Upcoming outreach - Agumbe
Amar Sharma
Hello All,
I would be leaving tomorrow 18th night for an outreach / observing trip, invited by one of my friend's, to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS). Agumbe, in the lap of Western Ghats receives the second highest rainfall in India, it's an *enchanting* paradise for Nature lovers. This rainforest is known for it's diverse flora and fauna. Home of King Cobras and the location where series Malgudi Days was shot, it should also offer some of the darkest skies, since they use solar power. (Sunset over Arabian Sea is seen from here, nearly 35-40 km away!!!) There is a school from B'lore visiting the place, and I would have to conduct an outreach session for 40 odd students on Saturday night. I hope to sight-see places around on Friday to Sunday. Equipment is my 20x80 Celestron binocs along with a tripod. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agumbe
Location : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=13.5181193&lon=75.0887954&z=15&l=0&m=a&v=2 (See the dense forest this is surrounded by!) Regarding upcoming trips planned in New Moon periods, in Jan end there would be a personal trip for 4-5 of us to B R Hills (forest where the notorious sandalwood smuggler 'Verappan' resided). We might not have space for more people. We'll have to manage transport, accomodation should be done. Come Feb, and this is a trip where some of you could also join along, to the place I am most expectant of darkest skies - Nagarhole National Park (maybe covering Bandipur and Kabini national parks). I do not have any idea of accomodation there, and transport would also have to be arranged. This is the beginning of a
string of astro-treking places in Western Ghats.Looking forward for positive observing reports in next few days. Thanking You. Amar. |
Amar Sharma
I did visit the place alone, joined by my friend Rajpawan and Suhas the next day. There was nothing much I could do there, except be a part of the 'wildlife' style of life for 2 full days, away from this thing called - dense human habitation...you just forget you live in cities! It was a haven for primarily conserving King Cobras, snakes and wildlife in general. The Nature there was simply breath-taking, and I got to see some of it. The outreach was supposed to happen good, but the children come from B'lore were so tired at the end of the day after the Nature-related activities, that they didnt have energy to carry on sky watching, and I had to end it.
Regarding the skies there, the first night was clear and second was clouded. I did get an estimate for some time however it was shockingly not as dark as expected. The background was slightly reddish, and Milky Way was not brightly visible. This place is so remote and without electricity, it should have *more* than 6.5 mag skies atleast. However being an evergreen forest and the place receiving 2nd highest rainfall in India (!!) there must have been high humidity and water vapour in the atmosphere.
My bus back to Mumbai from Udupi did pass along the coastline, and near to some of the creamiest places in Western Ghats. I could see sign boards pointing to Yana, and Gokarna some 20-30 km away. A separate trip has to be planned to cover such darkest places in this region. Also if it is Agumbe once again, we need more careful planning of getting darker places, probably a few safe villages in the interior I saw.
Next in few days for me would be judging skies above Lonar Meteor crater, supposed to be dark. My extremely detailed travelogue expected after I get back home, after the New Year. Thanking You. Amar.
--- On Wed, 12/17/08, Amar Sharma <amar_u...@yahoo.com> wrote: |
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Rakesh Nath
I just did Yana-Gokarna this weekend, skies are pretty lousy and its not worth doing a trip here, however if we do know of a dark spot where we could go then it makes sense,for Yana is pretty much a tourist spot and Gokarna is the same, however intermediate beaches seem excellent candidates, but haze is a BIG problem, the highway to bangalore is pretty good though, we could look for a dark spot nearby
Best regards
Rakesh
Amar Sharma
Rakesh, you have just struck bang in the center with a question that struck me returning by road near these 2 places from Agumbe. People have rated skies at Yana, Om beach and Gokarna region et al. Western Ghats (WG) generally to be among the best. But the humidity / moisture content here should be on a high all year round, rendering skies reddish, whereever you go here.
I was infact worrying on route where do we get the darkest of skies in WG? Because the light pollution from even 20-30km away towns will be spread by the water content. If no dark skies here, then very difficult elsewhere around. Whats the working of dark skies? Which are the BEST darkest places we should look out for in WG? --- On Sun, 12/28/08, Rakesh Nath <rak...@gmail.com> wrote: |