17th - 18th November, 2012.
It was an excellent trip, did off-roading and Star gazing with some wonderful people. We camped at the top of Kirthar, about 2800ft above Sea level.
Passengers:
1. Aqeel Baig
2. Adil Jadoon
3. Naveed Merchant
4. Sajjad
5. Camran Mir
6. Rayhan
7. Mehdi Hussain
8. Fahad Ullah
9. Abubaker Siddiq
10. Nadir Siddiqui
11. Usman Iqbal
12. Hasan Ali
13. Tabish
14. Asif Ayub
15. Kamran Soomar
16. Kamil, Adil's son
17. Sheheryar Shah
18. Hanif Bhatti
Rides:
1. Naveed Merchant (TLC HJ-60)
2. Aadil Jadoon (Pajero)
3. Rayhan Ahmed (TLC Prado)
4. Aqeel Baig (Prado)
5. Hanif Bhatti (Becharo)
6. Camran Mir (MUTT)
Standing:
Left to right - Guide, Guide, Guide, Aqeel, Aadil, Rayhan, Camran, Hanif, Mehdi, Abubaker, Hasan, Kamran, Sajjad, Sheryar.
Front row:
Left to right - Guide, Abbas, Kamil, Fahad, Asif, Jawad, Naveed, Nadir, Tabish, Usman.
Center- Webster C24, largest privately owned telescope in Sub continent owned by Naveed Merchant.
Camran's Mutt.
Story-line by Abubaker.
Star Gazing at the Kirthar National Park, Sindh
17th and 18th of Nov 2012 was one of the most enjoyable, memorable and unforgettable day of the year 2012. The end of the year brought with it Adventure, Astronomy, and the first light of the long anticipated Webstar C24, the largest privately owned telescope by a KaAS core member, Naveed Merchant. The trip on 17/18 was arranged and organized by Pak Wheels and we all have been waiting for a Rutjaga since many months. Finally the day arrived when 6 SUVs were to leave Karachi to the mountains and interiors of the Kirthar National Park, Sindh which is one of the largest Wild Life sanctuaries of Pakistan. It was a Star gazing trip (R-18) and an off-roading trip. It was not just this that made it unforgettable. 16th to 18th Nov is the Peak of Leonids meteor shower. The excitement of the meteor shower added to the enjoyment.
The Amateur Astronomers of Pakistan has made an achievement by transporting a 24” Telescope at a height of approx. (700m) to one of the Darkest Skies of Pakistan. What an achievement, Masha Allah. This trip was a different one having Adventure, Astronomy and a lot of stuff that made it unforgettable.
The day started with Adventures. 3 SUVs had already left Karachi few hours before us in the morning since the C24 had to be reached there in day light so we have ample of time to assemble it. Remember, no light after Sun sets. Only star light. We were about to leave Hanif Bhai’s house around 10:45am when we got a call from the C24 owner that he had left a small component but very very very important part. Will tell the name later. Let’s keep it suspense. Thanks to Mehdi bhai for his support. I accompanied Mehdi bhai to get the component from Naveed Sahab house. We left at 11:17am and reached back at Hanif Bhai house by 11:36am. 85Km/hr was the average speed.
We enjoyed the journey to our destination taking photos, videos and enjoying snacks and beautiful mountains, trees, plants, rivers, rocks etc. We reached 15 – 20 minutes before the Sun Set at the destination and we were told that there are 3 Cheetas within our vicinity. We set up the telescopes and camps inside a border made of small rocks. All the SUVs were outside that boundary. What a Discipline.
The C24 was finally assembled and collimated. It was a great experience to collimate the C24 and assemble Mehdi bhai’s 7inch telescope. I learned a lot. The first object we saw with C24 was Andromeda galaxy, that was also visible to naked eye as a small hazy object. It wasn’t that cold at that time. We saw Andromeda galaxy and WOWWWW!! A big WOW! What a great view. It was so pleasing to the eye that I kept watching it for like minutes and minutes and everyone was waiting for me to leave the C24.
Over the night we saw shooting stars every now and then. They were the sporadic meteors. Throughout the observation, I helped Mehdi bhai align his telescope with the help of the laser pointer and iPad application. That was quite amazing. We were watching the DSOs, few people were talking, few people were busy taking photographs and having tea at the same time.
I have to cut short so putting things in points now as what happened in these 2 days.
- First Light of the Naveed Sahab's C24
- KaAS R-18 finally after years and years..
- Peak of Leonids Shower November 17th
- Transported and placed the C24 at a height of over 2500ft on the mountains of Karchat, Kirthar National Park, Sindh
- Surrounded by Ibex and Cheetahs (the gun man guides told us about Cheetahs) and Jins and Farishtas and God knows what.
- Watched so many meteors during night.
- Watched Orion m42, Crab nebula, seven sisters, Jupiter, and other DSOs... not to forget the mighty Andromeda galaxy, all with C24 What an amazing view. Saw all of them with KaAS's Maskotov as well. Enjoyed.. WoW!!
- The flashing laser pointers in the dark skies
- After few hours of Sunset and dinner, we saw the most amazing phenomenon. The lightening in the clouds. Since we were at a high altitude, we saw lightening clouds far away at night just at our eye level.. WOW!!! This happened for most part of the night by the way and we enjoyed it. It was happening on the North West.
- Amazing Photography during the day and night
- Adventure, both days.. Serious Adventure
- Perfect dinner, breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner
- Views of mountains and Ibex
- Every now and then, I saw Onion fields and Corn fields. Trees, Cacti, Succulents, Palm trees.. WoW! Masha Allah
- Saw too many squirrels during the day time. Saw sea gull at the Lake. Saw Rabbits on the road while going back to Karachi
Astronomy, Adventure, Off-Roading, Photography, Bird Watching, Mountains, Lake, Fields, Trees, Telescopes, Tents, Tea. everything was perfect and happened at the perfect moment. MashA Allah..
The trip didn’t ended easily, An SUV had some issue with the Engine radiator pipe throughout the second day and our engineer Camran Mir was there to fix it many times during the ride. Mehdi Bhai and other passengers helped collecting and filling water in the radiator. We went to a hotel on Noori Abad for dinner while going back to Karachi. We were all quite tired as we took a long and scary route to Karachi on our way back. We ordered the dinner The waiter said 15 minutes. We waited for an hour at least and we enquired about the status. The waiter and the manager said 15 minutes. We left the hotel and went to the opposite side of the road. We ordered in 5 mins and our dinner was on the table in front of us within 5 minutes. We left after enjoying dinner. 3 SUVs reached Hanif bhai house. The last good thing before going home happened to me was that I bought a USA made sleeping bag from Hanif Bhai for our future trips.
I wish to be part of every trip of Pak Wheels and KaAS.