Global Star Party April 2019

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May 02

2019

by SPACE Chennai

Global Star Party

Natwest Mango County, Thiruvallur, India

Around 100 young astronomers and teachers from DAV Public School, Velachery, Chennai went with us to a dark site 150 km from Chennai city, away from city light pollution, with a +5.5 Limiting Magnitude sky to enjoy the dark night sky and its jewels. The observation took place on the nights of 12th and 13th April 2019.

Students were exposed to various aspects of night sky observation like basic terminologies of the sky, its coordinates, effects of light pollution and use of red light instead of white light. They also learned about various constellations and their boundaries and asterisms. Night sky maps, planispheres, were also introduced and they used it to hunt down constellations in the sky, finding no less than 30 constellations in the sky. They also found out positions of Deep Sky Objects, bright stars and planets and finally got to witness the bright summer Milkyway arm of our galaxy. They observed and pointed towards the various night sky objects and also captured a few using DSLR cameras after being trained on Astrophotography. The observation lasted till morning twilight after witnessing the mighty planet Venus in the morning. 

Objects Observed through the telescope:

Moon

Planets: Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus

Deep Sky Objects: Orion Nebula, M45, M44, M4, M13, Omega Centauri

Stars: Betelgeuse, Sirius, Capella, Arcturus and Double Star - Alcor and Mizar

Several satellite passes and meteors were seen!

Equipment Available at the site:

- 200mm Newtonians (Dobsonian)

- 50mm Refractors

- 12X60 Binoculars

Objects captured in camera

Summer Milkyarm, Wide angle constellations and DSO's, Moon and Planets.

Astrophotography Equipment

- Canon DSLR cameras along with tripods

- Wide angle lenses

- Canon T Ring and Adapter

- Barlows

We have compiled a small video of all the moments of the Star Party. Please click on the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0iy_hbCYjY