Astrophotography has played a significant role in astronomical discoveries and observations. The use of photography in astronomy dates back to the 19th century. Since then, advancements in technology have allowed for the capture of increasingly detailed and accurate images of celestial objects. Astrophotography has been used to discover and study many different types of objects, … Read more
Is there life on other planets? One of the oldest and most popular question everyone asks whenever a discussion happen around astronomy. Although we generally focus on discussing about possibility of extra-terrestrial intelligent life, finding just ‘life’ or just their traces (like fossils), is more realistic in near future. Discovering alien fossils or martian microbial … Read more
Lucy is a NASA space probe on a twelve-year mission to eight different asteroids, visiting a main belt asteroid as well as seven Jupiter trojans. What are Trojan asteroids? For any given Two body system in space (both bodies are having mass) orbiting each other, there exist 5 points (called Lagrange points) in their orbital … Read more
Notes from Lecture ‘First five years of Gravitational wave astronomy’ by Prof. Archana Pai, Department of Physics, IIT Bombay. World Space Week, Webinar organized by National Space Society(USA)-Mumbai. A broad overview Gravitational-Wave astronomy is an emerging branch of observational astronomy. A distant cousin, we can say, of optical (electromagnetic-wave) astronomy. It’s a young field – … Read more
The Perseid meteor is active from – 17 July to 24 August 2021. Perseids shower peak every year in August, and this year it will be at a peak from 12 to 13 August. They are one of the best meteor showers of the year. They are relatively easier to view as they occur in … Read more
Binoculars are portable, easy to use, no need of any specialized mount, just a fluid head tripod will work fine. Binoculars are great first telescope. They would be more useful then a telescope. Huge astronomical binoculars often have larger aperture than some small refractors. Binoculars are great option for newbies or for those who just … Read more
As your first astronomical gear, every amateur astronomer will recommend you to first get a pair of binoculars. And with Celestron 20X80 Skymaster, you cannot go wrong. These Binoculars are really well built, and if stored/used properly, it will last for a lifetime. Because of their portability and negligible maintenance many amateur astronomers prefer to … Read more
Antikythera mechanism was first found in a shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Antikythera in 1901. By 1902, archaeologist Valerios Stais found that it was some kind of astronomical clock. And almost a century later, the modern imaging technology revealed that the Antikythera mechanism used 30 meshing bronze gears to compensate the irregularities … Read more
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
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
