Public Outreach

Dr Wali Mughni, CEO Ensign Communique, asked for a presentation on astronomy and a practical observation on "tonight's sky" for his about 100 strong Call Center employees for the evening of Friday, 7th January 2011. The notice was short and KaAS was busy planning its next camp at Gorakh Hill. So a quick preparation was made and a public outreach activity was planned. A brief talk on Astronomy and its history and a sky show atop the Shaheen Complex was conducted with 8" Meade telescope by Khalid Marwat President KaAS. First was the observation. Karachi's light pollution didn't dampen the enthusiasm [...]

KaAS team had an honor of visitingKarachi University’s Department of Planetary Astrophysics (ISPA) on Friday, November 12, 2010 in result of Abbas’ devotedefforts. This effort was specially put in to bring KaAS tothe recognization at Government level by introducing it to Karachi University. Let me tell you that ISPA has a Carl Ziess 6” reflector – a German gem of a telescope that was donated to Karachi University in early days. Unfortunately, as everything else, this was alsobadly neglected by the authorities. If it were not some energatic and devoted students – who are keeping it alive – it would have [...]

Our search for the perfect location around Karachi made us travel again; towards the west. New moon's phase coinciding with the weekend of 9th and 10th October 2010 was chosen for the event. We had learnt many lessons from our previous astro trips. But 'never a dull moment' did it to us. We started well but got late in making it to the proposed site. Hurried last minute search for the perfect observing site, resulted in deployment in the darkness. The first planned session which had involved observing and snapping the crescent Moon next to Venus slipped away from us. But [...]

Call them social gatherings, sky parties, or public astronomy sessions… One of the grand advantages of being a part of the KaAS team is that you get an invitation to help arrange any such events in advance. The gatherings themselves take place not just in Karachi, but also at dark sky regions in the vicinity of Karachi, and are held very frequently. Days, sometimes weeks of planning is put in to ensure that everything is in order for the big day. Many of the KaAS members choose to volunteer and bring their telescopes along for public sessions. Some help set up [...]