Pakistan Amateur Astronomers Society

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Our aim is to provide a common platform of activity for amateur
astronomers across Pakistan. From sky-watching to telescope designing and making, we encourage them to bring forward innovations and ideas to test and substantiate their potential. From a humble start, we seek a long road ahead to discover what future holds for amateur astronomy in Pakistan.

An Infinite Space, an Infinite Journey

UPDATES, May 2012

- Karachi Astronomers Society - Solar Astronomy Outreach12th May2012-

May 12, 2012

Solar astronomy outreach by Karachi Astronomers Society - DSRA Educational and Welfare Trust School, Karachi

(KaAS Team)

(Students safely enjoying spectacular views of Sun through KaAS's Skywatcher 100ED refractor with white light filter)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z33C7PoydtQ

Solar Astronomy Session organized by Muhammad Adil Mulki and led by the Karachi Astronomers Society at DSRA Educational & Welfare Trust School on 12th May 2012.

The event was being planned since more than four weeks. At the eleventh hour, as luck had it, the person who had introduced the DSRA School to Muhammad Adil Mulki and Zain Ahmed & who was coordinating the two parties had to leave Karachi on an official commitment. Adil Mulki was already committed with another welfare school on the opposite end of the city, and the DSRA event was then at the brink of cancellation. But not wanting to disappoint the school kids who had been anticipating their chance to look at and through an astronomical telescope since days, Adil Mulki and Zain Ahmed decided to brace up for a dash. And then luck - and on D-day, Asim Qadri, his gang and Abu Bakr Shekhani of Team KaAS, and active region 1476 - were on their side.

April 23, 2012

Solar astronomy outreach by Karachi Astronomers Society

(by S M Asim Qadri)

On April 23, 2012, Karachi Astronomers Society organised presentation and Solar astronomy session for students of Education Bay School, Phase VIII, DHA Karachi. The team was lead by Zain Ahmed. Other members who also joined were Mehdi, Ayaz, Ebrahim, Sauib & Asim.. It was good team effort by all members of Karachi Astronomers Society.. Around 100 students and their teachers overwhelmingly participated in presentation by Zain and the following solar astronomy session in which they watched sun through telescopes, for the first time in their lives.. The un-ending intelligent questions from the students were there to increase our faith in Pakistan talent and potential.. signs of promising future of our country in Astronomy & Space Sciences inshaAllah.. It was very happy to note that a large group of junior students (grade III or so) kept us persuading to include them in the activity .. which we couldnt because of limited time.. May be next time inshaAllah. Last but not the least, we are grateful to the administrartion for anticipating the importance of this vital field of science, and healthy activity.. they well coordinated it in a time when exams were very near. In a nutshell.. it was a memorable event .. for everbody.. alhamdolillah.

(The equipment used was Karachi Astronomers Society's newly acquired Skymax 180 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope from Australia coupled with Orion white light solar filter and Lunt LS35 Hydrogen-Alpha solar telescope mounted on Celestron CG-5 computerized mount)

Click here to visit the gallery.

March 15, 2012

PLANETARY SHOW ON WESTERN HORIZON - From Quetta

A beautiful view of the Venus and Jupiter in conjunction over the western horizon of Quetta. Image by Baqir Naqvi.

March 12, 2012

KARACHI ASTRONOMERS SOCIETY - STAR PARTY R-17

Karachi Astronomers Society(KaAS) are planning a star party event with off roading in Balochistan near Sindh at 26.247900 66.718003on Saturday 24th March and return back to Karachi on Sunday 25th March. This location was covered in dawn.com in our previous KAAS visit on February 2012. Here is the link to the article.

What do we do on such star parties

1. Offroading during the day to reach a particular destination and then observe the night sky in general

2. Discuss about the upcoming major celestial or Astronomical events

3. Watch Galaxies, Nebulae and Planets through telescopes in the deep skies.

4. Enjoy food, tea and darkness

5. Enjoy the traveling, observe the mountains, sky, the stars, the planets, the artificial satellites and the great land of Pakistan

6. Enjoy photography

7. And lot of fun

KaAS is planning its next Rutjaga (meaning, an event when one stays for a night). The details are:

Rutjaga:AlBeruni R-17Date:24/25th March 2012

Venue:KaAS Base Camp in Balochistan close to Sindh. It's also safe for families and kids.

Distance:~250Km from Karachi

Elevation:~3000ft. There are other amazing spots within this location going upto 4000 feet.

Off-Roading to KAAS base camp: 20-25Kms

Cost Per Person:~ Rs. 3500/- We will share the cost Fuel of SUVs and for Food on actual cost estimated to be around Rs. 3500/-.

Participants having SUVs may bring their own SUVs and can accommodate those participants who doesn't have one. The fuel cost can then be shared equally.We are also looking at option of hiring Mazda bus as it has high ground clearance and good for at off roading till KAAS base camp.

Your own warm cloths, tents, sleeping bag and Snacks.

Registration Deadline:16th March 2012

Those who are interested to join us for the event should contact us at contact@kaasts.com with their Name, Email, and Phone Number. We will tell you the payment procedure for event registration.

Regards,

Karachi Astronomers Society

February 27, 2012

A SHORT VIDEO OF SUN IN H-ALPHA

M. Ayaz Hussain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGxCgImF7hY&feature=youtu.be

This is a quick attempt to make a video of the Sun in Hydrogen Alpha through our Lunt LS35 solar telescope mounted over Celestron CG-5 mount with a simple planetary webcam. This is quite a raw video with erratic exposure settings, but a few prominences and sunspots are still visible.

February 25, 2012

A BRIEF SESSION WITH CELESTRON C14

M. Akbar Hussain

It had been many weeks since I ever had a glimpse of the sky through my telescope, partly because of the frequent overcast down here over Tasmania and my work schedule not being in sync with theoccassional clearer skies. Last saturday's sky was relatively promising and I was lucky to have Peter available for sky viewing. Soon after sunset, I drove to his place with my Celestron 70mm binoculars. He had his old Celestron C14 setup and ready for the hunt. Our first target was 47 Tucanae, and there it was as I always saw it in the pictures. I have seen a few globular clusters through my binoculars and the 8" dobs but not resolved enoughdown toindividual stars. Though it was still a bit of twilight on the western horizon, but the view was breathtaking. I could have gazed for hours but we had other targets. So we turned it towards the Eta Carinae. At higher magnification, even the bilobed structure of the Homunculus Nebula was easily discernible. Other targets were the majestic Omega Centauri and of course the M42 Orion Nebula. I tried to capture the M42 with my cell phone camera but the picture results are very much similar to the ones taken through my 8" Skywatcher dobs (below).

December 27, 2011

COMET C/2011 W3 (LOVEJOY) FROM TASMANIA

M. Akbar Hussain

Comet C/2011 W3 (Lovejoy) is a celestial show in pre-dawn southern skies as of Dec 2011. It was discovered by Terry Lovejoy of Queensland, Australia. It made an extremely close flyby of Sun through its corona and is now shining above the skies in southern hemisphere as it recedes further into its course into deep space.

Me and Peter Sayers (a renowned amateur astronomer in Tasmania) observed the comet on 24th Dec before dawn break. The view was breathtaking. The ion and dust trails were not very separable then. We attempted to photograph the comet early morning today (27/12/11) before dawn. It was quite hazy with layers of clouds and the comet is fast getting dimmer. The ion and dust trails were easily separable though.

November 28, 2011

DSO WITH A CELL PHONE CAMERA

Muhammad Akbar Hussain

This is a picture of M42 Orion Nebula taken with a Sony Ericsson C902 mobile phone camera through Skywatcher 8" Dobsonian. This is my first attempt to capture a Deep Space Object (DSO) using a cell phone. Previously I had demonstrated how one can even capture an 11.5 magnitude star with a cell phone at an eye-piece when I was able to conveniently resolve stars in the Jewel Box Cluster in Crux in a phone image of the cluster (Scroll down). Anyone who has ever tried using a cell phone at the eye-piece of a telescope to do 'astrophotography' would know what it takes to try capturing a DSO with it. But my Sony Ericsson buddy is the only 'astrophotography' equipment I have at the moment, and I know how to make the most of it.

November 21, 2011

JUPITER THROUGH SK'EYE-5

Jupiter through our Sk'eye-5 (inset) constructed by Dr Ashraf. Picture taken by Mehdi with a hand held mobile camera. Sk'eye-5 is a Dobsonian equipped with a 10" f/6 David Hinds mirror with a 1/30th wave accuracy.

November 20, 2011

MERCURY AND VENUS FROM QUETTA

Mercury and Venus as they appear close together on western horizon of Quetta at dusk and captured by Baqir Naqvi through his Olympus digital camera.

November 12, 2011

CELESTIAL SHOW ON WESTERN HORIZON

These are the pictures of Mercury, Venus, and Antares appearing close together on Tasmania's western horizon on the evening of 12th Nov 2011 as they appeared to the unaided eye. These pictures were taken with a Sony Cyber-shot 14.1MP camera.

November 6, 2011

MOON TEST FOR THE 10" DOBSONIAN SK'EYE-5

Sk'eye-5 is our 10" Dobsonian reflector designed and constructed by M. Ashraf Hussainin 2010and has been through different quality checks and improvements until now. Recently it was tested by Mehdi for Moon images using a mobile phone as imaging device (Nokia N8 12MP camera). This picture is a mosaic of several pictures.

October 26, 2011

SOLAR STUDY SESSION, KARACHI

We conducted a short solar study session on 26th October 2011 using our Lunt LS35 Hydrogen Alpha solar telescope and Skywatcher 100ED apochromatic refractor coupled with a Baader white light solar filter, both mounted on Giro-3 altazimuth mount. The photographic equipment usedwas a simple astro webcam. These are unedited images of the Sun in both spectra. These are quite average shots for a small solar apparatus.

Click here for gallery.

October 25, 2011

FIRST LIGHT FOR SK'EYE-4, 12.5" NEWTONIAN

Muhammad Akbar Hussain

On my current visit to Pakistan, I aimed to redesign the previous Sk'eye-4 optical tube assembly (OTA) and to complete the mount as much as possible and to deploy the OTA on the mount at least to make it take the first light. I barely managed to achieve that.

There was no real problem with the previous version of the OTA that I completed on my previous visit last year, only that it was less eye-catching. The idea was to test an equatorial mount without involving heavy parts or counter weights. That resulted in a mount with a fork deployed at an angle. Running four days behind schedule, we barely managed to attach the OTA on the mount, literally minutes before the planned first light ceremony of the telescope with Karachi Astronomers Society (KaAS) team on 23rd October. The first coat of paint as shown in the picture was still a bit of a mess.

The objective was Jupiter and its moons for the first light. It was actually the first test view of the telescope itself as we never got a chance to test it before-hand in real sense. And to make the matter worse, there wasn't a telrad finder still or any other finder scope. The declination axis was overly yielding and the right ascension axis was over-stiff. Mr. Khalid Marwat, president of KaAS, with his tremendous exprerience, still managed to align the OTA towards Jupiter and so the Sk'eye-4 had its successful first light. We only managed to view Jupiter at the lowest available magnification (still 60x for a 12.5" f/6 mirror), proudly revealing the bands of Jupiter. The mirrors were nearly perfectly collimated in the first instance with this new gravity assisted collimation mechanism that I developed last year for the previous OTA of Sk'eye-4. Mr Marwat was happy for the optics but wasn't entirely happy about the mount for obvious reasons. However, there are obvious and identified construction errors (no idetifiable design error though) including narrow catch for the fork ringand slightly off-axis fork shaft. The declination axis still needs some extra washers to tighten it up.

As I am leaving for Australia in a few days, I willnow hand over the mount in Ashraf bhai's expert hands for a review. The Sk'eye-4 will hopefully be in a conveniently usable form pretty soon.

Visit the gallery here.

October 10, 2011

'WATCH THE TALK' ASTRONOMY AT WSW FAMILY FAIR 2011

Here is a detailed account of the successful outreach activity by Karachi Astronomers Society at the WSW and SUPARCO (Pakistan's Space Agency)'s 50th anniversary at NED University Karachi. Read here.

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