The first official star party for experienced amateur astronomers was organised by the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) at Hanle Dark Sky Reserve in eastern Ladakh between October 12 and 15.
Hanle is home to IIA’s Indian Astronomical Observatory and hosts many professional telescopes owing to its dark skies and dry weather.
About 30 amateur astronomers travelled to Hanle with their telescopes and cameras to experience the beauty of the skies unaffected by light pollution and to photograph faint celestial objects that cannot be done from other locations.
“Hanle has one of the darkest skies in India and recently, an area of radius roughly 22 km around Hanle has been notified by the UT Ladakh as the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR). HDSR aims to control man-made light pollution in the area in order to preserve the pristine dark skies for astronomical research,” said Dorje Angchuk, Engineer in charge of the observatory.
The participants, who came from different places like Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mandi, Ahmedabad, Lakshadweep, and Mumbai, brought their own telescopes and cameras to conduct their individual astrophotography projects, and the area outside the observatory was dotted with a dozen telescopes.
The cold nights saw the participants, local villagers, and tourists, all bundled up in multiple layers of warm clothing, peering through each of the telescopes to see many gas clouds and galaxies in the sky with a level of detail that is not possible from light polluted towns and cities.
“As a keen visual observer, I am able to see obscure faint galaxies at HDSR with its Bortle-1 (darkest) sky. Although the high altitude, the cold and lack of oxygen, and the transport of bulky precision equipment are huge challenges, it is definitely worth the effort”, said Sudhash Natarajan from Bangalore Astronomical Society.
