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, March 2013

- Comet Pan-STARRS and Comet Lemmon

March 15, 2013

Comet Pan-STARRS from Quetta, Pakistan

This amazing shot of Comet Pan-STARRS was taken by Baqir Naqvi on 14th March 2013 from Quetta, Pakistan.

March 12, 2013

Comet Pan-STARRS from Tasmania, Australia

Muhammad Akbar Hussain

I took this shot of Comet Pan-STARRS from Burnie at the northern cooast of Tasmania using Celestron Skymaster 15x70 binoculars and Sony Ericsson C902 mobile phone camera. It was low on the western horizon and I had to capture it against the twilight sky which proved to be quite a task especially in a hand held binocular with mobile camera held in another hand. The other Comet Lemmon was further up towards the zenith and wasn't visible with the unaided eye, yet readily visible through the binoculars. It was still fairly dim to be captured by the simple camera of the mobile phone I had.

Comet Pan-STARRS should be mainly an object of northern hemisphere by now. I am still waiting for one of our team members in Karachi to be able to capture it from there.

Viewing two comets at the same time was quite a unique experience for me as an astronomer.

November 25, 2012

Star Gazing at the Kirthar National Park, Sindh

By Abubaker Siddiq Shekhani

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. 16^th to 18^th Nov is the Peak of Leonids meteor shower. The excitement of the meteor shower added to the enjoyment.

The Amateur Astronomers of Pakistan have 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. J 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. J Only star light. We were about to leave HanifBhai’s house around 10:45am when we got a call from the C24 owner that he had left a small component but very veryvery 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 NaveedSahab house. We left at 11:17am and reached back at HanifBhai house by 11:36am. J 85Km/hr was the average speed. J

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. J 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. J

1. First Light of the Naveed Sahab's C24

2. KaAS R-18 finally after years and years..

3. Peak of Leonids Shower November 17th

4. Transported and placed the C24 at a height of over 2500ft on the mountains of Karchat, Kirthar National Park, Sindh

5. Surrounded by Ibex and Cheetahs (the gun man guides told us about Cheetahs) and Jins and Farishtas and God knows what. :)

7. Watched so many meteors during night.

8. 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 7" Maskutov as well. Enjoyed..WoW!!

9. The flashing laser pointers in the dark skies

10. 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.

11. Amazing Photography during the day and night

12. Adventure, both days.. Serious Adventure

13. Perfect dinner, breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner

14. Views of mountains and Ibex

15. Every now and then, I saw Onion fields and Corn fields. Trees, Cacti, Succulents, Palm trees..WoW! Masha Allah

16. 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 end 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.

Click the link below for gallery:

http://astronomer.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/Karachi%20Astronomers%20Society%20at%20Kirthar%2c%20Nov%202012

November 21, 2012

Karachi Astronomers Society's 24 inch Webster

(24" Webster Dobsonian with its proud owner Naveed Merchant and the Karachi Astronomers Society's team. Picture courtesy: Hanif Bhatti)

Karachi Astronomers Society is further uplifted as its 24" Webster Dobsonian gets functional. Owned by our member Mr Naveed Merchant, this enormous machine was purchased few months ago. It was assemble by our technical genius Abbas Jafri and witnessed first light a few days ago under magnificient skies of Kirthar National Park near Karachi. It is the largest privately owned astronomical telescope in South Asia. Way to go Karachi astronomers.

November 15, 2012

Cairns Eclipse, Karachi Astronomers Society

Muhammad Akbar Hussain

I arrived Cairns a day before the eclipse, equipped with gear comprising Karachi Astronomers Society’s Skywatcher Skymax 127 MCT equipped with Orion white light solar filter mounted on EQ1 mount and a JVC Full HD camcorder on a camera tripod. I brought the Skymax along from Karachi in October this year. It wasn’t a promising weather at Cairns and the forecast told of showers for next morning at the time of eclipse. I surveyed the Cairns Esplanade for the best possible location to set up the equipment next day. Next morning, before dawn-break, I was at the designated location. I wasn’t alone. Hundreds of people had already gathered for the show and thousands more were pouring in. There were umbrophiles from almost all over the world, including USA, Canada, UK, Japan, Germany, Netherland, to name a few. I was lucky not only because my chosen spot wasn’t yet taken but also there were no showers, It was mostly overcast with patches of clear skies. The Sun rose behind the seaside hills and remained hidden behind clouds. I got the first glimpse of partial phase of eclipse in ingress some 20 minutes before the totality. But then I wasn’t lucky anymore as there was a huge patch of thick clouds in front of the Sun. As a backup I had practiced the time lapse movie making on my camcorder a few days before, so I started the recording realizing that I wouldn’t be lucky enough to view the totality due to the cloud patch. I found it interesting to see the sun rays spiking from behind the clouds and then slowly dying out as totality progressed creating darkness and then showing up again in a couple of minutes. At the totality, stars were visible in the clear patches of the sky. It reminded me of the 1999 total Solar eclipse in Karachi when we had found ourselves in a similar situation due to relative overcast. The sky started to clear up as the eclipse egressed and I caught a few nice filtered shots of partiality through Skymax 127 using the old faithful Sony Ericsson C902, my best reliable and long lived astrophotography gear.

Here is a link to the gallery:

http://astronomer.zoomshare.com/1.shtml/Cairns%20Solar%20Eclipse%20-%20Nov%202012

Below is a link to the time lapse video of Cairns under the eclipse progression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W02eXXg2QYg

October 26, 2012

Total Solar Eclipse, Cairns Australia

I am going to represent Karachi Astronomers Society at the event of Total Solar Eclipse at Cairns, Australia, on 14th Nov 2012. I have brought KaAS's Skymax 127 with EQ1 mount to Australia for viewing the eclipse and will modify the Orion 8" solar white light filter to fit on the 5" aperture for this purpose. I have also bought a JVC full HD camcorder with 40x optical zoom to capture the event. Now praying and eagerly looking forward for the success of the event.

Muhammad Akbar Hussain

August 22, 2012

Lunar Photo Of the Day (LPOD)

We are glad and honoured by the selection of our picture of the thin crescent from Tasmania on 18th August 2012 to be selected as the Lunar Photo Of the Day.

http://lpod.wikispaces.com/August+22,+2012

We are thankful to the LPOD admin for the recognition of our hard work.

August 20, 2012

Capturing the very thin Crescent

M A Hussain

This is the picture of the new moon, at barely 15 hrs and 36 mins, as it appeared over the western horizon of Tasmania (Australia) at the dusk hour of 18/08/12. This picture was taken through our Skywatcher 8" dobsonian with Sony Ericsson 5mp mobile phone camera. The moon was invisible to naked eye.

Me and other Tasmanian astronomers gathered at the Penguin Point with a good view of the western horizon some time before the sunset. It looked like a bit of a challenge to capture a crescent so thin as to be invisible to the naked eye. Low on horizon and fairly close to the Sun, we had a very short window of opportunity to locate the invisible crescent and capture it before it disappeared behind the horizon. I spotted it with my Celestron 15x70 binoculars as a barely visible crescent very low on the sky and then turned the 8" dobs towards it to bring it in the field of view at 40x. A tiny piece of cloud helped us to avoid losing it while we directed our telescopes towards it, and soon we all were relishing the spectacle.

This crescent held a unique importance for the Lunar calendar followed by Muslims around the globe to start the month of Shawwal which begins with the annual festival of Eid ul Fitr on its first day, marking the end of the Lunar month of fasting, the Ramadan.

Solar transit of Venus by Fouad M. Qureshi, Karachi

A beautiful montage of Venus transit shots taken by Dr Fouad M. Qureshi of Karachi using Skywatcher 80mm mounted on Meade DS2000 with Meade DSI pro imager. These images were filtered through the layers of clouds and perhaps one of the best images of the transit taken from Karachi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAcVZl6Jy7w&feature=youtu.be

June 09, 2012

Solar transit of Venus, 6th June 2012

Here is a collection of photographs of transit of Venus across the Sun on 06/06/2012. These photographs were taken by some of the Pakistani amateur astronomers from Sargodha, Quetta and Karachi in Pakistan, and from Tasmania in Australia.

Click here for the gallery

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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