Enhancing Student Participation in Learning at the Collegiate Level

[The following keynote address with this rather prosaic title was delivered by me on 16 March 2011 at the PES Engineering College auditorium, Mandya, Karnataka state, at the inaugural session of the two-day UGC sponsored state level seminar on “Innovative Approaches to increase Pupil’s Participation in higher Classes” organized by the Janatha Education Trust, Mandya.  In view of the perennial relevance and importance of the theme, I am reproducing the address in its entirety here.  I hope it doesn’t sound too sermonizing or self-centered.]

I am glad to be here today to talk to a large gathering of college teachers from Karnataka on a theme that is of primary concern to all educators.  I understand that this gathering represents both colleges of teacher education and other types of colleges in the state. When the organizers asked me to give this keynote address, they told me that this two day seminar was meant to discuss innovative approaches to increase student participation in higher classes. Inherent in this exercise is the realization that participative learning at the collegiate level is far from satisfactory and needs a strong infusion of novel ideas and approaches to enhance the effectiveness of learning through productive student participation in classroom activities. I hope some of you will be contributing to this seminar by sharing not only your ideas but also, more importantly, how you have been able to successfully implement them.

Today I wish to share with you my own thoughts and experiences on tackling the broader issue of promoting enhanced student participation in learning at the tertiary level of education in the country, both inside and outside the narrow confines of the classroom.  I would like to draw upon my experiences both within and outside the country.  My credentials include forty years of experience in collegiate teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in a prestigious institution in the country. 

First, let me narrate a few of my memorable experiences in 1967 when I was among a group of newly recruited teachers from the regional colleges of education in the country deputed for a special programme of studies in the renowned Ohio State University, USA.  One of the undergraduate courses I was enrolled in was on Electrical Circuits.  On the very first day, the professor offering the course told us that his classes would be devoted only to discussing the chapter-end questions and problems contained in a textbook on the subject which he wanted all of us to buy.  There was no question of his ‘teaching’ the subject through the traditional lecture method which was in vogue in most other courses.  He wanted us to study thoroughly two or three chapters in advance of each of his classes, work on the randomly assigned questions and problems from these chapters and come prepared to the class for an in-depth discussion.  So the onus of learning the subject was on the students through a self-study approach, but such learning would be strongly reinforced by the follow up classroom discussions which would focus mostly on the hard spots of the subject.  The spotlight was on the students randomly picked to lead the discussions, with the professor operating like the conductor in an orchestra.  This was indeed a novel and highly productive way of teaching and learning through the participative approach, without any of the spoon feeding inherent in traditional classrooms.  The students had to take each and every class seriously.  The final course grading was based on a combination of a terminal examination in which all the questions were drawn randomly from the exercises in the textbook and the professor’s own assessment of the student’s classroom contribution.  Most of the students ended up with an A grade for which they had been made to work very hard by a relentless but caring task master.

My second experience relates to another course I had taken, this one on the Principles of Nuclear Reactor Physics, given by Prof M L Pool.  I remember his name very clearly because the late Dr H Narasimhaiah, the famous educationist and humanist of Karnataka with whom I was acquainted intimately, had obtained his doctoral degree in Nuclear Physics much earlier under the same professor and the two of them had a tremendous regard for each other.  Prof Pool was drawing liberally from Samuel Glasstone’s classic Sourcebook on Atomic Energy and used to employ a lively and impishly humorous inquiry approach to teaching the operational principles of nuclear reactors. There was never a dull moment in his classroom.  My recollection of him is not so much because of this aspect of his personality as for the novel way he conducted his terminal course examination.  But before I describe it, let me remind everyone here that evaluation of student learning is an inseparable aspect of the teaching-learning process itself, and is often looked upon as a necessary evil.

On the evening of the examination, Prof Pool handed out to each of us a sheet of paper containing a dozen open-ended questions most of which appeared terribly difficult and only indirectly related to the topics he had taught.  In our terminology in India, the students might say they were grossly ‘out of syllabus’ and raise a hue and cry against the examiner.  Incidentally, in the American education system there are no external examinations and the question papers are set, administered and evaluated solely by the instructor who would have taught the course.   Prof Pool told us that the questions were indeed difficult to answer, he didn’t really expect any of us to answer all the questions without some help and so he was allowing us to refer to any book or reference work on the subject.  He allowed us to go to the departmental library and dig up the answers from any available sources and return our answer sheets the next day morning along with all the incidental notes and calculations we had made!  He extracted a promise from us that we would not consult with each other or with any outsider.  He assured us that even if we couldn’t provide satisfactory answers, he would give due consideration to whatever spadework we could do to discover the answers if we were on the right track.  In effect, he was conducting an open book examination outside the confines of the classroom and outside the syllabus as well, giving us about twelve hours of time to tackle the questions and problems he had set.

We all spent the best part of that frustrating night in the library, did the best we could do under the circumstances and returned the answer sheets the next morning without daring to look him in his face.   We spent a nerve-racking two days before his next class in which he revealed that at least half of his questions were actually research problems he had in mind for his doctoral students and was merely looking for some spadework from us.  He admitted that he did indeed get some useful leads from the attempted answers of some of us, appreciated our generally positive attitude to his experimentation and announced that he had rated most of us, including me, in the A grade.  You can imagine our huge sigh of relief.   This was the man under whom Dr Narasimhaiah had the good fortune to work and earn his richly deserved doctorate degree.

In another course I was enrolled in, the instructor was keen on promoting some independent study and précis writing habits.  He wanted each student to study a journal article relating to a specific theme and write a summary of it on one side of a post card and submit it as a fortnightly assignment. At the end of the course he gave due weightage to such assignments for the overall grading.  He openly complimented me on the quality and precision of my writing and wondered how I could do this despite being a foreigner.  I had to tell him that English was not really a foreign language to Indians in those days.  This experience provided a strong impetus for me to further enhance my communication skills.  At that time I did not realize the true value of this small fortnightly exercise; now I do.

In yet another course, on School Science Education, each student had to design, fabricate and demonstrate a fully working model for teaching a chosen topic in a simulated class of fellow students at the end of the course.  Necessary workshop facilities were available in the department, but the students had to procure the required materials on their own.  This was a productive learning activity in every sense of the term, with the students having to put in a considerable amount of effort as well as time.  I remember to have fabricated a teaching aid showing the properties of electrical circuits in series and parallel combinations using a dozen incandescent light bulbs. 

         

After returning to my college in Mysore, I naturally tried to implement some of the good teaching-learning practices I had observed in the USA, both at the Ohio State University and elsewhere.  I was fully cognizant of the strongly discouraging climate in the country for trying out innovative academic practices; but this was both a challenge and an opportunity.  First I had to create a climate of trust, faith, enthusiasm and open mindedness among my students.  Despite the students’ widely differing academic, geographic and linguistic backgrounds, I found it relatively easy to do this after I overcame their fear of formal examinations and gained their confidence.  One reason for the aura of fame surrounding the regional colleges of education is the academic freedom enjoyed by their staff despite university affiliations.  I utilized this fully and started exposing students to a variety of unusual experiences both inside and outside the classroom. I would leave out the easier chapters of the textbook for self-study, thereby gaining more time for discussing the hard spots, placing emphasis on the problem solving approach.   I used to conduct appropriate demonstration experiments inside the classroom, securing student involvement as much as possible.  In my laboratory classes I tried to ensure that the students had a good grasp of the basic concepts behind any activity they attempted and strongly discouraged any cook-book recipes.  I tried to relate the subject content to students’ everyday experiences and focus strongly on the evolutionary history of the key concepts underlying the discipline.   Occasionally, I also resorted to open book tests and adopted a flexible approach to evaluation.  I enjoyed doing all these and apparently so did most of my students. 

Outside the classroom, I tried to engage students in some extra-curricular activities through a Photography Club as well as an Astronomy Club using the resources of the college. My latest blog post [see: http://drsnprasadmysoreindia.blogspot.com/] gives the reader an idea of the kind of activities I tried to promote in Observational Astronomy which is still one of my passions.  The Photography Club enabled students to learn the basics of photography, including developing and printing their own photos in a dark room.  There were numerous other ways in which I was reasonably successful in promoting participative learning as an integral part of the education process.

 

In recent years we have witnessed a phenomenal growth of higher educational institutions in the country, particularly colleges of teacher education.  This has brought in its wake numerous problems which are seriously affecting the quality of education imparted in these institutions.  The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) was set up by the UGC specifically to address quality issues in higher education in the country.  In the assessment process NAAC adopts seven criteria to judge the overall quality of any university affiliated institution.  Under each of these criteria, NAAC has identified a number of key aspects as quality indicators, including any ‘best practices’ that may be found in the institution.   The key aspects include academic flexibility, student profile, catering to diverse learner needs, teaching-learning process, teacher quality, evaluation process and related reforms, inter-institutional collaborations, physical facilities in the campus, maintenance of infrastructure,  library as a learning resource, ICT as learning resources, student progression, student support systems, student activities, institutional vision and leadership, organizational arrangements, human resource management, financial management and resource mobilization, internal quality assurance system, inclusive practices and stakeholder relationships.  These aspects relate to the learner directly or indirectly and hence receive particular consideration.  To conform to most of these aspects under the different criteria satisfactorily, the plans, programmes and activities of the institution need to be strongly learner-centric.  Effective learner participation in the activities of the institution, both within and outside the classroom, becomes a prime requirement to deserve the quality tag.   It is not sufficient if the institutions merely create the required infrastructure and carry on with their traditional ways of imparting education where the teacher just lectures and the students just listen and take notes in the classroom.  The teacher’s role has to transform dramatically from that of a ‘sage on the stage’ to that of a ‘guide on the side’, actively helping the student to learn by organizing and providing the essential learning experiences as implicit in a constructivist approach to learning.  Sooner or later every institution will feel the need for the quality tag.   To earn this, it will have to implement a number of reform measures many of which need to be directed at ensuring meaningful and productive student participation.

Now, let me address the central issue of how institutions can work towards achieving a significantly enhanced student participation in the learning activities, both inside and outside the formal classroom.  In doing so I may be violating my own precepts and behaving like a sage on the stage.  If so I crave your forgiveness, taking umbrage under my long experience in the teaching profession.  My ideas and suggestions assume the prevalence of an institutional climate of openness, democracy, liberalism, flexibility, adaptability and willingness to experiment as well as a high level of functional autonomy and independence from interference by other agencies.  I also assume the prevalence of a continuous and comprehensive system of internal evaluation, with the terminal examination taking a back seat. In the present scenario these may appear too unrealistic, grossly farfetched and highly impracticable to most of you and if so I certainly sympathize with you.  Nevertheless, one can view these as idealistic long term goals and strive towards achieving them as much as possible.  It is always easy to be pessimistic but it doesn’t solve any problems, it only adds to them.

First and foremost, teachers should give up the delusion that the chalk-and-talk method of teaching, in which they treat themselves as the givers of knowledge and the students as mere receivers, serves any meaningful purpose.  The onus of learning must be placed on the learner, with the teacher acting as guide (on the side), facilitator, adviser, promoter, enabler, catalyst, etc.  If anyone thinks that this lightens the task of the teacher, he is sadly mistaken.  While the roles and responsibilities change drastically, they also become that much harder and more challenging.  The teacher can employ modern Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools and techniques to promote both interactive learning and evaluation, with every student carrying a networked tablet PC just the way he now carries a mobile phone.  This may sound too futuristic, but the required technology already exists and is not too expensive either.  I recently heard about an experiment being conducted at the SNDT University in Mumbai as part of which teachers are banned from lecturing in their classes.  Instead, they are being trained to employ a variety of alternative and more productive methods, liberally based on the use of the tools and techniques of ICT whose potential has only now begun to be exploited in the educational sphere. I wish them success in this endeavor and hope the idea will percolate into the system on a large scale.

The teacher dominated classroom can be converted into a meeting place for students to learn from teachers and from each other in an interactive tutorial style, with questions being raised by both parties and answered by whosoever can provide the answer, not necessarily by the teacher.  Of course, this assumes that the students would have done their homework, carried out their assignments and come fully prepared for such classroom discussion.  This is the setting which lets the teacher play the role of the guide on the side instead of being the domineering sage on the stage.  As a by-product, students learn some much needed communication skills.

The laboratories should become centers for open-ended project oriented activities, avoiding verificatory type of time bound ‘experiments’.  While I was in the USA I was enrolled in a Physics Laboratory course where each student could pick just four investigatory type of projects in a semester from a large list and work on them with liberal time limits and a wide range of laboratory resources.  At the end of the course, a detailed report was expected in respect of each project for evaluation and grading.  Unanticipated at that time, this experience served as the training ground for me during my doctoral work in an area of experimental physics years later at the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore.

Seminars, colloquia, symposia, debates, role playing, etc., provide an excellent means for involving groups of students in a wide range of productive curricular as well as extra-curricular activities.  Under the guidance of the teachers, students can be encouraged to not only participate but also organize such activities, thus creating valuable leadership opportunities.   In almost all curricular areas it is possible to identify topics that lend themselves excellently to such treatment.  For example, let us consider a very broad theme like Environmental Pollution.  Small groups of students can be formed and each group asked to make an in-depth study of a particular aspect of the problem.  These studies can be both interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary, affording opportunities to students studying any subject in any stream.  A student of the social sciences can contribute as meaningfully as one from basic sciences such as chemistry or biology.  A student seminar can be organized in which these groups present their findings in a well organized and systematic manner using multimedia aids and stir up a debate on how to confront and combat the great menace our society is facing today. 

Another example I can think of is yet another very broad theme like the interaction of electromagnetic radiation with matter.  Different groups of Physics students can take up in-depth studies of the properties of different segments of the electromagnetic spectrum, ranging from gamma rays at one end to radio waves at the other end, and how each type of radiation interacts with matter in different phases – solid, liquid, gas and plasma.  In doing so, they need not go into the details which emerge only through a rigorous mathematical treatment of the problem, which falls in the domain of a postgraduate course in the subject.  The findings from these groups can be presented in a symposium attended by all students and synthesized to formulate an overall picture of how radiation interacts with matter.   The teacher can play a key role in helping the students to arrive at the synthesized picture.  Activities of this type take the students well beyond the narrow confines of the syllabus, give them a chance to do a bit of research on their own using library and web resources, broaden their horizons and expand their minds.  They also strongly promote good communication skills, both written and oral. In other words, they serve the true purpose of education in a variety of ways.

I do not wish to give the impression that these are really innovative approaches to increase student participation as the organizers are envisaging.  I would like to see such approaches evolving from the deliberations in the present seminar from practicing and participating teachers.  However, these are hardly practiced in ordinary institutions and observed very infrequently in good ones.  Their rarity may perhaps justify the tags of innovativeness and novelty.

Inter-institutional initiatives open up another productive sphere of student involvement.  A number of institutions located within easy reach of each other can be interlinked, even networked, through programmes of a common nature which can be jointly organized and managed.   It is now possible to attempt such activities involving institutions that may be spread out far and wide, through video conferencing which is no longer a novelty.

Extra-curricular activities of an academic nature can be promoted through associations and clubs within an institution or group of institutions.  Hobbies like photography, astronomy, bird and wild life watching, music, philately, calligraphy, painting, dramatics, other arts and crafts, etc., can all be promoted and nurtured this way.  They provide great scope for the display of students’ individual talents, creative potential and leadership abilities.

The so called cultural activities are not in short supply in most institutions and may not require special promotional efforts.  However, not much can be said about their innovative character.  They tend to be highly stereotyped and often a sheepish imitation of Bollywood, bordering on the lewd and vulgar.  It is a sad reflection on our contemporary culture that we look up to our populist movies to provide us the stimulus.  Nobody seems to be interested in classical music and dance forms of any variety.  There appears to be a huge cultural vacuum around us, not merely in educational institutions.  Today’s generation appears to be immune to the rich classical cultural traditions of the country and of the rest of the civilized world. Tagore is as much of a stranger as Shakespeare; Satyajit Ray is a non-entity.   Here is much that can be done in our educational institutions at all levels.

Finally, let me dwell on the sports and games front.  The situation in most of our educational institutions is pathetic to say the least and mirrors the fact that India is among the most backward countries in the world in international sports and games, notwithstanding its isolated achievements in cricket and a few other sports like tennis, badminton and shooting.  I do not include chess here since it is a non-physical game.

 

If we examine the lives of human beings we see a good correlation between mental intelligence and physical health.  In other words, good physical activity for the body is a prerequisite for a healthy mind.  By promoting sports and games in the formative years of a student’s life we also promote good mental development.  At least for this reason, if not for developing international level competitive skills, we need to promote sports and games in our educational institutions in a really big way.  There is tremendous scope for doing this in innovative ways without investing too heavily on additional institutional facilities.  At the very least, institutions should provide outdoor facilities for games like volleyball, basketball and football as well as an indoor games hall with a badminton court and a ping pong table.  More importantly, their regular use should be ensured.  Needless to say, intra as well as inter institutional competitions can be organized to provide ample opportunities for student participation.

   

In conclusion, I would like to say that, based on my own experience and perceptions, I have indicated a number of ways in which the primary objective of this seminar can be achieved.  The participants may like to reflect upon them while coming up with their own ideas and action plans, based on their perceptions of ground realities which may be significantly different from mine.

The Alluring Aura of Anoopshahr – Personal Photo Album Part 7

It may sound rather strange to anyone that I should be writing about a nondescript, sleepy and backward small town called Anoopshar in Bulandshahr district of western Uttar Pradesh.  When I learnt that I was to go there in the third week of January this year on an official visit with two professional colleagues, I had not known anything about it other than that a college was located there, with a number of under-graduate and post-graduate departments, one of which was the object of my mission.  Nothing had prepared me for what I was to experience for two memorable days there.  As I later discovered, the (Durga Prasad Baljeet Singh) College was located in a large campus on one side of the town’s main road.   Just opposite, on the other side of the road, was another large campus containing two schools, one a small English medium school and the other a large government school. These institutions were all generously supported or run by the well known Jaypee Group of industries with ancestral links to the town.  Between the two campuses there were three helipads attesting to the VIP status of the place and its occasional visitors.

We were escorted to the town late on the rather cold night of January 20th and lodged in a guest house that was, incredibly, as good as any I have stayed anywhere in the country.  It was located within the school complex.  Except for a modest exterior, it was very much like a five star hotel.  Apart from an excellent dinner, its hospitality included a large tray full of assorted dry fruits and nuts placed conspicuously in the room, perhaps in royal Arabian tradition. For most people it could have lasted a week.  But I love dry fruits and nuts so much that the tray was emptied long before I left the place.  I thought it would be indiscreet to ask for its replenishment!

Early next morning, I went out on an exploration of the neighborhood in brilliant but chilly sunshine, with my camera in hand.  The following two pictures show the guest house and the flower beds in front of its entrance.  In the first picture the focus is as much on the great tree as on the building.  Incidentally, the tree neatly hides the flower beds of the second picture where the magnificent dahlia stands out in splendid isolation.  This was my first view of the great flower scattered plentifully in magnificent splendor all over the two campuses.  It is the focal theme and the piece de resistance of this album.

[As in my previous albums, all pictures are in high resolution and can be blown up to their full size by clicking on a picture and opening it in a separate window] 

The Jaypee Vidya Mandir appears in the next picture with the flowers on its frontage not as conspicuous as in the subsequent pictures.

The next three pictures capture the great flowers in front of the school building.  The second one appears to be greeting the early morning Sun and the third trying to open its arms out to it. 

The following picture captures the rich variety and diversity of the majestic trees lining the open space adjacent to the school.  Observe the bench, one of many in the place, which appears to be inviting the viewer to sit and bask in the sunshine and soak up the glory of the surroundings.  This is another piece de resistance of the album and I shall revert to it at the end. 

During the next two days we visited the college campus as part of our official assignment, but I was captivated a great deal more by what I saw outside than inside the several impressive buildings.  The dahlias and the benches were again the center pieces of attraction and I went on a shooting spree with my camera. The next two pictures show two of the buildings, but the focus is unmistakably on the rich greenery in front of each.  Again, observe the inviting bench in the first picture.

The great dahlias are back in the next two pictures.  There was plenty of this everywhere in the campus.  Again note the inviting bench in the second picture.

The next four pictures present different views of the college campus, but the recurring focus is again on the rich greenery and gardens; the buildings are just incidental though the gardens would not have existed without them.  Once again, observe the great benches in two of these pictures.

I would like to return to the great flowers once again and present two more alluring pictures here.  The interplay of light and shadows in the second one is particularly pleasing.

I can’t help repeatedly alluding to the benches as much as to the dahlias in this post.  The two are the most fascinating memories I have of Anoopshahr.  I have written about the garden benches in an earlier post [see: “Eton of India: Mayo College Ajmer – Personal Photo Album Part 4 (Nov 10)] where I also recollected sitting on one such fabulous bench in Kensington Park in far off London ages ago.  Although I have seen more of these in different places within India in recent years, nothing compares to the grandeur and allure of the man-made benches I saw in the two educational complexes of Anoopshahr.  Of course, this is equally true of the nature-made dahlias and the greenery.

In the Mayo College campus at Ajmer I didn’t really have the time to sit on the inviting bench and soak in the surroundings.  Here at Anoopshahr, I was determined to relive the London experience.  So I sat on one such great bench and contemplated the surroundings in unadulterated joy for several minutes.  Here is visible proof of this, captured by a member of the college staff with my own camera.

Anoopshahr is located on the banks of the great river Ganga, which is within walking distance of the two campuses.   I had a chance to look at the vast expanse of the river and a long bridge across it some distance away.  I realized that I was looking at the fabled Ganga within touching distance for the very first time in my life.  The approach to the river bank from the main road was ill maintained and rather repulsive; not so the river itself.  There was enough water in the river for boating, but I didn’t opt for it.  I observed one of my escorts get into a row boat and followed his movements.  At that moment, the image of the legendary musician Bhupen Hazarika singing the equally legendary song titled Ganga behti ho kyun a long time ago flashed by my mind’s eye.  I have heard this stirring and thrilling piece of music any number of times, both in its Hindi and Bengali versions; that day I attached a special significance to it though the particular video clip featuring Hazarika must have been shot somewhere else.  Those who wish to share this experience may like to hear the mp3 audio version of this piece at:

http://www2.mp3raid.com/search/download-mp3/9796919/ganga_behti_ho_kyun_bhupen_hazarika.html

Acknowledgment

At the guest house in Anoopshahr, Cdr (Retd) S J Singh, secretary to the educational institutions I visited and a key official of the Jaypee Group, spent considerable time with me in enthralling conversations and previewed the entire picture gallery from which I have presented only a small sample here.  I am grateful to the stimulus he provided for my sharing this photo essay with my readers, including everyone connected with the host institutions.

A Corollary – Wonders of the Night Sky with a Wonderful ICT Tool!

After I posted my updated article titled “Wonders of the Night Sky with the Naked Eye” (see my last post dated 10 March 2011), I realized that I needed to post a corollary to it, bringing the attention of the readers to a truly wonderful tool of modern Information and Communication Technology that enables one to recreate the night sky anytime anywhere on the screen of a mobile smart phone.  The application which makes this possible is the Google Sky Map and, for all practical purposes, it is a mobile and handy planetarium in two dimensions.  It can be freely downloaded, installed and run on any handset hosting Google’s own  Android Operating System, version 1.5 or later (the current version available is 2.3 and version 3.0 is round the corner).  The handset also needs to have a built in magnetometer which gives it a compass functionality and a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver with which accurate location and time information can be obtained automatically from a set of four or more earth-orbiting GPS satellites.  Such devices nowadays also provide 3G internet connectivity, but this is not necessary for this particular application.

Screen View

When the Sky Map application is turned on, the screen is filled with a night sky view of the celestial objects – stars, planets, constellations, etc. – corresponding to the part of the sky at which the device is pointing flat-on.  If this is done at night, it gives the dramatic illusion that the built-in camera is capturing the sky and displaying the image on the screen.  Actually, the camera has no role whatever to play and the image we see is assembled from a database of information on over a thousand stars, planets, constellations, Messier objects, etc. The magnetometer and the GPS receiver define the area of the accessible sky at the corresponding location and time.  As the device is turned or moved around, the screen view changes in consonance and we end up looking at the part of the sky always facing the device.  We realize that the camera has no role to play when we turn the application on in broad daylight or hold the device against any obstacle, small or big, even the earth itself under our feet, anywhere anytime, and still see the ‘night sky’ on the screen.  In other words, we can as easily see the night sky on the other side of the earth beneath our feet as we can see through a wall in front of us or the ceiling overhead in an enclosed room.  We get the grand illusion that the night sky view is totally transparent to anything and everything around us.    

The following picture shows three different android smart phone screens displaying the sky map in different contexts and locations:

Visible Layers & Controls

The Google Sky Map organizes the celestial objects into layers; each layer can be toggled on or off using on-screen touch controls.  The layers are: (i) Stars, (ii) Constellations, (iii) Messier objects, (iv) Planets, (v) Right Ascension & Declination grid, and (vi) Horizon and cardinal points.  The brightest stars and prominent constellations are labeled, as also the planets which are displayed larger than actual size.  At the bottom of the screen are zoom controls and a toggle to switch between automatic and manual mode.  In the manual mode, one can drag the map with the finger to explore any part of the sky.  On multi-touch screens like the one I have in my expensive Dell Streak 5, one can also rotate the map with two fingers and use a pinch gesture to zoom in and out. 

Search & Find

One of the most powerful uses of the sky map is to search for any celestial object and locate it on the map.  If an object, say a planet or star or constellation or Messier object, is selected for the search function, the screen will display a targeting circle with an arrow showing the direction in which to move the device in search of the object (see picture below).  As the device closes in on the target, the circle will change from blue to red, finally turning orange when the target is within the field of view.  It is then very easy to locate and even to see it if it happens to be in the visible part of the night sky at that moment.  Objects normally invisible in the glare of the Sun can be located even if they are in the immediate neighborhood of the Sun.  Amateur astronomers will find it very useful to locate an elusive object like planet Mercury or a sun-grazing comet (if the database is updated to include it).

When looking at the night sky through cloudy skies, often one finds it extremely difficult to identify a lone bright star showing through clouds enveloping most of the night sky.  This is because one can’t readily identify the constellation it belongs to.  The Sky Map provides a fool proof solution to such a problem.  By zeroing in on the object it can be easily identified in relation to its constellation and neighboring bright objects in the sky map.  I have found this to be one of the most useful features of the application.

Time Travel

 

Time Travel mode enables one to recreate the sky at times other than the present.  After selecting ‘Time Travel’ from the main menu, one can set any location, and any date (between 1900 and 2100) and time for that location and press ‘Go’ to get into the new mode.  One can then conveniently move forwards or backwards in time at different speeds from there.  In this mode one can simulate a variety of situations and find answers to numerous questions which would remain only hypothetical otherwise.  For example, I have been able to recreate and follow, to a fair degree of accuracy, the occurrence of the Total Solar Eclipse on 16 Feb 1980 from the Tungabhadra dam site in Karnataka (see my blog post titled “The Great Total Solar Eclipse of 16 February 1980”). 

Hubble Gallery

Sky Map contains a selection of thumbnail photographs from Google Sky’s Hubble Gallery of superb pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.  Inside it, one can select any particular object and blow it up to a full size image.  By switching over to the Search mode, the object can be located on the Sky Map.

Night Vision Mode

This mode is designed to protect one’s dark-adapted eyes during prolonged observations on a dark night, well away from any disturbing lights, as is necessary for any serious exploration of the wonders of the night sky (see my previous blog post).  In this mode, the screen will be dimmed and the map appears in a red color, with no bright displays on or off the screen.

Postscript

It is barely a decade since one had to rely solely on the print medium to provide the night sky maps to help explore the wonders of the night sky as set out in my last blog post.  With the advent of the android smart phone the scenario has changed dramatically.  Thanks to Google, all those weekly, monthly and seasonal star charts have become irrelevant for anyone who can afford a modestly priced smart phone with the necessary hardware features and the free Google Sky Map application.  In the short period since this application has become available on the android platform, over a quarter of a million people have downloaded it into their devices.  This augurs well for a major resurgence of worldwide interest in the observation of the night sky as a hobby.

The Dell Streak 5” mobile mini tablet PC I purchased recently is certainly not modestly priced by any standards.  For the price I paid I could have easily got a sophisticated desktop or laptop computer, but its great advantage lies in its mobility, portability, durability and ease of use, apart from the state-of-the-art hardware and software features.  Everything is available at the tip, and the tap, of a finger.  It fits snugly into a shirt pocket and doubles up as a slightly oversized and overweight, but not inconvenient, 3G mobile phone.

Despite its versatility, the Sky Map application has some major shortcomings which can be overcome in the field only with the additional support of a laptop or netbook computer with a resident sophisticated observational astronomy software package like Starry Night Pro.   Nevertheless, in these last few weeks I have discovered a whole new meaning and purpose for my longstanding hobby of Observational Astronomy.  I only wish the invention had come earlier, at least coincidentally with the revival of interest in my other major hobby of (Digital) Photography.

Wonders of the Night Sky with the Naked Eye

Prelude

Recently I happened to go through the June 2009 issue of NCERT’s quarterly journal, School Science and chanced to see an article titled, “Viewing the Night Sky with the Naked Eye”, attributed to me as the author.  I was taken aback since I had not sent such an article for publication to any journal recently.  Then I noticed the caption at the footer: “Reproduced from School Science, Vol. 19, No. 4, December 1981”.  I had totally forgotten about its first publication so far back in time.  The editor found it fit to reprint it in its entirety, and completely untouched, as part of the special issue of the journal on the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA09).   After reading it, I thought it fit to include it in this blog post, but only after some essential editing and updating.  So, here it is, with the sky charts left as they were despite some obvious spelling errors.  I wish the editor had asked me to take another look at it and update it before deciding to print it on his own.

Introduction

One of the greatest hobbies and pastimes one can indulge in, and entirely free of cost as an added incentive, is watching the wonders of the night sky with the naked eye, especially if one gets the chance to do so on clear dark nights far off from any disturbing lights nearby.  I have been doing this ever since 1965 when my interest in night sky objects was aroused by the sight of the great comet Ikeya-Seki.  Incidentally, comets that get visibly close to the Sun as well as the Earth and develop a characteristic tail are among the most spectacular sights for the human eye to behold.  However, they show up very infrequently and the number of them that I have been able to see with my own eyes since 1965 can be counted with the fingers of my two hands.

 

There is a widespread popular misconception that a telescope is necessary for any worthwhile observation of celestial objects in the night sky. Nothing can be farther from the truth.  It must be remembered that, till Galileo turned his first crude telescope to the skies, the human eye was the only means of observing and studying celestial phenomena. These naked eye observations and measurements extended back several thousand years through many civilizations and reached their pinnacle of refinement and precision in the hands of the great Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, in the sixteenth century. They later paved the way for Kepler's discovery of the laws of planetary motion followed by Newton's great universal laws of motion and gravitation.

The amateur sky gazer can make a wide range of fascinating observations of the night sky with nothing more than his bare eyes, even from 'light polluted' urban areas. He needs no special skills or training other than the ability to read simple star charts, a skill which he can teach himself.  If he is lucky to find himself in a place far removed from the disturbing effects of street and city lights, with a dark and clear sky above, he can see one of the most glorious spectacles of Nature – an incredibly beautiful, dazzling, star-studded sky.  I have experienced this on numerous occasions when I found myself far removed from urban locations with no lights of any kind around me, not even moonlight.  This is the setting which should transform any observer from an armchair student of Astronomy to a 'living' amateur astronomer intent on discovering for himself the wonders of the night sky.

In the words of Robert Burnham, the great sky watcher, 'The appeal of astronomy is both intellectual and aesthetic; it combines the thrill of exploration and discovery, the fun of sight-seeing, and the sheer pleasure of first hand acquaintance with incredibly wonderful and beautiful things."

The late Prof G T Narayana Rao, who lived in my neighborhood in Mysore, was a well known writer on popular science and other topics in Kannada and widely known for his untiring efforts to popularize night sky watching as a hobby among lay people in particular.  Apart from his writings on the topic, he used to engage groups of enthusiastic viewers in an enthralling live demonstration and description of the night sky objects whenever he had an opportunity to do so.   His commentaries used to be recorded and played out on radio stations to synchronize with the appearance of the night sky at the time of the broadcast.  This way they reached out to large and widely distributed audiences right on their roof tops or backyards and had become very popular.  His efforts were directed as much at developing a much needed scientific temper among the viewers as in sharing the excitement of viewing the wonders of the night sky.  Though he used names, characters and stories drawn from Indian mythology extensively in his descriptions, he used to brusquely dismiss any suggestions that the stellar objects influenced human lives in any manner and had only contempt for the practitioners of Astrology and other pseudo sciences.  I had known him very well and he was associated with me as a resource person in some of my Astronomy education programmes aimed at teachers and students.  It is with great fondness and gratitude that I remember him here.

In this article I shall make a brief survey of the wonders of the night sky and present tips on how to see some of them with the naked eye.  Towards this end, the four figures presented later should be of considerable help to the reader. 

Stars and Constellations

The first thing that strikes the casual sky-gazer is the large number of stars of different brightness and color distributed quite chaotically in the sky. Ancient civilizations tried to put some order in the heavens by conceiving certain arrangements or groupings of stars which they associated freely with mythological stories and characters. Most of these groupings or constellations as they are called have been preserved even to this day despite their highly fanciful associations. Indeed it requires a very fertile imagination to “see" such characters as Orion the hunter, Pegasus the winged horse, Draco the dragon or Sagittarius the archer in the night sky. Astronomers today recognize 88 constellations with well defined boundaries. Some of these constellations can be identified quite easily since they contain a number of bright stars grouped into clearly recognizable patterns. A few examples are Ursa Major, Orion, Cassiopeia, Scorpius, Acrux (Southern Cross) and Cygnus. Others such as Hercules, Centaurus, Cepheus and Capricornus are not as easy to identify. The majority of constellations are rather difficult to identify for beginners.

A knowledge of the constellations helps to pinpoint celestial objects of special interest such as star clusters, nebulae, novae, galaxies and variable stars for further observation, especially with telescopes. In the olden days it had a more practical use since man could orient himself in an unknown territory or navigate the seas by following the major constellations or bright stars as 'landmarks'. Long distance spaceflights of the future will also have to rely on stars for navigation in space.

Stars and constellations have a regular apparent daily motion which can be easily followed even over a short period of time. This is actually due to the rotation of the earth about its axis once in 24 hours. Also, because of the earth's motion round the Sun once in 365 days, the constellations show another regular apparent motion, changing with the seasons. This can be easily followed by noting the location of a particular star or constellation in the sky at the same time of day over a period of several weeks or months.


The annual apparent path of the Sun in the background of the fixed stars is called the ecliptic and its plane cuts the celestial equator at an angle of 23.5 degrees. Since all planets and the Moon have their orbits in nearly the same plane, they are to be found in the sky within a belt of about 7 degrees wide on either side of the ecliptic. This is called the zodiacal belt and the 12 prominent constellations on this belt are called the zodiacal constellations.  Actually, there is a 13^th constellation on this belt, called Ophiucus (lying between Scorpius and Sagittarius), but this is conveniently ignored by those who blindly associate these constellations and planets with human affairs against all evidence to the contrary. 

The earth's axis of rotation is pointing very nearly in the direction of the star Polaris, the North Pole star. Therefore, this star is always seen at nearly the same point in the sky at all times. It is easy to locate the pole star. Look directly northward at an angle equal to the latitude of your place above the horizon. The brightest star you see in this direction is the pole star. There is no other star of comparable brightness to confuse you. Observe it for a few hours to assure yourself that its position is unchanging.

The night sky presents stars of widely differing brightness as seen by the eye. On a very clear dark night, away from all disturbing lights, the human eye can see as many as 3,000 stars - from the brightest to the faintest. Astronomers indicate the apparent visual brightness of a star by a unit called the stellar magnitude following a logarithmic scale of variation. On this scale the limit of visibility to the normal unaided eye in ideal viewing conditions is magnitude 6.

A fifth magnitude star is about 2.5 times as bright as a sixth magnitude star, a fourth magnitude star about 2.5 times as bright as a fifth magnitude one, and so on down the scale. The pole star is of magnitude 2. Negative magnitudes are assigned to the brightest four stars in the sky as well as some planets.

Another striking characteristic of a star is its color, which is dependent on its surface temperature. White and blue stars such as Sirius and Spica are the hottest, with temperatures ranging from 10,000°C to 50,000°C. Yellow stars (our Sun belongs to this category) are 'cooler' with surface temperatures of about 6,000°C. Red stars such as Betelgeuse and Antares are the coolest with temperatures about 2,000°C.

Fig 1 (Click to enlarge)

Fig 2 (Click to enlarge)

Fig 3 (Click to enlarge)

Fig 4 (Click to enlarge)

You may begin a systematic observation of stars and constellations by first collecting simple star charts easily downloadable from the Internet or available in some publications. Most elementary texts in Astronomy also give such charts for different seasons. Choose a convenient open space as far away from disturbing lights as possible and begin to identify the brightest stars in a constellation from the appropriate chart for the time and day of the year. Hold the chart over your head with your right hand side towards the west. A small flash light will come in very handy for looking at the charts at frequent intervals.

Start looking for the most prominent constellations. In doing so, look for simple geometrical patterns such as straight lines, triangles, polygons, curves, etc., in the constellation maps and then try to identify the corresponding patterns in the sky. In the winter evening sky, some of the easily identifiable constellations are Orion, Cassiopeia, Auriga, Taurus, Leo, Pegassus, Canis Major and Gemini. In the summer evening sky, you can easily pick out Ursa Major, Scorpius, Sagittarius, Cygnus, Lyra, Corona Borealis and the Southern Cross. Figures 1-4 show these and other constellations with the names or designations (in Greek letters) of their brightest stars as well as the season and the time of the day they are best seen. The lines and curves joining the stars are drawn only for convenience in identification and serve no other purpose.

The thirteen zodiacal constellations are of special interest since it is only in these regions of the sky one has to look for the planets. These are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpius, Ophiucus, Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces. Some of these are easily identifiable through the presence of some bright stars in recognizable patterns. Scorpius is easily the most spectacular zodiacal constellation, with a shape true to the name and a large number of bright stars including the bright red giant Antares. Figures 1-4 also show the zodiacal constellations skirting the ecliptic.

Planets

The planets of the solar system constitute a distinct class of celestial objects characterized principally by their irregular motion in the heavens as viewed from the earth which is itself such an object. The five planets - Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn – which have been the subject of the most intense observational study and analysis from time immemorial – can all be easily identified by any systematic observer.

Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Moon and hence the easiest to identify in the western sky after sunset or in the eastern sky before sunrise. It is popularly known as the 'evening star' or 'morning star', depending upon when it is visible. Jupiter is brighter than the brightest star and hence again very easy to identify. Saturn appears to the eye like a bright star of magnitude about -0.4 (about as bright as Arcturus) and even a cursory knowledge of the zodiacal constellations will suffice for its identification.

Mars is a fascinating object for the sky watcher. Because of large variations in its distance from the earth we see a corresponding variation in its brightness (about - 2.8 magnitude at its brightest; about 2.0 at its faintest) over a period of 25 months. Further, it has a characteristic red color which distinguishes it clearly from other planets. At its brightest, it is as bright as Jupiter. 

Mercury is generally a difficult planet to locate since it is always close to the Sun. The best time to look for it is when it reaches maximum elongation (i.e., maximum angular distance from the Sun) sometime after sunset or before sunrise. This information can be obtained from data of planetary positions such as the website http://www.heavens-above.com/.  If you locate this rather elusive planet, you will have done better than the great Copernicus who spent a lifetime without seeing it!

Planet Uranus discovered by Sir William Herschel in 1781 is near the limit of the naked eye visibility and requires a special effort and experience to view with the unaided eye. However, the slightest optical aid such as a small prismatic binocular or a small spotting telescope will bring it to clear view provided one knows exactly where to look for it. Neptune and Pluto (the latter no longer regarded as a planet) are invisible to the unaided eye.

As pointed out earlier, the most distinctive feature of the planets is their irregular motion in the sky. This is easy to follow, especially if the planet in question is close to some bright stars. Repeated observations of it with respect to the fixed pattern of the nearby stars over a period of a few days or weeks show an unmistakable change in its relative position. One can even plot the approximate position of the planet at convenient intervals of time on a chart of the zodiacal constellations. If this is done systematically and regularly, you will discover for yourself the fascinating retrograde motion during which the planet appears to reverse its direction of general motion from west to east with respect to the constellations. Such a motion for Mars, Jupiter and Saturn can be detected when the planet is nearly opposite to the Sun in the celestial sphere.

Moon

This is the most conspicuous object in the night sky and everyone is familiar with its changing phases, rising and setting. However, not everyone will have noticed that when the thin crescent moon is observed carefully, one can also see the rest of the lunar disc faintly illuminated. This fascinating phenomenon is due to the reflection of earth light.

Because of its large disc in the sky, it is not very unusual for the Moon to blot out a bright star or even a planet in its daily path in the zodiacal belt. This phenomenon, with the object appearing to go behind the Moon and emerging on the other side sometime later, is called an occultation and can sometimes be observed with the naked eye. However, advance knowledge of such phenomena will be necessary.

Eclipses

Most people are familiar with the eclipses of the Moon and the Sun, partial or total. Lunar eclipses are best observed with the naked eye while solar eclipses might prove disastrous to the eye if any attempt is made to view them without safe filters.

A total solar eclipse, during which the Sun is completely obscured by the lunar disc for a short period, is one of nature's most fantastic spectacles. What a great pity that millions of people in this country were misled from watching one seen in the northern parts of the country on 22 July 2009!  It is perfectly safe to watch this kind of eclipse with the bare eyes during the brief period of totality and (note carefully!) only during this period of totality. Considering its rarity, a total solar eclipse is a once-in-a-life-time experience for most people, but what an experience!

Stars and planets are not the only objects of major interest in the night sky. A wide variety of other celestial objects and phenomena are well within the reach of the naked eye. Some of them are described here.

Other Naked Eye Objects

(i) The Milky Way: On a dark clear moonless night, far away from disturbing lights, the sky watcher can easily see large irregular milky white patches of diffused light in the sky, especially in the summer evening sky. This is the Milky Way, the galaxy of which we form a part. A powerful telescope will resolve this hazy patch into hundreds of thousands of individual stars. The Milky Way passes through the constellations Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Perseus, Auriga, Taurus and Canis Major in the winter skies and through Cygnus, Aquila, Scutum, Sagittarius and Scorpius in the summer skies.  Parts of the Milky Way in Sagittarius and Scutum are so dazzlingly bright that they can often be mistaken for clouds in the sky.

(ii) Star Clusters: Several beautiful clusters of stars can be seen with naked eye. There are two basic types – open clusters and globular clusters.

The Pleiades (popularly known as the Seven Sisters) is the best known open star cluster (see Fig 1). The average eye can see a small group of six bright stars in this cluster while very keen eyes may see a few more (A low power telescope shows over a hundred). When the constellation Cancer is nearly overhead, one can, on a very dark night, see a large cluster of faint stars known as Praesepe or the Beehive (see Fig 2). The open cluster known as M7 in Scorpius [see Fig 3) can also be spotted easily. The famous double cluster in Perseus (see Fig 4) is another object that can be seen with the naked eye. This is best seen when on the meridian.

Globular clusters are aggregates of hundreds of thousands of stars appearing as a diffused disc through low power telescope. To the naked eye the largest among them appears as a tiny diffuse speck of light.  ω (Omega) Centauri (see Fig 3) is the best known globular cluster and can be easily located in the southern sky. The famous M13 in the constellation Hercules is another. A third, 47Tucanae can be best seen only from the southern part of the country.

(iii) Variable Stars: Thousands of stars in the night sky show regular or irregular variations in their brightness. While most of these require telescopes or binoculars to be observed (of course by comparison with neighboring stars of comparable constant magnitude), a few can actually be followed easily with the naked eye. The most famous of these is Algol (Beta Persei) in the constellation Perseus (see Fig 1). Known even to the ancients as the winking eye of Medusa, its brightness varies regularly between magnitudes 2.1 and 3.4 with a period of 2.87 days and can be easily followed with the naked eye in the constellation Lyra (see Fig 3). Beta [β] Lyrae is a variable of period 12.92 days. Its visual magnitude varies between 3.4 and 4.3 and can be observed easily by comparison with its near neighbor Gamma [ϒ] Lyrae whose magnitude is constant at 4.2. Delta [δ] Cephei in the constellation Cepheus (Fig 4) is another famous variable star with a period of 5.37 days. Its variation between magnitudes 3.6 and 4.3 can be followed by comparison with the nearby stars Zeta [ζ] (3.6), Epsilon [ε] (4.2) and Nu [ν] (4.5).

Among the few long period variables which can be followed with the naked eye, the most famous is Mira, the 'wonderful' in the constellation Cetus (see Fig 1). Its brightness varies generally between 3.4 and 9.3 with a period of 331 days. When at its maximum it is one of the brightest stars in the constellation. At minimum it is even beyond the reach of binoculars. A similar long period variable is Chi [χ] Cygni (407 days), also easy to follow (Fig 3). Scores of variable stars can be followed even with a small prismatic binocular. Observing irregular tong period variable stars can be a particularly useful and fascinating hobby for the serious amateur.

(iv) Close Star Pairs: While most true double and multiple stars require a telescope to be resolved into their components, the human eye can still see many closely spaced star pairs, some of them true binaries. The Alcor-Mizar pair in Ursa Major (see Fig 3) has been a test of good sight for centuries (Mizar itself is a double when seen through a telescope). Slightly easier to see is Epsilon [ε] Lyrae which is actually a 'double=double' through the telescope. The list of such pairs is large and the observer is invited to let his gaze wander in the sky and discover them for himself.

(v) Nebulae: These are diffuse interstellar gaseous material from which stars eventually form due to gravitational accretion and binding.  As such, they are the birth place of stars.  Emission nebulae glow from the ultraviolet light of stars within them. The Orion nebula is a spectacular sight through a telescope but can be just seen with the naked eye as a tiny bright patch in the position shown in Figure 1. The Lagoon nebula is Sagittarius (see Fig 3) can be more easily located with the naked eye. It looks like a small elongated patch of light. This constellation has two other nebulae which a keen eye can make out in ideal viewing conditions.

(vi) Andromeda Galaxy: The most remarkable thing about this is that it is the most distant celestial object visible to the naked eye - at a mind boggling distance of 2,200,000 light years away.  A well trained eye can make out a tiny nebulous object corresponding to the central core of this great 'island universe' at the position shown in Fig 1. However, very good viewing conditions are necessary.

Till the early part of this century this was believed to be a nebula. Then its extragalactic nature was established with a reliable estimate of its enormous distance from us. It is a companion galaxy to our own Milky Way with an estimated 100 billion stars in it. Its structure is evident from any photograph taken with giant optical telescopes.

(vii) Meteors: Most people may have been fascinated by an occasional 'shooting star' in the dark sky. At certain periods of the year ‘meteor showers' can be observed. They consist of single meteor streaks coming in quick succession (generally at irregular intervals, averaging one every few minutes) from a particular region (constellation) of the sky. The Perseid showers in August and the Leonids in November are two best known examples. They are best seen when most active. Several hours of watching and counting can be exhilarating.

(viii) Comets: Comets with their awesome, long blazing tails visible to the naked eye are rather rare visitors from outer space. When they show up, they are among nature's most spectacular sights, especially because of their relatively rapid motion in the sky. Rarely are they seen for more than a few days.  The best known periodic comet, Halley, was a great disappointment visually when it last appeared in 1986.

(ix) The Magellanic Clouds: These have almost the same appearance as the small patches of the Milky Way and are best seen from the southernmost part of the country. These extra-galactic objects are enormous star clouds, actually miniature galaxies in themselves.

(x) Artificial Earth Satellites: Since the beginning of the Space age in 1957, the USA, the USSR and several other countries including India have put into earth orbit thousands of artificial satellites, large and small, for various purposes. While watching celestial objects, one encounters these satellites occasionally. They are characterized by their rapid motion in the sky and can sometime be seen moving from horizon to horizon. Many of them show variations in brightness due to their rotation which causes changes in the amount of sunlight reflected towards the ground. A systematic watching of the dark sky early in the evening or late in the morning should show quite a few of these man-made objects in space.

Accurate information about the path and visibility of the more prominent earth satellites such as the International Space Station (ISS) and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) from any given location can be obtained from the highly informative website mentioned earlier, viz., http://www.heavens-above.com/.   Because of its large size and proximity to the earth, the ISS is easily the brightest satellite one can see and at times can be seen to move from horizon to horizon for several minutes at a stretch.  Information about the visibility of the spectacular Iridium flares can also be obtained from the same site.  These flares (caused by the reflection of sunlight directly on to the location of the viewer from a solar panel of any particular Iridium communication satellite) last just a few seconds, but the light can be as bright as a -8 magnitude celestial object – about a thousand times as bright as planet Venus.

Conclusion

The night sky opens out a wide variety of fascinating objects for viewing with the bare eyes at no expense and with no specialized skills. This is the basic preparation one needs before embarking on an even more exciting exploration of the night sky with binoculars and telescopes. Urban dwellers should not get discouraged easily; they should look out for suitable locations as far away from disturbing lights as possible and indulge in the hobby whenever possible.  The wonders of the night sky are within easy reach of anyone curious enough to turn his searching eyes towards them.