Holidaying Among the Stars

One of the best things that attracts me to North India are the hills. Although I have an aversion to travel in four wheelers in the hills since the U bends make me sick, still the charm of the mountains is irresistible. Driving, I have driven up to Shimla/Nainital only, has been a better experience than being a passenger. Trekking among the lush greenery or just resting under the woods is my idea of a good holiday. 

We had a trekking club in NIT and we had trekked to one of the hills on the other side of the Koel. But my first serious trekking experience, in terms of height and difficulty, was when we had trekked to Gomukh from Gangotri in October 2006. Gomukh is about 20 kms from Gangotri and was only accessible by foot or horse. Since we started in the afternoon from Gangotri, we had to stop at an intermediate stop for the night. At night when I came out of the tent, I was surprised to see the night sky filled with stars brighter than I had ever seen. At that high altitude in the Himalayas, there is almost zero pollution, which made the dimly lit stars visible to even naked eyes. The night sky was so bright and clear, it looked like someone has painted the stars on a large canvas and pulled it closer to us. It did not dawn upon me to spot the Milky Way, Andromeda Galaxy and other planets, since I had very limited knowledge about star gazing. I only spotted the Sapta Rishis & Dhruv Tara (Polar light). Sky gazing was a favorite time pass during summers in childhood when me and my elder sister occasionally we used to spot fast moving star (which were the satellites). Those were very rare, may be 2-3 per day in the limited time we were engaged before sleep. In adulthood, after I learned more about the sky, sometimes I have tried to spot the ISS (International Space Station) but never certainly spotted it. Out of the curiosity to spot stars, I invested in a telescope in 2019.

Best use of the telescope till now

However, the equipment was hardly used, out of laziness to set things up. The working of the telescope is easy, however, since the zoom is very high, one need to first set it up in daytime with a visible reference point and then adjust it to point at night objects. For navigating between points in the sky with such high zoom, a small eyepiece is provided but it takes years of practice before it feels easy. 

When I was transferred to North India again, I was excited to go for treks and witness the clear sky again. With a telescope with me, I thought a good use will be to go for a trip in the hills where the clear sky would give ample opportunities for star gazing. Last September, searching through the web I chanced upon a Govt of Uttarakhand initiative where they have tied up with private operators to arrange star gazing holidays, aptly called Nakshatra Sava. The Govt had tied up with a start up in Gurgaon (Starscapes Pvt Ltd) to provide curated holidays which included learning about stars, star gazing and talks about astronomy in general. The event was happening in Takula (a small village about 10 kms away from Nainital). I booked the tickets for last week of November.

Nainital is a drivable distance form Panipat. The road was good except a stretch of few kilometers in UP which was yet to get the blessings of either Gadkari ji or Yogi ji. Except that, the road till the destination was smooth. A small stretch of the road passes through the Jim Corbett National Park. End November Nainital was chilly. Our 1st night's stay was up in the hills near the lake. The next day two days and two nights we planned for star gazing.

Day-1 Takula Camp (Nakshtra Sava)

Sun with the Solar Flare (marked in blue).
Height of Solar Flare can be as high as 500000 km (more
than 3 times the diameter of earth) 

We were to report at about 11 AM in the morning. The Takula camp is tricky to spot since the camp is at a lower elevation and there were no obvious signs to spot the detour from the main road. We had to park the car beside the road and amble down to the camp site. Starscapes Pvt Ltd was started by Mr Ramashish Ray. He is an astronomy enthusiastic and worked in the private sector before venturing into the startup arena. The camp was located in a small place near Gandhi Mandir. Mahatma Gandhi had stayed in this village during one of his visits to the Nainital. The camp had telescopes of all types. Volunteers were there to teach kids about the working of the solar system, stars and sky. Engaging games, quizzes were arranged for children and adults which were based on science and astronomy. The activities included watching the sunspots and solar flares projected on a paper through telescopes. Solar flares are sudden release of energy from the sun's surface which sometimes escapes sun's gravity and can travel beyond the solar system. As per record, the largest solar flare known in human history was observed on 1st Sept' 1859 called the Carrington Event (The Carrington Event: History's greatest solar storm | Space), which had caused damage to telegraph system and caused death to some telegraph operators. The energy discharged towards earth was equivalent to 10 billion atomic bombs. The northern lights were apparently seen as far as Cuba. Just imagine, how a solar flare of this size can affect a digital word now.

Many educational and small science-based experiments were conducted. The principle of "How Rockets Work" were displayed by mock rocket launches through pressurized air.

After the sun set, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter along with its moons were observed through the different telescopes. The volunteers also explained the different star clusters and how ancient civilizations have created stories with the star clusters especially the Greeks. 

The highlight of the day was a talk by Prof Aniket Sule, Assistant Professor of Homi Bhaba Center of Science Education. He gave a lecture on how our calendars have evolved over time, detailing about Luni Solar Calendar and solar calendars. 

Day-2 Nainital and Star Gazing from a Homestay

We spent the previous night in a homestay we had booked earlier. The homestay also had a tie up with an agency called the Astro verse, which carried out star gazing activities. There was a planned visit to the observatory nearby in the daytime, but we choose to visit the Naini Lake and had a nice lunch besides the lake. In the evening, Kuldeep from our home stay again showed us all the planets and star clusters. The milky way was also faintly visible to the naked eye. Since we had more time for star gazing here, we could see the Andromeda through the telescope. Andromeda can be spotted with naked eye but need a clear sky. Andromeda, catalogued in the astronomy world as Messier 31, is the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way which is just 2.5 million light years away from the earth (a small distance in the cosmic scale). Andromeda and Milky way are set to merge with each other after 3.9-5.6 billion years. 

What amazes me the most is these celestial objects / stars / clusters were observed by ancient Indian Civilizations, may be without any sophisticated instruments. Indian Civilization had not only observed but they had calculated the distances, sizes, made charts with crude instruments. Further they had the knowledge of time dilation which was later popularized by Theories of Relativity. 

The other fact, which fascinates me is the size of the known universe. Andromeda, the closest galaxy is 2.5 million Light Years away. 2.5 million Light years is the distance equivalent to the length light will travel in 2500000 years. For information, light travels approximately 300,000 km per second. So, the light we see from Andromeda, had started 2.5 million years ago. If a more advanced civilization is there in a solar system in Andromeda and someone is observing the earth right now, all he could see will be early humans in the form of apes learning to walk and brush us off as insignificant beings. Andromeda is just one galaxy; the known universe has infinite number of galaxies containing infinite no of stars which further have infinite no of planets. The paradox that the universe is so big but intelligent life is only on earth is called the Fermi Paradox. I feel there must be life elsewhere, but we are yet to find each other, or they just choose to ignore us. Considering the vastness of the universe, our civilization is less than a blink of an eye. Earth is habitable, just because it is finely balanced in the solar system. Any small deviation will be catastrophic.

I would encourage young parents and kids to explore this type of activities, which is both educational and recreational. It will also generate an interest in science among the kids. Misha was especially happy seeing the planets herself after reading about them. 

Some of the photographs taken by the volunteers during previous astrophotography sessions:

I have attached links to both the agencies that carry out the stargazing camps nearby Nainital. 

Links:

Astroverse (Astroverse: Wanderers in Space)

Starscapes (Starscapes | India’s Astrotourism & Stargazing Experiences)

Dates I travelled: 29th Nov-1st Dec' 2024.