All Night Sky Watch Party at Gavi Betta

18-19 February 2023

"Before we invented civilization our ancestors lived mainly in the open out under the sky"

- Carl Sagan

[If any reader familiar with this blog is wondering where I have been all these years, I would like to compare myself with Rip Van Winkle, making a re-entry to this chaotic post-covid world, convinced that it is better late than never.] 

The Motivation

Night Sky Watching is one of the oldest hobbies of human beings, young and old, literate or illiterate, in any part of the world, northern or southern hemisphere, at any time of the year, and with or without optical aid such as binoculars and portable telescopes, the only expectation being clear skies with little or no light pollution.

I have been a night sky watcher, and an amateur astronomer as well, ever since I was mesmerized by the vision of the great comet Ikeya-Seki in late 1965, just a year after I had joined the Regional Institute of Education in Mysore.  My newly discovered hobby had been fueled by incredibly clear and unpolluted night skies all around the institution’s large campus and over a vast area surrounding it, including the sprawling Mysore university campus. Those were the days when I could readily spot with the naked eye quite a large number of constellations, asterisms, planets, prominent stars, open star clusters, great globular clusters, nebulae, galaxies, parts of the Milky Way, etc., most of which could be found in the famous Messier catalogue.  I was particularly fascinated by the richness of the southern skies. Those views with the unaided eye were greatly enriched by observations I could make with a simple 4” refractor telescope and a 6” Newtonian reflector with an equatorial mount, both fully manually operated.  I was such a familiar figure to the campus night watchmen that they would instinctively turn off all the lights around me, even without being asked to, whenever I entered the building housing the telescopes.

My surroundings and viewing conditions remained virtually unchanged for the next two decades at least, before being overtaken by the ravages of urban ‘development’.  What was once a beautifully green foliage has now been transformed into an ugly concrete jungle. The fact that I now live in the heart of the city, with severe light pollution, though otherwise agreeable, has virtually killed my hobby except when I get the chance to move far away from the city to distant rural locations. Luckily, such occasions have not been too infrequent. 

The Opportunity

One such opportunity arose recently when my long time protégé, Chiranjeevi, organized a group visit to Heruru Gavi Betta near Sakleshpur, one of a number of pristine hills situated in the western ghats of Kodagu district, about 120 km away from Mysore (see map).  For this he chose the Shivarathri festival holiday weekend of Saturday, 18 Feb 23, which also meant a new moon day with its promise of all night moonless dark skies. Another nearby hill, called Patla Betta, had been the original destination, but this was changed at the last minute for reasons of convenience.

The Journey

A group of eight (see picture below), all starting from Mysore, comprised of four hardcore amateur astronomers (Krishnamurthy, Ilavenil, Chiranjeevi and myself) were joined by four others who just wished to share in the thrills of night sky watching.  Two were entirely new to the hobby and had joined us voluntarily as last-minute substitutes.   While Chiranjeevi was the organizer-in-chief and the tour leader, the other three in the group provided the hardware support through their personal collection of telescopes, tripods, eyepieces, binoculars, cameras, etc.  Chiranjeevi measured up fully to the responsibility he had taken upon himself and left no stone unturned to make the trip the success it turned out to be, barring the ordeal on our return journey that was entirely beyond his control.  When he found two people of the original group of eight dropping out of the trip, he even went out of the way to make up the optimal strength of the group by finding last minute substitutes. As it turned out, he was also the one fully and totally awake right through the night in the true spirit of Shivarathri, mindful of all his commitments all the time.  It was yet another illustration of his unwavering leadership qualities, something from which both Krishnamurthy and I have been beneficiaries for about fifteen years now.

The Night Sky Party. Standing (l to r): Lanchan (local logistic support), Karthik, Manideep, Chiranjeevi B, Rakshitha R Chandran, Krishnamurthy M, Prasad S N and Ilavenil T.  Sitting (l to r): Tejasvi and Avinash Vyyuru.

[This picture was taken on the following morning, just before departure from Gavi Betta]

Chiranjeevi had managed to procure on rent much of the support materials such as transportable tents, sleeping bags, air pillows, blankets, foldable chairs, etc. from a resourceful vendor in an obscure location in Mysore.  These were needed mainly to meet unforeseen contingencies like rain, extreme weather or someone requiring a break from the night’s endeavors. As things turned out, they proved to be very useful indeed. 

The Arrival

After putting together all the gear, we started in a minibus around noon time on Saturday, 19^th February, ate lunch on the way in a roadside hotel near Hunsur and reached a rendezvous point with our local host Lanchan at the foot of the hill well before the expected time. We changed from the minibus to a rugged and rusty four-wheel drive transport vehicle belonging to him, with all our luggage and ourselves (including the minibus driver Nitya Kumar who was eager to share our experiences instead of unnecessarily staying back with his vehicle) squeezed at the rear of it (see the smiling faces below).  Being by far the oldest member of the group, I was allowed the luxury of sitting comfortably in the front, next to Lanchan who was also the driver.  After some initial confusion about the rout to follow, we reached the top of the hill around 4 PM, right next to a steep ravine conveniently facing west, greeted by a dazzling Sun. 

Six visible smiling faces out of the eight squeezed into the back of the pick-up vehicle about to start their rough ride uphill

Our immediate priority was to view the sunspots through a telescope. Since we are approaching the peak of a 11-year cycle in solar activity, we knew that these ‘blemishes’ on the solar surface (visible only through optical aid) were extensive both in size and number. Hurriedly we unloaded all our luggage, leaving much of it helter-skelter on the rugged rocky ground.  Krishnamurthy and Chiranjeevi unpacked the former’s two telescopes, one a small refracting spotting telescope of 3” aperture and the other a sophisticated Celestron 8” Schmidt-Cassegrain motorized auto-tracking GoTo telescope. Below is a picture of how things appeared about this time:

The Spotty Sun

Both telescopes were quickly deployed facing the Sun, with a full-size solar filter covering the corrector plate at the aperture of the large reflector telescope.  Just as expected, in view of a long period of maximum solar activity at this time, the solar disk was pock-marked with numerous irregular dark spots/patches, large and small, all a treat to watch – through an eyepiece with the reflector and through the technique of back projection of the image with the refractor.

Krishnamurthy and Ilavenil at work with the refractor while Chiranjeevi, with his back to the camera, is setting up the larger telescope. Rakshitha appears to be looking for something.

In the excitement of viewing the numerous sunspots we did not forget to capture them with the large catadioptric telescope using the DSLR camera we had brought.  Because of some technical issues we have not been able to retrieve these images in a presentable form.  However, Tejasvi had the presence of mind and the skill to capture a few images of the Sun directly, through a simple neutral density filter like the one used to view solar eclipses, on his Samsung S22 Ultra smartphone camera that has a built-in telephoto lens as well. This might not have been possible with a less sophisticated device. Here is one of the better pictures he managed to capture.

                                                     Sunspots with a smartphone camera

The Vigil

After the initial excitement of observing an unusually active Sun through the telescopes, we turned our attention to unpacking and organizing our luggage as best as we could in the rocky terrain, and erecting the tents (see picture) a short distance away on grassy terrain. This required quite some time and effort on the part of four of our team.  The encouraging weather predicted for the day and the bright sunny skies that had greeted us on our arrival led us to expect some clear skies for the long night ahead of us.  But we were heading for a huge disappointment.  

Ilavenil had forwarded me a map of real time cloud coverage over the region (see map above) without speaking about it openly, perhaps not to disappoint others with her portents.  Apparently as predicted, a large expanse of fog began to surround us as the Sun set and it got denser as the night progressed, becoming both windy and chilly as well.  We soon found ourselves literally immersed inside an enormous body of fog, hardly able to see things even two or three meters away. There was no promise of the skies clearing up soon enough to allow us the kind of visual and telescopic observations we had planned. We were forced to take out and put on all the meagre winter wear we had brought with us and huddle ourselves together in the fond hope of the skies clearing up. But the fog continued to grow and soon became so dense as to envelope us completely for several hours. The chill forced us to ignite the camp fire sooner than intended and this brought us even closer than before, both physically and emotionally. Chiranjeevi had the foresight to bring in enough firewood to last until late into the morning. 

To while away the time usefully, Krishnamurthy started engaging the group in a probing dialog, encouraging each member to narrate key aspects of his/her professional and personal backgrounds, and their most memorable past experiences.  This kept us engaged for a long time, unmindful of the dreadful weather around us.  As we began to appreciate the reasons that bound us together in our common endeavor to be part of the vast universe around us that moonless night, the term unity in diversity started making special sense to us.  The narrations of Nitya Kumar, the driver of the minibus from Mysore, was of a different character altogether from the rest of the group, both illuminating and hilarious.  I couldn’t help remarking that he appeared to be the happiest person among us despite his strenuous everyday life and meagre earnings. When my turn came to narrate my most memorable experience, because of my extensive travels in recent years, both domestic and foreign, it took me quite some time to zero in on my tour of Egypt and its remarkably historic sites, including the stunning Pyramids, the greatest wonder of the ancient world.  Aside from my total solar eclipse adventures, my visit to Japan, especially to once devastated and now prosperous Hiroshima, also came flooding to my mind.  

It was soon time to unpack the items of food freshly delivered to us by our local guide and partake in a sumptuous, tasty and leisurely all-vegetarian dinner. In all this time, our eyes were constantly turned to the skies, only to continue to see a dense misty fog, with not a single star visible anywhere in the ominously threatening sky, far from the beautiful dark skies we had planned for.  But the rain held off, sparing us from having to hurriedly get inside the little tents we had assembled for such an unlikely eventuality.  It was past midnight and it looked like a disastrous trip for those of us expecting an all-night delightful sky watch party armed with our observational equipment.  Four of our group opted to get inside the tents and grab a bit of sleep, leaving the diehard group of four staying firmly put around the camp-fire, spending time rather wistfully and nostalgically, in long lazy pointless conversations. All the while, there were occasional hints of the sky clearing up, with glimpses of the Orion constellation and parts of the southern sky, but still far from the clear skies we were hoping for.

The Redemption

Around 1:30 AM, Krishnamurthy and myself, tired of the long fruitless wait, decided to grab a bit of sleep and got inside one of the cozy tents, leaving the other two to carry on the vigil.  But neither of us actually slept. Barely half an hour thereafter, we were woken up by an excited Chiranjeevi with the news of all-clear and dark skies.  From then on, we were to spend the rest of a shortened night exploring the beautiful night sky excitedly, just the way we had hoped.  The naked eye view of some of the fabled constellations and star clusters was exhilarating, particularly in the southern skies. 

It was too chilly for me and Ilavenil to unpack our own instruments, and we decided to join Chiranjeevi and Krishnamurthy with the latter’s large telescope running on auto tracking and goto mode.  The four of us set to work directing the telescope to take us through a tour of a large number of famous Messier and NGC objects.  One of these, the great globular cluster Omega Centauri, has always fascinated me and we had the best observing conditions to look at it through the telescope as well as with the unaided eye. It is a gravitationally bound tight grouping of about ten million stars. Here is a picture of it (left) captured through the large telescope. Also reproduced here (on the right) is a slightly under exposed picture of the Beehive cluster (NGC 2632 or M44), a large open cluster in the constellation Cancer. 

Particularly fascinating was a detailed view of the very famous and familiar Orion Nebula and the tight formation of stars embedded in it. The viewing conditions were good enough to spot even some of the difficult sights such as the Crab Nebula in Taurus and the Ring Nebula in Lyra.  Astrophotography, which had been the primary objective of our all-night party, made way reluctantly to wholly visual observations in our anxiety to make the best of the remaining time until a fast-approaching dawn.  As a result, we have few photographic relics of our experience, but a great many that are imprinted in our memories.  For me it was, in many ways, reliving shreds of a glorious past, far from the madding crowd, in both space and time. 

By 4 AM, everyone was up and running, absorbed in amazement of the crystal-clear night sky, taking turns to look through the telescope, and trying to photograph parts of the sky with their smartphones.  Two of them used their devices to good effect, one an Apple 14 and the other a Samsung A22 Ultra.  Here is a picture of the spectacular adjacent zodiacal constellations Scorpius and Sagittarius, with part of the dense Milky Way clearly seen as a large irregular cloudy patch in between (this is not a cloud!), shot by Tejasvi with his Samsung S22 ultra [Camera: 10MP, 10x optical zoom, f/4.9, 230mm (periscope telephoto), 1/3.52", 1.12µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS, Telephoto Camera 1].  It is best seen when fully magnified. People who think that good astrophotography is not possible through smartphones better think again!

A picture of the adjacent zodiacal constellations Scorpius (right) and Sagittarius with the densest part of the Milky in between (in the south-central part of the picture). Best seen when fully magnigied.

As the first indications of dawn showed up, the excitement started waning and we were waiting only for sunrise to close shop.  Below is a picture at dawn, with the camp fire still lit up.

When the surroundings had brightened up sufficiently, we realized we had not planned for a hot cup of morning coffee and therefore had to leave as soon as we could pack up. This too was a time-consuming task.

At dawn, with the camp fire still lit up

We were able to leave only after the sun had risen sufficiently high to brighten up the place much the same way as we had found it on arrival the evening before.          

The Sight      

Before leaving Gavi Betta, our local guide wanted to take us to a few nearby view points from which the western ghats could be fully appreciated for their rugged beauty.  When we alighted at the first of these points, we were greeted by an incredibly beautiful sight of the early morning Sun lighting up a vast expanse of silvery white clouds that had enveloped the whole of the rugged valley below the hill to the west. It was like looking down through the windows in a high-flying aircraft and sometimes being lucky enough to look at a vast sea of puffy brightly sunlit clouds, something I have often experienced.  Here is a picture showing the dense cloud formation on the left even as I (right foreground) seem to be looking in the wrong direction - at the Sun! 

We spent a good bit of time at this spectacularly rewarding view point and the bright early morning sunlight all over the place provided great photo ops.  Our smartphones went on overdrive, with a number of group pictures also captured, one of which is featured here at the beginning. 

The following picture shows an unobstructed view of the great cloud formation with a sharp peak jutting up and out of it! 

   

 The Ordeal

Somewhat reluctantly, we got back into the pick-up vehicle, and Lanchan started driving for the next view point.  And then suddenly we ran into a totally unexpected problem that became very difficult to manage, and delayed our departure by at least three long hours.  After just a few meters of drive, the vehicle stopped, went silent and would not restart, no matter what Lanchan did with his rich experience of driving in such rugged terrain behind him.  He tried every trick in the book, but to no avail.  The vehicle simply wouldn’t restart!  At last, he summoned a similar vehicle traveling nearby, got hold of a long thick rope, tied the front of his vehicle to the rear of the guest vehicle which pulled the errant vehicle a short distance slightly downhill in the hope that it would cough up and come alive.  Sadly, the errant vehicle did not budge one bit.

After repeated attempts that led nobody anywhere, Lanchan realized it was time to seek his father’s expert intervention.  The even more experienced father drove uphill in a similar hired vehicle (costing us more money as well as time) along with a seasoned helper, arrived at the place we were all stranded in (most of us under the shade of nearby trees) and tried his own bag of diverse tricks to get the truant vehicle started.  Almost an entire hour passed by before he finally succeeded, after the helper had repeatedly sucked out several mouthfuls of the diesel fuel that was in the engine.  We left Gavi Betta in an altogether different frame of mind, eager to get back into our minibus and reach a hotel or restaurant as quickly as possible for a long-delayed breakfast, with no thought at all for the elusive early morning hot cup of coffee.  In course of time, we returned to the base camp where the minibus had been parked overnight unattended, the ten of us now divided more comfortably between two similar vehicles for the downhill journey.

The Return

We had to travel another hour in the minibus before reaching Somvarpete where we had a forgettable breakfast-cum-lunch in a posh new hotel.  It was another hour and a half of journey before we reached the outskirts of Mysore. After returning the rented materials on the way, we reached home around 4 PM, each of us looking for a well-deserved rest or sleep after the non-stop exertions over the last day and a half.

In conclusion, the parting message from this all-night sky watch party is that we need many more such parties, and more frequently too, to keep our hobby alive and kicking.

By the way, one can understand the necessity for street lights to illuminate streets, but not for the same lights to brighten up the night sky as well!  A huge amount of energy can be saved by not doing so, apart from promoting night sky watching as a more agreeable urban hobby.

Postscript                            

Ilavenil provided me with some of her random thoughts on the sky watch trip.  I considered incorporating them in my write-up, but found her expression too distinctive to do sufficient justice.  Instead, I am appending the following excerpts here:

 “…. It was a night I will never forget. Although the night seemed to be disappointing at the beginning, the mist and fog cleared up at around 2 AM.

     We spent the night till sunrise exploring the night sky - the constellations in their splendor as well as numerous deep sky objects, globular clusters with millions of stars, galaxies, open clusters... our night was complete with a glimpse of the slender crescent moon at dawn.

         I am a cryophobic* herpetophobe*, and the night was a test of my personal resolve. There were also a few other practical inconveniences.  But seeing the stars scattered across the sky, lit only by the fire, was a sight worth seeing. My only regret - it took such a large effort to see it. We should be able to see the sky in all its beauty the moment we step out of our homes. We are the first generation in almost 2.8 million years of history to lose this birthright.”

[The emphasis is mine. *I needed the dictionary to understand these words, maybe you too!  For the record, I am cryophobic too!]