A three-week-long “India Astro Photo Festival (IAPF)” featuring images of celestial events like the infrequent transit of Venus, and solar and lunar eclipses begins at Teen Murti House premises here from December 8.
Described as India’s first astronomy-photography festival, the first edition of IAPF’s will showcase a wide array of detailed telescopic images of deep-sky objects like galaxies and nebulae, earth and sky photographs of heritage sites, observatories and different landscapes under the night sky.
Organised by the Nehru Planetarium in association with Amateur Astronomers’ Association, Delhi, a major highlight of the event will be photographs of different Indian monuments and heritage sites captured against the star-studded night sky or during different celestial events.
According to Planetarium director N. Rathnasree, the festival assumes significance as it showcases the richness of our heritage. “Never have Indian monuments been photographed like this before by amateur astronomers. Budding astronomers have captured world heritage sites on their lens. Celestial activities have been captured against the background of medieval monuments like Humayun’s Tomb, Jantar Mantar, Purana Quila and Qutub Minar, Khajuraho Temple, Sanchi Stupa and Chittorgarh Fort.”
The astro-photographers, predominantly amateur astronomers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Greece, France, Croatia, China, Pakistan, Romania, Denmark, Norway and Italy, will exhibit their photographs in the exhibition. A two-day astrophotography workshop will be conducted at Planetarium here from December 8. The festival basically wants to create awareness about one of the least-explored branch of photography among amateur astronomy and photography enthusiasts through workshops and discussions.
