How to Choose A Telescope For Astrophotography

While choosing lenses for photography we look for the right optics, focal length, focal ratio, optical errors in the lens, performance of the lens in different lighting situations, and as well as with different sensor sizes. The same goes with Astrophotography – glass quality, focal length and focal ratio are something I look into before … Read more

Oldest Depiction of Supernova in Stone Carving

This is a follow-up post on “Indian Records of Crab Nebula“ Earlier I have written about possibility of Indian records of SN1054 – you may see the article on above link. This one is however is relatively new discovery. In 2018, oldest skymap depicting Supernova explosion was unearthed in Kashmir, India. Skymap is a 5000 … Read more

From Possibility to the Certainty of a Supermassive Black Hole

Notes from Lecture delivered by Professor Andrea Ghez, Nobel Laureate Physics 2020, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles. March 22, 2021. Does our galaxy harbor a Supermassive Black Hole at its center? There are two perspectives as to why one might want to pursue this question: Does really massive Black Holes … Read more

Sungrazer Project: How to discover a Comet?

Previously I’ve written about how you can make astronomical discoveries and also mentioned some Citizen Science Program where you can give your contributions to discoveries. Here’s the article – 10 Citizen Science Programs where you can make Astronomical Discoveries. One such program is NASA’s Sungrazer Project where you can discover comets. Here’s is a quick walk-through: … Read more

Messier 44: Beehive Cluster

An open cluster spanning some 15 light-years, M44 holds 1,000 stars or so. The cluster was not resolved into its individual stars until telescopes were available (Galileo was first to resolve its stars). A popular target for modern, binocular-equipped sky gazers, the cluster’s few yellowish tinted, cool, red giants are scattered through the field of … Read more

10 Citizen Science Programs where you can make Astronomical Discoveries

First of all, what is citizen science? According to Wikipedia – Citizen science is scientific research conducted by amateur scientists. Citizen science is sometimes described as “public participation in scientific research,” whose outcomes are often advancements in scientific research by improving the scientific communities capacity, as well as increasing the public’s understanding of science. Role … Read more

Messier 51: Starry Starry Night

In 1845 William Parsons made a sketch of the Whirlpool Galaxy from a 72-inch reflector. Almost 40 years later, that particular sketch inspired the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh to create his masterpiece – The Starry Night. Van Gogh was well aware of the astronomical discoveries made in his time. He knew space as a … Read more

Astrophotography: an Introduction

Beginning with visual astronomy, there is a chance you would dive in the rabbit hole of amateur astronomy, be it gears, or reading about recent events and discoveries for hours. Or discovering something on your own – we will talk about this in the next article. Sooner or later you will discover “Astrophotography”, a point of … Read more

Aryabhatiya: an Introduction

This is the first article on Aryabhatiya. It is quite a broad one, so it is impossible to cover the whole topic in one article. I will post more articles in the coming days. Aryabhata I, author of Aryabhatiya An Indian astronomer-mathematician. His notable work is Aryabhatiya. As mentioned by himself in his work – … Read more