On a star trek

Bookwise
A small booklist for the amateur stargazer must include Norton Star Atlas and Celestial Handbook and Astronomy Hacks: Tips and Tools for Observing the Night Sky. If you’re clueless about how to start with books,Google the amateur astronomy clubs in the city. Most will be only willing to guide you. “These clubs,like mine,also come out with pamphlets and journals which are very helpful,” says Mukherjee,who is a member of the Skywatchers’ Association in Kolkata,started in 1986. Journals can be bought for as little as Rs 5 from the club.

Chart your way
Bookshops also stock star charts,which is the most important aid in helping you get acquainted with the territory. The basic chart divides the sky into grids according to longitudes,time of the day and month. Compare your longitudinal position with the chart,and find what stars are shining down on you. Most amateur skywatching clubs in various cities have their own manuals,star charts,and beginner’s guides which are available in vernacular languages too.

The Snags
If your balcony is surrounded by neon billboards,you have a problem. “Light pollution has made it very difficult to stargaze from the city these days,apart from particulate pollution. Bright artificial lights make it very difficult to capture any image in the telescope,” says Mukherjee. Instead,travel to the outskirts of the city with a portable telescope and track comets in peace.

The Perks
You get to know all the answers. How does a sandstorm scourge over Mars? Do Saturn rings really look the lurid pink they are in solar maps? Is there ice on Mars? “Mars is shrouded in a burnt reddish hue thanks to the copious amount of iron oxide on its surface. But when a sandstorm rages on it,the reddish colour floods over all the dents in the halo,” Mukherjee says. The polar ice caps on Mars are like dark black blotches on a red carpet; Saturn’s rings glower back at you like electric white melon wedges…
A variable star is a stargazer’s delight. “It is the easiest to follow,from life to death. At times you find its glow waning after a sudden burst of brightness,as it finally disintegrates,or dies,” says Mukherjee. Once hooked to the sky,you can also spot comets and meteors. A very bright centre and a smoky halo usually distinguishes a comet from other stars.

The next time someone tells you that you’re worth the stars in the sky,floor them with a little math. You’ll probably be worth 6,500 units of burning gas because that’s the number of stars a person can see at a time with the naked eye.
All the hours spent romancing the stars can be actually put to some good use. “The bigger astronomy observatories cannot keep a track on every small event in the sky. It is the amateur astronomers who fill them up on the same which they use for further research,” says Mukherjee,who outsources the data collected to the American Association of Variable Star Observers.