KarachiAstronomy

It was March 1989 when my younger brother Zaki was born. Fifteen days later we had Ramazan in Pakistan. 20.4 hours old crescent (Ramazan 1409AH / April 6th 1989) by Howard Cowen from Gainesville, FL. The dark streak just beneath the Moon is an airplane contrail. Nostalgic, eh? Perhaps this shot makes you think: "Boy, those were the days; the lunar crescents of Ramazan and the Eids used to be so thin in Pakistan and the hunt for them so exciting ..." Fast forward twenty years to 2009. The Eid crescent looked like this: Shawwal 1430AH crescent from Khuzdar, Balochistan, on [...]

Meteor observation, for KaAS, had a long time coming. This interesting astronomy pursuit doesn't require equipment and is an ideal activity for the learning amateur astronomer. In KaAS, our set up is ideally suited for a serious shower observation. The sequence includes preparation, observation of the shower, collection of shower count and lastly reduction of the meteor observation data. International Meteor Organization, IMO has it all explained in their website. Its a satisfying activity; knowing that your observation has positively contributed to astronomy on international level. So was it planned, the 9th Rutjuga, at Kalri Lake which had been the site of two [...]

(This is an updated version of an article of mine that was published in a youth magazine in June 2011. You can read the original article here.)   [85:1] I swear by the mansions of the stars. The unpolluted night sky is one of the most wondrous things that the mortal eye can conceive. No fancy equipment is needed. Just the urge to gaze skywards on a clear, cloudless night is your ticket to enjoying the captivating show of earthly and celestial lights. In the following we sample some of the open secrets of the night sky. 1.            The Milky Way As [...]

I almost forget about Astronomy in summer. Summer constellations are totally strangers for me. But as fall gets closer to winter, I start feeling at home when I look at the sky. Even though this is absolutely a matter of personal liking, I do feel that Winter Skies are much more attractive than Summer Skies. There are more well-defined constellations in winter than summer. Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Gemini, Leo, Cassiopeia etc. A very good, informative link about winter skies is here. Moreover, this winter (2010), we have some regular visitors from the Solar System. Among these, Jupiter is the most attractive with [...]