Aditya was in a very good mood to do wide field photography and setup his 8 inch Sky-watcher newtonian on the NEQ6-PRO mount, piggybacked his Canon 550D DSLR and manually guided the mount to take the photo below. Sanath being a visual astronomer was excited about the number of targets he could cover in a single night with skies that I would rate as Bortle 3. I was also looking forward to using my astrotrac setup for the very first time under the stars. Owing to the clouds I could not have first light.
Clouds were trying their best to play spoil sport with us, but our enthusiasm did not change. That is until a wily little fox made his way to our setup, preceded by scary sounds which scared the starlight out of us. We quickly made our way to the car where we spent anxious moments contemplating "were-foxes" and if they like Humans.
This trip was one of the most memorable ones I have made in my life as an amateur astronomer. I hope that more such trips would follow and we all get time to capture the wonders of the Universe through our eyes, and our lenses.
This trip was one of the most memorable ones I have made in my life as an amateur astronomer. I hope that more such trips would follow and we all get time to capture the wonders of the Universe through our eyes, and our lenses.