main kub coastal highway visit karo ga. i don't know.......
trip pix are great hanif bhai
Wa'alaikum Assalam.
I'm sorry I wasn't able to post the plan here earlier. Anyway, next time Insha Allah. Thanks for the compliments.
Apologies for that. Hanif bhai had told me to tell about the night shots while we were at Hingol, but I've lately been quite occupied and not getting time to post much.
This was the view towards the north. The large asterism of the Big Dipper is in the middle of this frame.
This asterism helps in locating the North Star (Polaris), which was hidden behind the cliffs at Nani Mandir, and thus the cardinal directions in the northern hemisphere. Have you seen Alaska's flag?
The view towards north-west. The sickle of Leo is visible on the left. Within the red circle is Mars. As the months pass, Mars and Saturn will appear to come closer and closer in our skies until, in the last days of Shaban, we'll see a triangle changing its shape daily in the west after sunset.
Mars and Saturn will be going down while Venus will be rising day after day.
Obviously, folks trying to see the Moon of Ramazan will see an interesting sight. No, they won't find PakWheels.com jotted across the sky, but theyll probably find funny claims in newspapers' Yay Hafta Kaisa Rahay Ga.
Yep, it's been quite some time since I headed north. Will try to do so in the near future Insha Allah, although going to higher latitudes (northern areas for example) results in a little astronomical disadvantage: we see less of the southern sky. Many of our astronomer friends in Lahore and Islamabad have never seen some deep space objects which are vaguely visible even from light-polluted Karachi becuase of the objects' southerly declination. From any of the dark skies all along Pakistan's coast, they are breath-taking. One example is Omega Centauri. I showed it to HB with unaided eyes as a fuzzy patch and then binos from Hingol, but it hid itself behind the cliffs before the telescope was set up.
(Image courtesy Mike Sidonio)
The very first time I talked to HB on the phone, I knew he was our man. Libra bhai sitaron walay rocks! Glad you're enjoying yourself.
@Cheers, thanks for posting this very useful information. As a child I had subscribed a NatGeo magazine and with it came an astronomical chart which used to glow at night and that was very helpful in star gazing.
Oh, and although astrology has no reality whatsoever, my date of birth matches his closely, i.e, I'm a Libran too. I showed him the Scales in the sky at Hingol, and he picked them up surprisingly quick even though we did not have our green lasers (to point to the stars).
@Libra.... Amazing pics Hanif Bhai....never seen something like this in my life...
Rizwan bhai, if you ever get the chance, watch the stars either from Azad Kashmir and Gilgit etc. (i.e., the very northern-most places in Pakistan) or from almost anywhere in Balochistan. The grey zones in this map denote typical dark skies, while the black zones are truly dark sites. (Data for Karachi and its vicinity is unavailable).
Rohtas has nice skies but they aren't 100% dark. I'm just mentioning this because many people today don't know how the night really is like because most of us urban dwellers haven't seen it. Seeing is believing, they say. BTW, our astronomers in Islambad and Lahore did a huge star party in Rohtas in May last year. Link to the pics. Clear skies . . . at night!
My pleasure. Glad to know of the charts.
@cheersyar simply awesome, mashallah, in simple terms "you rockS", anyway, do let us know when ever you are in or near Islamabad, now after seeing all this really want to get some first hand info and try it myself.
btw any clubs in Islamabad/Rawalpindi? which i can join.
On my next trip i'll ask Cheers to bring that "thing" which connects the camera to the telescope:)
Yeah, me and Cheers were up whole night.
Thank you very much
Thanks
I might go to check out a location in interior Sindh for Star gazing, its 130kms form Karachi. Will you join us? If its dark enough i'll invite Zain and his group.
Thank you very much:)
