There is nothing about observing I can report here, since skies were all clouded up. However, this was a BAS star party coming after months. The attendees were Shweta, Sathya and Madhu who reached Hosahalli by 5:30 pm on 2 bikes. Half an hour behind in a cab were Akarsh, Me, Pavan and Ravindra. Rakesh and Sunil reached the venue as late by 10pm by the last bus.
 
We set the school's 8" scope and members were already taking afocal shots of it. I had boarded a cab booked by Akarsh, along with the parallelogram mount from my house. I knew I had taken everything including the hardware parts with it. However, after reaching the spot, I realized a triangular board to support the tripod was left at home..and I thought thats it! Anyway brains racked together and we decided to tie it with a nylon string, to make the heavy setup (in all maybe 25 kilos) stay put. It worked, and we headed off for dinner. It was fun being together after a long time, however the skies should clear up. We waited all night long, and I dont remember if it even cleared for sometime. There was a photo-shoot of the parallelogram mount - the mount was working just fine except for the mechanical anomaly I faced in Mumbai too.
 
This was a time when everyone got noisy, cracking jokes, gossipping etc. But we also got to a BAS meeting out in the open, and some serious issues were discussed. No point being awake after around 3 am, and everyone went for a nap, since it was getting very dewy and chilly. Some of them left early by 6am, and rest of us took some while to disassemble the scope and binoc mount setup. I decided to take an alternate route in the cab we were in, from the backside of the village, into the open wilderness, expecting a good scenic drive. And man...were the roads one of the most horrific? All eyes were naggingly looking at me, since some of the potholes were more than 10-15inches deep..it was only a tractor-able road! Finally we reached back after the ~15 km struggle.
 
Hoping for clear skies in our 'next' session. Can Pavan and Ravindra post the pics we took that day, esp the binoc mount for all to see? Thanking You. Amar.

Can Akarsh, Pavan and Ravindra individually upload their pics to a common album..or whatever is convenient?

--- On Fri, 12/12/08, Amar Sharma <amar_unive...@yahoo.com> wrote:
 
Hoping for clear skies in our 'next' session. Can Pavan and Ravindra post the pics we took that day, esp the binoc mount for all to see? Thanking You. Amar.

Regards
Akarsh

Hi allI will be going for sky watch and messier hunt on Saturday night at a
place by name Gandhigram near my native place akola. will report the
observation afterwards
I will like to organise a small interaction session with interested one.
Will it be possible for any one to dig out time for a mini meet which will
start at 6PM and end next day morning and during day time we may have some
lectures. Please contact..

Forwarded conversation
Subject: [-BAS-] Short session report - 6th dec 2008
------------------------

From: *Amar Sharma* <amar_unive...@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 8:00 PM
To: b-a-s@googlegroups.com

There is nothing about observing I can report here, since skies were all
clouded up. However, this was a BAS star party coming after months. The
attendees were Shweta, Sathya and Madhu who reached Hosahalli by 5:30 pm on
2 bikes. Half an hour behind in a cab were Akarsh, Me, Pavan and Ravindra.
Rakesh and Sunil reached the venue as late by 10pm by the last bus.

We set the school's 8" scope and members were already taking afocal shots of
it. I had boarded a cab booked by Akarsh, along with the parallelogram mount
from my house. I knew I had taken everything including the hardware parts
with it. However, after reaching the spot, I realized a triangular board to
support the tripod was left at home..and I thought thats it! Anyway brains
racked together and we decided to tie it with a nylon string, to make the
heavy setup (in all maybe 25 kilos) stay put. It worked, and we headed off
for dinner. It was fun being together after a long time, however the skies
should clear up. We waited all night long, and I dont remember if it even
cleared for sometime. There was a photo-shoot of the parallelogram mount -
the mount was working just fine except for the mechanical anomaly I faced in
Mumbai too.

This was a time when everyone got noisy, cracking jokes, gossipping etc. But
we also got to a BAS meeting out in the open, and some serious issues were
discussed. No point being awake after around 3 am, and everyone went for a
nap, since it was getting very dewy and chilly. Some of them left early by
6am, and rest of us took some while to disassemble the scope and binoc mount
setup. I decided to take an alternate route in the cab we were in, from the
backside of the village, into the open wilderness, expecting a good scenic
drive. And man...were the roads one of the most horrific? All eyes were
naggingly looking at me, since some of the potholes were more than
10-15inches deep..it was only a tractor-able road! Finally we reached back
after the ~15 km struggle.

Hoping for clear skies in our 'next' session. Can Pavan and Ravindra post
the pics we took that day, esp the binoc mount for all to see? Thanking You.
Amar.

----------
From: *Amar Sharma* <amar_unive...@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 7:29 PM
To: b-a-s@googlegroups.com

Can Akarsh, Pavan and Ravindra individually upload their pics to a common
album..or whatever is convenient?

----------
From: *Akarsh Simha* <akarshsi...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 4:24 AM
To: b-a-s@googlegroups.com

Hi

I wrote a short report on this event, highlighting some aspects that
Amar missed in his report. Also made a collage of some pics that were
in my camera and put it on the report:

http://www.bas.org.in/Home/posts/2008/18/12/report-observing-session-...

Also processed one of the better astrophotos I took that day:

http://kstars.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/orion-hyades-and-pleiades/

Regards
Akarsh

--
Nitin Oke
"Yaa" Jatharpeth Road
Akola 444005
Ph. 0724 2420561

Regards
Akarsh

Hello Nitin, It is interesting to know you would be doing Messier hunt and sky watch alone at your native near Akola. Which is the equipment you have? I too am coincidentally in Thane (Mumbai) now once again, Would be leaving to visit the Lonar Meteor crater in 2 days. It is in Buldhana district around 120-140km from Aurangabad.
 
People have said the skies here are pretty dark, lets gauge how they are. Surprisingly enough it is cloudy in Mumbai now!! Anyway, best of luck and post your observing report.
 
Are you talking of having a meet in B'lore once you are back? That we must be having since it would be the beginning of IYA 2009. Thanking You. Amar.

--- On Fri, 12/19/08, nitin oke <okeni...@gmail.com> wrote:

From: nitin oke <okeni...@gmail.com>
Subject: [-BAS-] Re: Short session report - 6th dec 2008
To: b-a-s@googlegroups.com
Date: Friday, December 19, 2008, 9:35 PM

Hi all
I will be going for sky watch and messier hunt on Saturday night at a place by name Gandhigram near my native place akola. will report the observation afterwards
I will like to organise a small interaction session with interested one. Will it be possible for any one to dig out time for a mini meet which will start at 6PM and end next day morning and during day time we may have some lectures. Please contact..

Forwarded conversation
Subject: [-BAS-] Short session report - 6th dec 2008
------------------------

From: Amar Sharma <amar_unive...@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 12, 2008 at 8:00 PM
To: b-a-s@googlegroups.com

There is nothing about observing I can report here, since skies were all clouded up. However, this was a BAS star party coming after months. The attendees were Shweta, Sathya and Madhu who reached Hosahalli by 5:30 pm on 2 bikes. Half an hour behind in a cab were Akarsh, Me, Pavan and Ravindra. Rakesh and Sunil reached the venue as late by 10pm by the last bus.
 
We set the school's 8" scope and members were already taking afocal shots of it. I had boarded a cab booked by Akarsh, along with the parallelogram mount from my house. I knew I had taken everything including the hardware parts with it. However, after reaching the spot, I realized a triangular board to support the tripod was left at home..and I thought thats it! Anyway brains racked together and we decided to tie it with a nylon string, to make the heavy setup (in all maybe 25 kilos) stay put. It worked, and we headed off for dinner. It was fun being together after a long time, however the skies should clear up. We waited all night long, and I dont remember if it even cleared for sometime. There was a photo-shoot of the parallelogram mount - the mount was working just fine except for the mechanical anomaly I faced in Mumbai too.
 
This was a time when everyone got noisy, cracking jokes, gossipping etc. But we also got to a BAS meeting out in the open, and some serious issues were discussed. No point being awake after around 3 am, and everyone went for a nap, since it was getting very dewy and chilly. Some of them left early by 6am, and rest of us took some while to disassemble the scope and binoc mount setup. I decided to take an alternate route in the cab we were in, from the backside of the village, into the open wilderness, expecting a good scenic drive. And man...were the roads one of the most horrific? All eyes were naggingly looking at me, since some of the potholes were more than 10-15inches deep..it was only a tractor-able road! Finally we reached back after the ~15 km struggle.
 
Hoping for clear skies in our 'next' session. Can Pavan and Ravindra post the pics we took that day, esp the binoc mount for all to see? Thanking You. Amar.

----------
From: Amar Sharma <amar_unive...@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 7:29 PM
To: b-a-s@googlegroups.com

Can Akarsh, Pavan and Ravindra individually upload their pics to a common album..or whatever is convenient?

----------
From: Akarsh Simha <akarshsi...@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 4:24 AM
To: b-a-s@googlegroups.com

Hi

I wrote a short report on this event, highlighting some aspects that
Amar missed in his report. Also made a collage of some pics that were
in my camera and put it on the report:

http://www.bas.org.in/Home/posts/2008/18/12/report-observing-session-...

Also processed one of the better astrophotos I took that day:

http://kstars.wordpress.com/2008/12/19/orion-hyades-and-pleiades/

Regards
Akarsh

--
Nitin Oke
"Yaa" Jatharpeth Road
Akola 444005
Ph. 0724 2420561

Hi Madhusudan,I am happy to know that you are keen to explore universe and
its miseries. About telescope you have enquired about-- i will like to help
you but you need to define some few things what exactly you need telescope
for? i suggest that unless you know at least 50 to 60 constellations with at
least 4th to 5th magnitude star there is no meaning in using a telescope.
Here we do not allow new sky watchers to use telescope until they are able
to point out alpha, beta, gamma stars of constellations we expect them to
show 63 stars of orion and 54 of ursa mejor and so on if you have done this
step then go for telescope again you need to decide whether it is reflecting
or refracting in reflecting you have more magnification but not big size the
range is up to 15k in refracting depending on make, there may be aberrations
so if you just want to see Messier and planet even spotting scope may be use
full to you. In India you may go for Tejraj or even at Bangalore you may get
good telescope.
Hope this may be useful for you at your service when you need. be in touch.

On Sat, Dec 20, 2008 at 7:16 AM, Madhusudan Purushothaman <