In January 2015, it is winters in Pakistan (in the northern hemisphere) and so skies are quite clear at night with many deep sky objects available in sky throughout the night. Some of them includes Andromeda Galaxy, double cluster, Pleiades, Orion Nebula, Running man nebula, Flame Nebula and Horse head nebula. This was the 24th Rutjaga of Karachi Astronomers’ Society therefore named R-24 Al-Tusi. It...
Astronomy is at its peak in Pakistan. It was February 2015 and my 3rd dark sky trip within 3 months. In Feb, it is winters here in Pakistan (in the northern hemisphere) and so skies are quite clear at night with many deep sky objects available in sky throughout the night. Some of them includes Andromeda Galaxy, double cluster, Pleiades, Orion Nebula, Flame Nebula and...
In this post I will share photos of planet conjunction taken by me from Karachi and Mirpur sakro, Pakistan. Let me explain conjunction so you may have an idea about it. A conjunction occurs when two astronomical objects have either the same right ascension or the same ecliptical longitude, normally when observed from the Earth. This implies an apparent close approach between the planets as seen in the...
Astrophotography is my hobby that started with Astronomy. Astrophotography includes capturing photos of the night sky, planets, satellites, galaxies, nebulaes and star clusters. The photos is this post are captured by myself using different equipment at different places in Sindh, Pakistan. I have very basic equipment and basic knowledge of post-processing and I apply that to my best. For the past 1.5 years I...
Are you an Amateur Astronomer? Are you a nature lover? Do you look up in the sky and wonder what are the stars called? Do you love Astronomy? Put your smart phones to some good use and get these smart phone applications that will make your Astronomy experience and learning better. Our ancestors used to have sky charts, Astronomy books and atlas to find their way into the sky and learn the features on Moon. We are lucky to have some state of the art Astronomy mobile...
Astronomy is a great field and a great hobby. It is peaceful, interesting, and lovely hobby. The night sky gives us thousands of objects to observe. There is the Moon, there are planets up in the sky, there are stars, and then there are galaxies, nebulas and star clusters. In order to see the amazing objects, we need a Telescope. They are visible and in...
In Dec 2013, I went for an astronomy dark sky session for star gazing in a village in Sindh, Pakistan. That event was a success and I learned a lot of stuff there with regards to Astronomy and Astrophotography. Since then I had been waiting anxiously for another such trip and with me lots of Astronomy enthusiasts were waiting for it. Finally, we decided...
Constellations were the most difficult thing to understand when I started Astronomy as a hobby. The night sky is always filled with hundreds and thousands of stars. All looks the same. I got lot of information on constellations after reading the book “Practical Sky Watching” but it wasn’t completed without looking those constellation in the night sky myself. Constellations are a very important concept...
New Moon This is the time when the Moon is in its orbit such that the side facing towards Earth is not lit up by the Sun. After this moon phases starts from 1 till next new Moon. You cannot see new Moon. To learn about Moon phases please see below: Full Moon Full Moon occurs every month and is a period when Full...
Planning a trip to Kalri Lake in the dark skies It was more than a year I haven’t had a star gazing session in dark skies of Pakistan like I had in 2011 and 2012. Being an active member of Karachi Astronomers Society, people were asking me for a star gazing trip in the dark skies. I went to the KaAStrodome in October for...
KaAStrodome is a privately owned observatory, designed, built and conceived by Dr. Akbar Hussain of Karachi Astronomers Society. I was lucky to have a camera with me that night and so I was able to record the unforgettable memories of the first rutjaga at The KaAStrodome. Please note all photos are copyrighted and are property of Abubaker Siddiq (me). If you want to use...
A nature lover Since my childhood I am close to nature and that made me a good observer and allowed me to ponder over the existence and the reason of why something is like it is. At age of 12 years, I started to take care of my garden myself. In class 4, I created a volcanic mountain model and types of mountains (shows...
