After
the marathon 2200 kms journeying from my place
Especially
for the astronomy night
A
Messier Marathon night, finally reached the city
Started
off in vehicles loaded with telescopes
Drove
to a darkest remote site to view the messier objects
Named
after Charles Messier the French astronomer
Cataloguing
110 objects comprising nebulae, galaxies, star clusters
It’s
a wide awake night to view as many as of the objects
Numbered
M-1 to M-110 with individual names
Like
M-1 crab nebula, M-31 andromeda galaxy, M-42 Orion nebula
Having
known all this in theory it was pure thrill and excitement
As
telescopes 12 inch, 10 inch, 6 inch, binoculars unpacked
Mounted
on tripods to set them up for viewing whole night
It
was moonless night, cloud less with pitch stark sky, right!
Ideal
for viewing as many messier objects from dusk to dawn
Gone
are the olden days of manual viewing
Telescopes
come equipped with pre installed software,
Controller
to spot a particular region in the sky, switch buttons
To
align with two or three stars, done whole range of stars come alive
On
the tablet, smart phone tuned with telescopes, fine tune there Messier object!
Started
off at 9 p.m. messier objects started counting on the telescopes
Peering
through the eye piece when spotted, what a sight
The
Andromeda, crab nebula, Orion nebula in full light
A
sight to behold, sight to cherish, stash away in memory, a rare connect
With
break for dinner sharing whatever brought, sharing laughs, bonhomie
Dinner
done, joyous viewing continued with brisk banter,
Swift
search, locate, view, sending fire crackers into the stars
Fire
crackers being laser beams shot up from the telescopes
To
spot the stars, built bonfire, sat around, had snacks, tea, at dawn
packed
telescopes, left the site to come back next year for tryst with stars
-Mohan Sanjeevan
