I am using Astronomy star charts mobile phone apps and found that there are many great apps out of which Star Walk is one of the best app in the affordable price range. Sky Safari is another great app but it is way too expensive. The Star walk app has a beautiful background music that I found mesmerizing. The name of that music is...
In January 2015, it is winters in Pakistan (in the northern hemisphere) and so skies are quite clear at night with many deep sky objects available in sky throughout the night. Some of them includes Andromeda Galaxy, double cluster, Pleiades, Orion Nebula, Running man nebula, Flame Nebula and Horse head nebula. This was the 24th Rutjaga of Karachi Astronomers’ Society therefore named R-24 Al-Tusi. It...
Are you an Amateur Astronomer? Are you a nature lover? Do you look up in the sky and wonder what are the stars called? Do you love Astronomy? Put your smart phones to some good use and get these smart phone applications that will make your Astronomy experience and learning better. Our ancestors used to have sky charts, Astronomy books and atlas to find their way into the sky and learn the features on Moon. We are lucky to have some state of the art Astronomy mobile...
In Dec 2013, I went for an astronomy dark sky session for star gazing in a village in Sindh, Pakistan. That event was a success and I learned a lot of stuff there with regards to Astronomy and Astrophotography. Since then I had been waiting anxiously for another such trip and with me lots of Astronomy enthusiasts were waiting for it. Finally, we decided...
Constellations were the most difficult thing to understand when I started Astronomy as a hobby. The night sky is always filled with hundreds and thousands of stars. All looks the same. I got lot of information on constellations after reading the book “Practical Sky Watching” but it wasn’t completed without looking those constellation in the night sky myself. Constellations are a very important concept...
Planning a trip to Kalri Lake in the dark skies It was more than a year I haven’t had a star gazing session in dark skies of Pakistan like I had in 2011 and 2012. Being an active member of Karachi Astronomers Society, people were asking me for a star gazing trip in the dark skies. I went to the KaAStrodome in October for...
The Destination The destination is a beautiful place around for astronomy 100Kms far from Karachi. The destination is somwhere in Mirpur Sakro, Sind, Pakistan where there is a lovely landscape and awesome dark skies. We had with us Meade Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope 8inch, Sky Watcher’s 6inch f/8 dobsonian. The surroundings of the location were filled with small lakes, birds and most importantly dark sky at night with...
KaAStrodome is a privately owned observatory, designed, built and conceived by Dr. Akbar Hussain of Karachi Astronomers Society. I was lucky to have a camera with me that night and so I was able to record the unforgettable memories of the first rutjaga at The KaAStrodome. Please note all photos are copyrighted and are property of Abubaker Siddiq (me). If you want to use...
A nature lover Since my childhood I am close to nature and that made me a good observer and allowed me to ponder over the existence and the reason of why something is like it is. At age of 12 years, I started to take care of my garden myself. In class 4, I created a volcanic mountain model and types of mountains (shows...
Obsession to Moon Earth’s Moon is the only celestial object that can be seen easily with naked-eye at night. One doesn’t need to have a black transparent sky to observe it. I had been observing Moon since my childhood but at that time I didn’t have a Binoculars, or a Telescope to observe it or a camera to capture the beautiful Moon and its...
Comet ISON (C/2012 S1) known to be the Comet of the century, discovered by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok in September 2012 is the one we are hearing since a few months. But before we get into the observation and other technical details, let me explain what is a comet. What is Comet? From the simplest definitions taken from Wikipedia, “A comet...
Often during Astronomy related conversations I used to hear word equinox and then they used to say Fall equinox and the spring equinox. The word seems weird but it has the explanation in it. Equinox is derived from Latin word aequus (equal) and nox (night), because around the equinox the day and night are of almost equal lengths. Equinox is on September 22 and March 20, so who...
