On a cold August night in 2018, as I sat on my house’s rooftop and gazed up at the night sky whichfascinated me for reasons unknown, wondering how insignificant we were in the universe, a brainwave struck. You see, I desperately wanted something to peer closer into the vast expanse of the universe, to take a closer look at stars, nebulae and galaxies which appear to be the size of a speck of dust.
And that brainwave was that I buy my very own, personal telescope. I did a bit of research, came up with a small and cheap model. I selected it and took it to my parents for their consent. They dug around the internet and finally, came up with a much much better model. After getting a green light from both of them, we placed an order on Amazon. Five days later, a hefty package was delivered at our doorstep, and that is how I came in possession of my first telescope, the Celestron Astromaster 130 AZ.
Since then, I have spent countless nights on my terrace gazing at the sky. My observations over the next 2 years yielded pretty good results. I was able to get a few decent sightings of Jupiter along with its four moons, observed day and night on Mars, observed the famous rings of Saturn and most importantly, was able to observe the moon in all it’s glory on a full moon night.
With each observing session, my curiosity and confidence rose in the art of stargazing. Over the next few months, I became exceptional at pinpointing the location of several elusive DSO’s(Deep Sky Objects).
However, despite many victories, I had tried many times to catch a glimpse of the Orion Nebula (M42) without any success. One day, with the aid of my mother, we were able to precisely pinpoint it at the Nebula. It was an incredible sight! Unfortunately for me, I did not know that Nebulas do not appear colourful as shown on the internet, but appear in weird, fuzzy, black and white shapes. That day, I blamed it on the poor weather conditions in my area for not letting me see the Nebula. I lived with this misconception several weeks until my mom enrolled me in an Astronomy Club. It is there that I got to know that Nebulas aren’t visible as they are shown on the internet. This is because the light emitted by Nebulas is near-infrared which is too faint for our eyes to make out. But, they are shot in special green, blue and red filters and then processed in applications like photoshop to give them those brilliant colours.
To try my luck at how they are processed, I took an image shot by Trevor from AstroBackyard and processed it in Photoshop. This was the end result–
I also began to take part in online quizzes and competitions. I felt that this would help me for two reasons-
It would help me connect with people with similar interests. This would allow me to learn more about Astronomy and would help me stay in the know about the latest trending topics.
Also, it would reinforce whatever I knew about the subject and increase my potential. A few months later, I joined a google group called the “Bangalore Astronomy Society”. This is where the nebula ‘Misconception’ was corrected. By joining the online group, I could stay in the know about the latest telescopes and the different features they offered etc. We discuss the latest telescopes, their pros and cons, upcoming astronomical events etc. Do join us if you’re intrested!