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With most of us not being used to staying cooped up inside our houses for so long, people are now looking up to the sky with keen interest. As clear blue skies and a pollution-free environment takes centre stage, residents of Delhi-NCR are either setting a new date with the stars, or rekindling an old romance.
For Pawan Kakkar, who stays in Gurugram, gazing at stars through his telescope is a fond childhood memory. He has pulled out his old telescope, and dusted the lens for his kids. He shares, “As a child, I used to have an amazing time with my father and siblings, looking at the stars every night. At that time, pollution wasn’t as big a menace as it has been over the last few decades. Since the lockdown, the sky has cleared a lot, and I can finally introduce my kids to my childhood weekly routine of stargazing before going to bed at night.’’
Kakkar has been teaching his children about various constellations, while reigniting his love for Astronomy, and lists out some of the best telescopes for the job. But millennials today don’t need fancy instruments as most amateur stargazers have technology at their disposal, making screen time on their phones their best friend. Rahul Agnihotri, who lives in near Botanical Garden in Noida, is spending the quarantine with his father and says that he has downloaded a lot of stargazing applications online. He is making the best use of the huge terrace at his home, and the clear sky. He adds, “It was the first thing I did when the lockdown was implemented. My college is over and I’m currently not engaged in any other activity, which has given me some time to pursue stargazing. There are a lot of planetarium applications, and you simply have to hold your phone up to the night sky to plot out countless stars and planet positions.” Agnihotri has been star hopping, tracing the most popular star formations in the sky, from Ursa Major to Ursa Minor, and says that using his phone has made the activity engaging as well as informative.
Another avid stargazer, Delhi-based Aryan Mishra, says he has been watching the stars ever since he developed a fascination for the cosmos at the age of seven. Mishra, who is now pursuing his B Sc (Physics), talks about the changes in the city’s atmosphere that have allowed people to take to stargazing. “Even if you compare to the scenario that was a year ago i.e. April 2019, nothing was visible in the Delhi sky. And now, there are almost 20 constellations that can be traced in the sky! Saturn and Jupiter can be seen rising from the horizon at midnight, a phenomenon almost unheard of in Delhi.”
Mishra, who lives in Vasant Vihar, recalls how he purchased his first telescope by skipping meals, and went on to spot an unknown asteroid at the age of 14. Today, he has installed seven Astronomy labs in schools across Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab. He adds, “The lockdown has made more people realise the fact that there is much to learn from the sky.”
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