LUMEN ASTRUM: An Astrophotography Contest
Student Activity - IITM BS
[{'start': '5.772', 'end': '8.241', 'text': ">> MANNU YADAV: And share this.  We are live and we are being  recorded as well. Thank you  this admin.  >> IRIS Society: Oh cool. Okay,  so  >> Khadija Hussain: Okay.  >> IRIS Society: Good good.  Welcome.  >> Susheel Soni: We are fine.  >> IRIS Society: welcome. A  very, very warm. Welcome to all  these space lovers stargazers.  We are absolutely chilled to  host the grand finale of this  astrophotography contest billion  astrum, right? The UN hosted by  the Iris Society in  collaboration with our society.  We are an article and  astronomical sciences society  Be a very, very happy to have  you all here. I myself and  Sheen. The Secretary of Iris  Society Very, very warm welcome  to all of you.  >> Khadija Hussain: Okay. Yeah.  >> IRIS Society: And we have our  amazing amazing co-host today.  Khadija ha khadija over to you.  Let's start the session.   >> Khadija Hussain: Thank you,  Auntie. Hi everyone. I'm khadija  your co-host for this celestial.  celebration tonight. It's an  absolute honor to introduce our  esteemed guest for  the evening. Mr. Prabhu, who's  an astronomer astrophotography?  Science communicated, the next  youtuber, known for his  mesmerizing captures of the   night sky, and his dedication,  to simplifying the wonders of  the space for everyone. He's a  part of Indian. Amateur  Astrophotography's group holds a  diploma, and astrophotography.  And the fun fact is he actually  met Sinita Williams? And yes,  we will become we will be asking  him about that later.  So now, we will begin with the  judgment segment. There are Top  10 shortlisted participants  will present their  astrophotography entries.  Okay, I'll be calling out each  participants one by one. Please  be ready to briefly introduce  yourself, shed. Share the story  in process behind your image   and interact. With the judge,  feel free to ask questions and  make most of the opportunity,  okay? So, let us begin.  The first participant is Mr.  Arghy Biswas.   >> ARGHYADEEP BISWAS: Yeah.  >> Khadija Hussain: Are you  there? Yeah, yeah. Your audible  please go on.  >> ARGHYADEEP BISWAS: Yeah, so  hi everyone. Myself or go deep?  So I am kindly on foundation  level on  this course and beside that I am  been doing a physical degree or  means on offline in physics.  So, I click this picture in the  month of September and this was  clicked during the lockdown  face. So one day I was just  randomly stargazing   >> IRIS Society's Presentation:  I,  >> ARGHYADEEP BISWAS: at night,  near about 8 pm on the resident  status, then I thought of  start real photography and for  these I got the idea mainly from  Minsa wallpaper related to start  trail and for these side, need  some research and to kill from  my YouTube video of me. Come  sir. And I got the idea that  how this works, and how to take  this. So, at that time,  I was more amateur in  photography and I didn't have so  much experience and I  didn't have been a tripod on  something like that. So I put  out my basic shoe and  keep my phones supported by that  and I mean use that technique of  image  stacking. And thus, I clicked 60  pictures with interval of three  seconds and for each  photograph, I use  I also 100 and shutter speed of  four seconds. And for that, I  also used an app to  continuously. Click the pictures  and that after clicking 60  Pictures I stack them in one  picture and did some minor color  adjustment from the Gallery   app. I mean every Photo Gallery  app and hence here is the  result.  so I would like to get some  comments from our respected  judge and one query is  there that so how we can do the  same in videography that is that  time lapse trail for  Videography. Thank you.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: on  each of the images, or should I  reserve it at the should I  reserve it at the end?   >> Khadija Hussain: No, so you  have to give it on each of the   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Okay.   >> Khadija Hussain: Sub.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: So  all right, got it. So, thanks a  biswas. So this is a nice image  of Star  trails. Yeah, we can also do  videography with this, like  taking time lapse of the night  sky, instead of making a star  trails, we can just  Add all the photographs in the  form of video we can set frames  per second, for  example. Ideally, for a video,  we say 24 frames per second,  which means in one second,  you're watching 24 videos,  coming, 24 photographs, So that  gives us a smooth blend from one  frame to the other frame. So if  you keep, let's say five  frames.  Per second, then the video might  look like as if it is  stuttering. So, there is  no smooth transition from the  first second to the next second.  So in order to  give us more transition, so we  prefer like about 20 frames. So  in that case, you have to  capture  20 individual images, and then  you have to run it as a video.  So with the limited amount of  time that you have captured, you  may not be able to  do a longer video because of  lack of frames per second. So  you will end up with probably  three or four seconds video.  So in that case, you have to do  a time-lapse for for the entire  night.  In some instance, it requires  several nights of images to do a  proper time-lapse.  With at least 24 frames per  second, or a length of about one  minute duration. So this is a  very good attempt. Some of the  foreground features could have  been captured better. I can see  the The tree on the left and  there is one building which has  been cropped.  So, you could have some  foreground, it could be any  landscape or any building, or  anything, but  Looking from the S3 point of  view so that could have added  more beauty to it. and unless  it's it's a very good attempt.  >> ARGHYADEEP BISWAS: Thank you,  Sir. Yeah, and I got you about  the tips for doing the Start  Rail Video review. Thank you  sir.   >> Khadija Hussain: So, moving  on to our next.   >> Susheel Soni: Yeah, thank  you.   >> Khadija Hussain: Please go  ahead.   >> Susheel Soni: Also a very  good evening. My name is  Susheel Soni and I'm a  passionate mobile photographer.  Who believes in art, doesn't  rely on the gears, you used it  may help or supplement your  work but that's not everything.  Your eyes are the main character  of your art. That's what I  believe.  So let's say all these  ideologies philosophy, we're  feeling really good. I until I  entered the domain of  astrophotography, like  seriously. So this is not force  consecutive event within the  idea society, but there's a  second time only second time, I  felt that my smartphone isn't  just enough.  so the, after the conclusion of  man term, so I was eagerly  waiting any kind of photography  competition because my laziness  will never allow me. To come  out from a comfort zone and try  something new. Try something  that is out of my comfort. So,  these events challenges me to  overcome my fear, my listeners  and something out of the box. So  I've never ever tried DSO, talk  to free before.  So so the place where I live, so  there's a lot of light  pollution. So I have to find  down the locations for shooting  something that can be seen, that  can be visible. so,  for consecutive days, I shot  some pictures. And first, two  days, it was just to understand  the camera settings to achieve  something that can be shown.   Like the first picture, which  Eclipse was so much greening. I  don't know why. Because  I didn't know that word setting  is, I mean not profit. That is  the getting so much greens in my  picture. so, I kept on  experimenting with the settings  of the promote of my smartphone,  like changing the ISO, the  shortest speed loading, the  shutter speed to four  second and increasing eight  second, the shutter between 200  to 800. So all these things are  going on.  but still, I wasn't achieving  something that satisfied myself  and the first thing that was I  was looking in my photograph  that first, it should satisfy   myself and then just talk,  everything will be there.  First thing is that I will be  that I am very confident about  this and everything will be  just about that.  so this was the first picture so  which I felt that I can submit  it and this is looking nice.  and when I click that about 40  to 50 pictures, I checked that  night  First, when I came to home, I  just randomly edited and posted  on the Iris Photography  Society. What's up? So I didn't  notice is on the first go that I  have captured. The one thing  Major major constellations  Orient. And the Jupiter right  next to it.  I wasn't very sure that what  then these three group of stars  means it made me believe that.  Yeah, I have something captured.  That is a that makes some   scientifically assurance to the  People. So, After trying to  four to five days, it's all the  best picture that I get. So,  And after clicking it so I made  a little post-production in the  Lightroom adjusting the  contrast and the exposure of it  and a little color grading to to  give it more natural. Look, as  they draw wasn't that good? That  was visually appealing. That's  all for my site, sir. Thank you.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Susheel. It's a good atom. I  really like the way you  explained. How you tried?   multiple times. So in  astrophotography, There is one  thing, which is very, very  important patients and You need  patience.   >> Susheel Soni: If I,   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  starting from the beginning.  Setting up the tripod or setting  up the camera.  Right until you process the  image. So patients is the key to  success and you have to try  until you succeed. So,  I haven't seen your I mean your  previous attempts so I cannot  judge like how much you have got  better till now but  eventually get better images  than this very soon. So let me  comment about this image.  So, what you have captured is  the famous winter  constellations, winter sky.  And also another thing is this  image. The, the good thing  about this image is the framing  and the foreground  So although there are some  distracting electrical lines far  away, but  Sort of like blocking some of  the transmission lines. So,  which is blending with  the image and the great thing  about this is the the water  water source. a little longer  exposure or a little more longer  integration.  could have shown some stars on  the water reflecting this guy  that would have been even  More beautiful but I could see  some star trails. It's not   related to the trailing of the  stars. It could be because of  the  camera shake when you're trying  to capture, if you did not use  the tripod, but if the stars  were rounded then this image  would have been perfect for the  equipment and for the  conditions, there are some  noise, but by taking more and  more images and by players  stacking more of these images so  you could get away with the  noise to some extent. other  than that, The colors of the  stars and the colors of other  objects like Jupiter. Came out  variable. And there are some  other noises, but at this point  of time, I mean, you have  done a good job so best wishes  for your future expecting you to  capture much more better images  than this.  >> Khadija Hussain: Okay, so  moving on to the next  participant. That is Mr. Coster,  are you there?   >> Kaustubh DS: Yeah, hello.  Hello. I'm here.   >> Khadija Hussain: Please go  ahead.  >> Kaustubh DS: Yeah. So I am  kaustubh currently living in  uttarakhand and bottle seven  skies and  this picture is actually, if you  include the calibration frames,  this is actually like 600 to 650  images combined together. and  then, Some, I did some.  combining, then stretching it in  Cyril. You know, the histogram  and then  editing the colors in Photoshop  to bring out all the details.  And I was actually quite  surprised that I even got a part  of the horse.  and nebula. I think it's called  to in the image and this was  actually my second attempt at  Orion and I was so basically,  this was  A to the west of my where I live  is the city. So during the  winter's in Feb or March, it's  actually very hard to capture  Iran because of the city, light  pollution, but this was captured  in November and I just one day  out of nowhere. I noticed that.  Oh my God I can see Orion in the  east and it's darker there. So I  just got up and I clicked  600 pictures and when I stacked  them, the next day I was amazed  and this is the best food as to  for picture of till now, from  me,  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Thanks Scott. This is a good  image. by looking at this sort  of, getting Some some of my  earlier attempts capturing this  constellation and deep sky   objects back into 20 to 20 13  14.  so what I nebula is pretty easy  to capture, perhaps, it's one of  the most most captured  celestial objects by humans.  and next is Andrew, Mada Galaxy.  So, orientable is pretty easy to  capture. Even with smartphone,  you can get the velocity, but  if you want to get the flame and  horse that nebula, then you have  to do a lot of gimmicks. You  have to either go to a very dark  location. Probably like bottle  to.  our Model 3 or you have to have  a tracking device to capture  even more longer  exposure longer integration to  reveal the details. So so first  step is like  taking the Orion Nebula and  getting all the orange hues and  the pink hues  around. And then looking for the  horse that Nebula and Flame  Nebula is visible or not. So  Flame Nebula is, is pretty easy  to spot, but the horse and  nebula, it's a dark  So you need to have even more  signal to noise ratio to get the  dark. cloud as a silhouette. So  that is very difficult, but if  we can stretch a little bit, you  can bring that out but you need  more data for that. So that's  just my experience.  on a similar attempt back in  those days. So, coming to the  image, the stars are good. I  don't see any start rails, and I  see that you have stacked  hundreds of images.  Um, did you use a just a tripod  or did you mount it on a tracker  or something?   >> Kaustubh DS: No. So this was  only on a tripod, two and a half  second exposures with the at 50  millimeter focal length.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Okay, just on the tripod, right?   >> Kaustubh DS: Yes, sir.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Okay, so I see that. You have  used Sony 16 to 50 mm lens.   >> Kaustubh DS: Oh, yes  actually. Yeah that's one that's  the one.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: And  capture on 600 to 700 images.  Stacked it in deep sky and  editor written   >> Kaustubh DS: Yeah.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: so,  >> Kaustubh DS: Yes, sir.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: for  just non-track image, I think  it's a pretty decent one  considering your earlier  attempts. So  Either upgrade to another lens.  There's one economic economical  and wealth performing lens is  called 50, mm 1.8, f ratio that  comes in all of the brands. So  that's a prime lens. So this is  what we use to do. So we get  prime lens on our dslr and we  can cover the entire Orion's  belt and the Orion Nebula,  everything in one frame and then  as per the 500 or 600 rule,  capturing the maximum exposure  that it could allow without  showing star treks, which is a  about three seconds or so and we  keep the ISO high enough to  reveal the detail at the same  time.  just take care of me that it  shouldn't be looking very noisy.  So keep the ISO about thousand  six hundred or something and  then capture a lot  of frames. And then you stack,  you can pretty easily capture  the awesome. and Flame Nebula  without tracking device. In a  lot of people have done that.  Their photos are incredible. I  mean, even attract even an image  on attractive ways. Doesn't look  as good as those images. so I'm  sure you will reach to that  level, but this image is a  pretty good attempt.  >> Kaustubh DS: Thank us. I had  one more question. So around the  18000 rupees mark, we have the  entry range in Newtonian,  telescopes, and at the same  price, we have  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: oh,   >> Kaustubh DS: I believe a 55  to 210 millimeters Soni zoom  lens, which is actually exactly  18, So if I want to go deeper  into the objects, what should I  prefer? The the beginner level  newtonians or the boom lens.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: When  it comes to beginner  astrophotography don't get near  the telescope unless you want  to do a focal photography, like  capturing, moon and planets  using a mobile phone with an  adapter or Just capturing some  a focal.  photography of bright detail  objects, like Orion Nebula with  short exposure. So telescopes,  these telescopes that you have  mentioned. These are primarily  observation telescopes and  they're not very good. They're  not off very good quality. In  terms of astrophotography,  So when it comes to beginner  astrophotography, the first  thing is just doing mobile  photography, exploiting the  device. And then moving on to a  dslr camera and camera lens   >> Kaustubh DS: I,  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: And  like I said, camera, lens focal  length has its limits 50. Mm is  the maximum that you can use  Using a tracking device,  Although some of the people have  have done pretty good,   astrophotography using a longer  focal length, like like the kit  lens that you   >> Kaustubh DS: Yeah.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  mentioned 55 to 250. Mm even I  myself have a  some of these close-up images of  Orion, Nebula and Deep and  Andromeda Galaxy. But the  exposure was very, very  limited. It was only one seconds  on a tripod. So I was able to  only capture one second image  of these targets and I captured  hundreds and thousands of  images. Still, the output was  not as good as I was expecting.  So eventually I  gave up on to a tracker. So for  you, I would suggest just  investing on a tracking more  tracking device, which tracks  the apparents guy, so that you  can  do even more longer exposure,  which is a lot, and you can then  move on to getting a small  telescope. Not very heavy  telescope like small.   Lightweight telescope, which can  be mounted on the tracking  device. So that  will be a good approach. Unless  if you can spend, if you can  afford all these  expensive equipment, then you  can choose any way. But ideally  speaking, if you don't want to  invest much, if you want, if you  have, you feel budget is  limited. and this is the  >> Kaustubh DS: right society  wanted to show one thing to so  currently I am in the mountains  under a bottle of poor skies and  I'm just waiting for the miss to  clear.  coil the past two days so that I  could get started. That's that's  where Polarises and   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: Hmm.   >> Kaustubh DS: you see this  bulb. If I turn this off and  just you can you can see the  tree and   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Yeah.  >> Kaustubh DS: just behind the  tree. Milky Way rises from  there at around three to four  clock so I am been waiting for  the mist to clear and yeah it's  it's suspense is the suspense is  real.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Great. Yeah.  >> Kaustubh DS: Thank you. So  thank you for the feedback. I  considered. Yes thank you sir.  Thank you.  >> Khadija Hussain: So much Mr.  Costa a great work. Okay, moving  on to the next participant, Miss  Nashwa, are you there?   >> Nashwa: and I already,   >> Khadija Hussain: Yeah, your  audible please go on.  >> Nashwa: Okay, so good evening  everyone and nashwa, and I'm  currently pursuing the deck of  some designs as well, as DS  degree in data science from item  interest. so, I'm really  excited about traveling and this  was one of the picture taken  from Calvary in Sweden, back in  2024 when  our cousin was there, we went on  a trip there and we waited for  two to three days for capturing  this event and this one  is and this one is from Susu of  Magical Pradesh. around, it's  near to City Valley, it wasn't  2023.  So, both of the images were  captured and phone itself, one  was through a Samsung S21 this  one and the other one was from  my sister's iPhone.  We use simple legit techniques  like for the this point, we use  snapseed to do simple, edits  and all. And it was to in  longest ocean model We use  timer for the night more as  well.  So that the won't be much shades  and a tripod was only.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Well, I really like your other  image of the  Aurora capture from Sweden, but  I prefer this because the other  one doesn't have that much of  signal. There is a bit of noise  and over processing.   Nonetheless, this one is very  well processed and It's  perfect. so,  This is one great example of in  astrophotography that location  matters more than the  equipment. So, I've seen people  using very, very primitive  equipment and doing amazing   astrophotography. That's mainly  because of the the location and  the darkness of the of the sky.  So this must be portal 1 or 2  scale. So the sky is filled with  stars  and you can see some green glow,  you know the same time for grown  is beautiful with all the snow  and the mountain.  There is some distracting light  on the left side, but it's not  very evident. So overall the  image is great. I really like  it.   >> Nashwa: Thank.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Thank you and auspicious.   >> Nashwa: Also, I have some  doubts like how can we do our  night sky photography? Some of  the techniques which we can  adopt as astrophotography.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: So,  if you're talking about  nightcape photography, capturing  the night sky, with the  foreground, so there are  different types. Like capturing  the Milky Way, capturing  generals guy or making star  trials. So, nice guy  photography in general.  You need a dark location. First  thing is dark location, and then  you need some interesting  foreground Natural foreground  or a man-made or any anything  which looks unique, which looks  beautiful, which gives you  and then third thing is the  equipment you need to have a  decent equipment which can  capture  so,  either you have a sensitive  camera and a very good lens,  which is DSLR camera under lens,  to get even better images than  this. Otherwise, you can get   otherwise you can use your  existing smartphone. just like  this. I believe you captured  this with Samsung S21, right?   Yeah. So this is a very good. I  mean, a mobile phones, these  days, they are pretty good.  You can just mount it on a  tripod, using an adapter and  then you can capture  longer exposures not beyond like  20 seconds or 30 seconds. To  avoid star trails, but you can  capture multiple images. So  stacking is the only way to  remove all the noise, all the  grains in the image. So which  gives you a smooth soft texture  to the interior image which  makes it looks beautiful. So,  and this image has a little bit  of noise, but to make it better.  You can capture more of these  images and stack it in the  software. There aren't even   some mobile apps, which can do  the stacking, but if you want to  process it variable, you have  to move to the laptop or desktop  using proper software to   process. It very well. So,  to summarize, use stacking  technique the capturing more  images with your smartphone. If  you want to get even better  output than the smartphone, then  next thing is to  move to a proper DSLR camera and  a lens, and a proper tripod to  capture even better images.  >> Nashwa: Society was so much  of information, thank you for  that. And and that's to all by  the participants for sharing.  Nice amazing books. All this to  everyone. Thank you.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: The  species.  >> Khadija Hussain: Thank you.  So much. Mishra moving on to  our next participant. That is  Mr. Naman, are you there?   >> NAMAN DEEP SINGH: Scs1 hello.  >> Khadija Hussain: Yeah, please  go ahead.   >> NAMAN DEEP SINGH: Good  evening, everybody.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Anything.   >> NAMAN DEEP SINGH: It's a  great one. You have to serve.  My name is Naman Deep Singh and  I'm currently at diploma level  of this data science degree and  I belong to a small  town in Rajasthan. And I like  clicking astrophotography. I  like the best. This  is the best Jana I have in  photography and I took this  photo way back in March  2023. And I use my phone, it was  a very basic phone like 10 12k  phone and I had  to capture over 600 plus photos,  and I use a timer at to click  these and the  photo settings for iOS was a  1600 and the shutter speed was  30 seconds and I didn't have  any type of so I had to lay it  on a brick.  To get the angle right and I  have to toggle some settings to  see better details  and the next day I stacked them  in with a software called  Starstex, and there  was no, like, a very little  pollution and I didn't have to  do much editing. This  is very natural hot on, like  little to know everything is  done here and then I got this  photo. Thank you, sir. What do  you think about these photos?   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: And  thanks naman deep Singh. This  photo came out very well among  other star  trails photo, which I, which I  saw, and also your previous   submission of the same object.  But with a different blend mode,  comet blend mode in this RX that  also came out very well. But  this one is better than that,  because of the continuous  start, right? And the night sky,  I mean, the sky is filled with  bright  Stars bright star trails with  different colors. So I like this  version of your image,  comparing to the other version.  So start rails in general, looks  beautiful.  Based on the darkness of the  sky. So the contrast difference  is very, very evident if you go  to even a much more darker  location or if you process the  image in such a way that if you  darken the background, then the  color of the stars and the  different pain start rails comes  up very well. So, the thing  which Which matters the most in  star trails is the framing and  the foreground.  you can simply just capture the  sky without showing anything but  all your capturing is only the  sky. So there is no like  orientation of which is not  southeast west which is bottom  up because we humans, we always  or like, we, we need to know the  orientation. You need to know  the direction to get a sense  of, like, what this photo is.   >> Khadija Hussain: I,  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: So  in space, there is no direction,  of course, but since landscape  photography covers, some of the  foreground. So you could have   captured some of the  full grown, I mean more full  ground. I see there's a tree on  the left and also this is  pointing towards North East  direction. So if you  position the not celestial pole,  the center of the image that  will give you a different view  viewpoint and all. So it the  interior up in their framing  would look different because  the, the start rails here,  asking, from, from the East and  going up. So when you keep not  celestial pole at center, then  you have aux  From top to bottom on a vertical  frame. You have arcs from, from  bottom to up. that would look  at different view. And also I  see there is a sort of a stool  over there and although, it  looks not so great because the  interior image with beautiful  and there's one element which is  the bottom, which is like half.  So you could have made it much  better by  keeping a post. Like by giving a  pose of yourself on it, just  capturing one single exposure  and learning in with the final  image. So that would that would  have added one human element to  it. And that would have made  it.   >> NAMAN DEEP SINGH: Yes, sir.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: the  ugly looking small. Stool more  beautiful. These are the things  that you could have these are  the small small adjustments that  you could have changed to  making more beautiful. But   other than that, Even if you  subtract all these things, which  I explained, but still the  image. looks beautiful. But if  you could make it much better in  the next attempt,   >> NAMAN DEEP SINGH: Yes. Yes,  it was light because I  accidentally slipped some  morning down photos in that and  it is not a student. Actually,  it is a scaffolding standard. It  is  a it's length is I think it is  eight feet tall. So this is why  I couldn't  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Right. All right. Got you got  to But it's a nice image.   >> NAMAN DEEP SINGH: And yes  sir. Thank you sir. And can you  say about your experience with  meeting Sunita Williams?   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Yeah, sure. Allah I have a small  presentation of to share my  journey in astrophotography.  I'll share while sharing the  presentation   >> NAMAN DEEP SINGH: Thank you,  sir. Thank you everybody.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Yeah.  >> Khadija Hussain: Okay, so  thank you so much, Mr. Naman.  Now we move on to the next  participant. Mr. Yashas Rao.   Are you there?   >> Yashas Rao: Yes, yes. I'm  here.   >> Khadija Hussain: Yeah, please  go ahead.   >> Yashas Rao: Yeah, good  evening sir. Good evening  everyone. I'm yashas' Sam from  Bangalore. I'm currently  pursuing diploma level, in this  degree, in the electronic  systems  and also I'm pursuing Big Tech  and robotics in Bangalore. So  here the bottle  sky level is around seven  transition transitioning. To  eight one day I was scrolling  through. So  media and society are composite  of professional photographer.  So, I was inspired very much and  wanted to write on my own, so   this was my attempt. So  basically, I  took around 350 to 360 images of  both, the Give Us vaccine, give  us more and also, the full moon  on society nights. And I  stacked them and blended them  together. So and I also took a  long exposure of  the moon, so to get the  elimination on the bright side  and also I Some stellarium app  to make sure that I get the  background stars in the same  composition as it was on the  night of the Give us more to  keep relevance to the   astronomical accuracy.  And I used a Photoshop to blend  the bright side and the dark  side. So my setup was a entry  level bridge camera. It's a  Canon Bridge camera. and I,  took 350 images and stacked it.  So, I would love to hear your  insights about this and thank  you.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: The  yashas'. I have a question. Did  you capture this with just a  dslr lens or tube connected to  a telescope ozone way?  >> Yashas Rao: So it's it's a  bridge camera and it's like a  point in shoot the lenses.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: Are  right.   >> Yashas Rao: attached it. I  can't remove it. So,  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: Got.  It good. Got it, got it.  Okay, so HDR is like, little bit  difficult to process, you have  to do. you have to do a lot of  trial and error to get, get it  right sometimes when you   capture different phases when  you overlap it, when you blend  it, they don't match up because  when you are capturing moon in  different phases, so there's  called moons liberation because  of that, you have the Southern  and not whole slightly.  You see different orientation of  it. Different angles of you.  See, sometimes more of southern  hemisphere. Sometimes you see  more of an atmosphere. This is  because of the title force.   between the Earth and the Moon.  So, and it is going around. So,  Kind of like goes like this. So,  because of that, sometimes you  don't have a smooth blending of  the craters, and some of the  features. So there is a lot of  trial and error to get it,  right? So another thing is, when  you blend the moon phases to  get that HDR image, and another  thing is, capturing the  background stars and then  blending, it, blending it with  it. So, sometimes people use   clouds as well to give that  dramatic effect. Sometimes they  all process it. So  When you over process it it may  not look natural. It may look  like very synthetic. So this  image the thing I like about  this image is it looks very  natural. The background sky is  not very bright. It looks dark  and some stars are faintly  visible. So our human eye  dynamic range.  Is pretty good. You can see the  moon like when you're saying  Crescent Moon, you can see the  sunlit portion at the same time.  You can see the Earth lid  portion which is called earth  shine and at the same time, your  eyes can pick up some vein  stars behind  So, this image mimics are  humanized dynamic range and  the craters and other features,  or visible as well, some cameras  cannot capture some of the faint  details, some of the Details on  the creators. So in this image,  I could see some of the Creator  details. So overall it's a very  good attempt. Wishing you best  for even more better images in  the future.   >> Yashas Rao: And thank you.  >> Khadija Hussain: Okay, so now  you want to the next palace open  that is Miss. Janani is here.   >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Yeah, I'm  here.   >> Khadija Hussain: Yeah, please  go ahead.  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Okay, good  evening everybody. My name is  Janani and I pursuing this data  science degree in IIT. And I'm  also a national level surfer and  I've been passionate  about photography ever since my  dad, got himself a D ninety,  Nikon camera. And I've always  been on a mission to master  everything that camera is  capable of doing.  So this was one of my favorite  photos to capture because it  took the longest time to  understand how this works and it  was also a team effort from me  and my  dad. So we spent a lot of time  researching about how this  happens and this image  of the moon was captured using a  celestron Chidin Castle Green  telescope which is very old and  has been preserved. So it has an  eight inch aperture and I think  somewhere around 2000, mm focal  length.  Which gave me all the  magnification I needed and the  challenge. So, what I wanted to  get out of this whole idea of  capturing in the moon was to go  as deep as to getting the  contrast between the craters,  the shadows and the depths I  wanted it. So,  Yeah, this one, The main  challenges I faced while  capturing this photo was one. I  initially thought while  capturing the moon, it I  wouldn't have enough light but  once I started looking at it  through the telescope basically  the IPS of the telescope was my  camera and we used a tearing  adapter to attach it to this   telescope. So that made it look  very bright. So exposure was a  very important place for me to  play with. And secondly, this  camera doesn't have  manual adjustments to the Earth  rotation. It doesn't crack the  object. So it was, we had to  turn it and capture it. This is  one among I think like multiple  photos, they're taken  because it all turned out shaky  and it was not great. But this  is, this is very special to me.  So, Yeah.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Thank you, Janani. This is a  very good image of the moon and  it's a very good attempt again  on the right track of learning.  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Thank you.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: the  equipment and exploiting it  before moving on, to the next  equipment. So this is one thing  which always always insist all  the burning astrophotography's.  Because some people could afford  better equipment and they just  keep the primary learning curve  and they just jump to the next  equipment. so,  so what you're doing is is  great, you're on the right  track. So you could even get  even more better details with  your existing equipment.   >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Okay.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: For  your item. This is a very, very  good image, but you can do even  much more   >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Right.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: with  your present equipment.   >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Okay.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: So,  I see what you mean in terms of  the adjusting the telescope and  capturing it again, it could be  because the telescope is not  tracking since it's, a very old  See telescope so Is it not  tracking the?  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: No, it, it  doesn't have that feature in  build because I stargazing and  watching the moon through the  telescope is something I do very  passionately and I think the  whole idea of  Using every equipment and  finding out. It's every  capability is in me. So even   with the telescope I've tried  everything up and down and it  just doesn't track. So,   Everything related to this  picture is manual. There's no  three process production. Also  in this like there's barely  there's only contrast and  exposure adjustments. so,  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: Good  good. So your intentions to  capture the contrast between the  craters,   >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Yes.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  right? So I would suggest wait  for the first quarter. So when  the moon,  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Okay.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: is  in half, you get even more  details. So  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Okay.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: the  sunlight is 90 degree to you.  So, you get a lot of shadow long  shadow of the mountains and  craters extending, On the  opposite side so you can give a  you can get a pretty good depth  of field and also pretty good  contrast of the features on the  Terminator line. So this is a  crescent phase probably five  days after the New Moon. SO,  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Right.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: some  of the creators on this dominant  line or mountains on this  terminal and are not very  evident. So, in different  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Right.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  phases of the moon, you have  different mountains, taller  mountains, and different  features, which looks different  and which looks beautiful than  the other phases. So, observe  the moon, capture photos  similar to this, every Every  day after the new moon, and you  get a sense of like, which phase  gives you the best details.  Also, you can run a simulation  software and you can simulate   the same view to  another thing, which you can do  to improvise this image,  Is by taking more images, at  least 30 to 40 majors. but you  have to take the images quick  without any  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Right.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  shake on the camera, otherwise  you get smeared features. So  this requires a lot of trial and  error some cameras as burst  mode. So in, in a second, you  can capture two, three images   without a shake. Also, if you  are using high ISO and And if  you're using,  high shutter speed, not slow,  shutter speed, but the high  shutter speed, then when you're  capturing more frames in unless  in less than a second, then the  shake won't be very evident.  Since you're capturing frames  very quickly.   >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Okay.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: so,  there are these techniques,  which you can do to take more  images. The idea is to take more  images that's all since your  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Okay.   Right.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: is  not tracking. Your is not a  tracking amount so you have to  adjust it every now and then  when you are adjusting, there  is another thing called field  rotation. Since your  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Right.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  system out as a month. So it  moves up down left, right? So  >> JANANI RAMASESHAN: Right.  Yeah.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: when  you're capturing, when you're  trying to capture this, the time  is running Earth is rotating. So  to contract Earth's rotation,  you have to adjust your  telescope up down left, right  motion. So, when you're doing  that, the View of the moon is  likely being tilted.  So you see it rotates the field  itself in the in the IPS or in  the camera rotates, very  gradually. So, if you're doing  it in a short span, like five to  ten minutes,  it wouldn't be very evident but  if you're trying for a longer  time then it'll be very  different and they don't stack  very well. so,  from this point, I would suggest  capture Moon in different  phases, and you will get better  details and different phases.  And the second step would be  taking more images and stacking  it in a software.  So that's it. Thanks, and it's a  good image. There's a lot of  details on the greatest.  >> Khadija Hussain: Okay, so  moving on to our next  participant. That is Mr.  Rishabh, are you there?   >> Rishabh Singh: Yeah.   >> Khadija Hussain: Y.   >> Rishabh Singh: So good  evening, sir. First of all, I  want to say after seeing so many  great clips, I don't think I  have I mean, I'm eligible to  even get a best mention. But  yeah, like this photo was taken  in a bottle, one sky and about  one sky. I was so last year, in  2024, June, I went to Kargil  Ladak. and this is where I  click this image and this is an  army can and while I was  walking under around 9 to 10 pm,  I was walking through the   streets and I just  I saw this guy and like there  are so many stars I have lived,  my whole life in city and I  haven't seen so many stars, just  an orang consolation during the  night. And the first time I saw  so many stars, I was in all  because I have been always fond  of astronomy astrophotography  and  So yeah, I tried clicking a  picture but bad luck was there.  The moon was there  and I couldn't click a good  picture about the stars so I  like I have seen the one walk  paintings with the you know the  Saturn moonlight so that this is  what I tried clicking. And yeah  this is the result. I don't have  a really great phone. it's just  a 12k phone. The professional  mode I used ISO was hundred and  shutter speed was around like   it wasn't. I don't remember  actually properly but yeah.   That's it.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Thank you, Rishabh. First of  all, this is a fantastic image  and whatever the things that you  mentioned that you that you  didn't like about it or the  things which I like the most  coming starting from the moon.  So the The highlight of this  image is first the moon and  second the mountains and third.  It literally looks like a  painting. So  >> Rishabh Singh: Yeah.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: in  some images, when he captured  along exposure of the moon, you  don't see spikes but in some  photos, you, I mean, something  based on the camera based on the  mobile phone, you have some  spikes. So here The spikes  making the brightness of the  moon, even more beautiful.  Otherwise without spikes it  would just look normal and  blunt. So  it's spikes added some beauty to  the moon at the same time the  background color of the sky.  Slightly, blue and greenish  tint. And then the foreground  building and the entire color  of the image, making it look  like sort of a painting.  Although you captured it from a  dark location but it doesn't  matter, since you capture it   with the moon. So even from a  city sky, it would probably look  the same because of the Right.  Moonlight  So I really want to. I mean it  would have if the framing is  vertical like a portrait, but  if   >> Rishabh Singh: You know.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: he  had captured it on a landscape  mode, horizontally, you could  have covered more of the   Terrestrial objects. all the   Right.   >> Rishabh Singh: I was actually  trying that the landscape mode  but I didn't had the tripod. I  was actually standing there but  whenever I was trying the, you  know, the Blair was there or my  hand, wouldn't my hand is shaky.  So you know, the photo wasn't   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Right.   >> Rishabh Singh: coming out  right?   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: So,  you just starting Starting in  this. I mean, you can  >> Rishabh Singh: Yeah.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: try  several different variations,  different framing different  types of astrophotography. Not  just might skip So, you can try  a lot of other things. I hope  you get much more better images  than this in the future. Thank  you for your submission as  >> Rishabh Singh: Thank you so  much. Thank you so much.   >> Khadija Hussain: Okay, so the  next participant is my  surakshita. Are you there?  >> 24F2008360 RAKSHITHASRI  SHRINIVASAN: Yes, hello sir. So  I am rakeshita shrinivasan from  I'm currently in the foundation  level of the BS course as well  as  a pursuing my B Tech first year  in electronics and  communications from Mitw Po  Pune. So one of the main reasons  I joined the college was  because the college has a  dedicated observatory built in  the campus and they also have a  lot of astrophotography  instruments. So  i for one have been very  passionate about the night sky  and the an astrophotography  ever since I could understand  and take photographs. So when I  found out that there was  something like this to fuel my  passion more in my very own  college, I was obviously very  true, so this photograph was  taken on the night of 24th and  25th of January from the  observatory. So, to gain access  to the observatory, to be a  member of the Astronomy Club.  So, but everything that was  done for this particular frame  was  my own very own efforts. So this  photograph was captured by the  GSO, Newtonian telescope, eight  inch along with the  EQ are Six Sky Watcher pro  mount. It also has a zwi  astrophotography dedicated Astro  camera. So for this particular  image, there are around 40   frames of each filter, that's  hydrogen alpha oxygen, three and  sulfur, so around 120 Fr.  Both light dark and flat, were I  stack them in deep sky stacker  and then post process them  inpics inside later. So one  challenge that we that I faced  while taking the raw images for  this particular, Orion Nebula  was that there was a leak in  the optical assembly of the  telescope. So, the on the night  of 25th, we we couldn't really  get the dark frames to  Be proper because the dark  frames, also had some optical  leak in that. So then we have,  I had to go again to the  observatory and take the photos  on the night  of 26th of January. So, that's  how this was processed. And  since Orion is one of  the nebulas that had my had  captured my interest into  astronomy. I decided to submit  this a particular image. I would  love your  comments on how I can just  process is better or what we can  do, or I can do to make sure  that the setup or what new and  equipments that we can take  since we have an observatory in  college.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Bring, thank you, Rakshita  Singh. This is a fantastic image  of Orion Nebula. So this is  like the next level from the  basics. So Beginner  astrophotography, like I said,  people start with mobile phone  who want to DS like camera and  lens and then the tracker and  then the equatorial  mount, since you have liberty of  using your, your clips  equipment. So you've just  straight away, jumped, all these  things, but I  I would recommend you to use  some of the  So I believe you used DSLR  camera, right? My continue.   Yeah.  >> 24F2008360 RAKSHITHASRI  SHRINIVASAN: No service. I have  used a 1600 asiswo pro camera.  That's a dedicated  astrophotography camera and said  before, capturing this  particular image, I have   actually captured multiple  images of the sky from my phone  as well, but I   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Okay.   >> 24F2008360 RAKSHITHASRI  SHRINIVASAN: didn't summon them  because I thought this one would  be the best one. Go ahead with   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: All  right. Yeah. So you can do much  more better.  since you're using a dedicated  dedicated Astro camera, which  you can where you can cool down  the temperature. to get rid of  the, all the noise thermal noise  from the camera.  So here the processing is okay,  but the background has been  clipped. So background is more  darker. Some of the details are  clipped That could have been  avoided. For example, at the  bottom of the image, you can see  slight bluish. Cloud, which is  badly visible. So if you look at  the The raw image of it, you  would see, still, you would  still see some of the details  around.  Aberration is on the corners of  the image that is because of the  Newtonian telescope. So you see  on the right, the stars are  controlled on the left. This is  inherent to the  One thing is you can add coma  characters to fix these coma but  that's an extra accessory. If  your club is willing to purchase  that then that would enhance  your image.  And second thing is you have to  take multiple images since this  is a dedicated  camera and you can control the  temperature. So you can take  calibration frames  as you wish. So, in that case,  you can take even more longer,  duration of  integration for several hours,  since the telescope is installed  in one spot. So we can do  several.   >> 24F2008360 RAKSHITHASRI  SHRINIVASAN: Yes, this actually  for this particular image it is  it has around 120 frames  each of 60 seconds exposure. So,  this was a multi-night that's  two night observation.  Capturing of the Orion that we  did and but since the Orion  Nebula sets really quickly over  the place where the observatory  situated we couldn't  really go ahead for multiple  hours of exposure. That's over  five because by the time the  the camera reached over a  certain element and the night  sky was bit darker. The Orion  Nebula had already gone away  from the visible region so  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: And  understood. So in this case,  since you have spent quite a lot  of time on  capturing the target, but the  the target was not in the ideal  location based on your  explanation. So every object has  a window So the object has to  be 45 degree about the horizon  and  it has to stay above that  horizontal, both East and  Western side so that  the object is at its best. So  whenever the objectives below  the 45 degree altitude, then the  object comes through a lot of  haze and dust on our  atmosphere. So atmosphere is  thinner over here, thicker near  the horizon. So some people  even prefer like  30 degrees, 45 degrees is, is  the most extreme, but even you  can keep a cap of about 30, 35  degrees, don't shoot it. If the  object is below 30 degrees. So  you're not getting the best out  of it. So capture always when it  is high up in  the sky, there's a place also to  planetary objects as well, like  moon planets, so capture the  object when it is high up in the  sky. So, it appears clearest   also, you can skip the the  knights where you have full  moons. So full moons also.  Frame to capture and then do the  same effort of capturing  multiple images. multiple  exposures and stacking it. You  would produce Several times  better image than this. So that  is my advice in terms of making  the equipment better, like I  said, at a coma corrector and  Make the  image strain in such a way that  you don't have any light leak  because if you have lightly  calibration will become an  issue. So make sure you have   Just you paint the inside of the  cube.  in pure black without any  reflection around, or if you  have likely at the bottom of the  primary mirror through the gaps  seal that just put a black cap  at the back. and just open it  when you want to cool down the  mirror. If the mirror is hot, if  it Different hot room, not a  air conditioning room. Then you  need to acclimentize  the mirror. So in that case,  keep it open to a climatize. And  then once the mirror is to the  ambient temperature, then cover  it with a black cap. So there's  the like doesn't lead through  it. Also check the focuser. So  focuser is also another source  of light leak. So check if there  is any, you can just use a tors  light, connect the camera and  then just shine the light all  around wherever the possibility  of lightly and you will see if  there is a light you will see a  bright glow and that's the  source of lightly fix that, and  that would improve the image by  giving you better calibration  frames.   >> 24F2008360 RAKSHITHASRI  SHRINIVASAN: You so much sir.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Specifications.  >> Khadija Hussain: Moving on to  our last submission for today.  That is by Mr. Shreyaskar, are  you there?  Mr. Shri  >> ANSHI JAIN: I just talked  with them. I think he'll be  joining soon.   >> Khadija Hussain: so,  >> ANSHI JAIN: Shukla. Jessica.  Hi   >> 24F3004451 SHREYASKAR  SRIVASTAVA: Call, hello. Am I  audible?   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Yeah.  >> ANSHI JAIN: Yes, you are.  Yes, you are audible.   >> Khadija Hussain: Yourself and  give a briefing about your  mates.   >> 24F3004451 SHREYASKAR  SRIVASTAVA: So hi everybody. I'm  Shieska, Srivastava I'm  currently pursuing DS degree,  and I'm in foundation level.  And I'm a photography enthusiast  and to be honest, the basic  idea, the brief idea about this  oh, I to be honest wanted to  click up, I am into too much the  framing so I was in the park and  I wanted to have a good  good frame. So I am I'm I love  diagonal framing. So  the negative space. I wanted to  be clear and the other part  should be covered with something  good. So I just found a good  tree which was  actually helping me to make this  photo more appealing. Public.  And to be honest, there were no.  particular camera setting. I  did. It was just  I'm sorry. Actually, I'm out. So  sorry for the voice.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Little girl, thank you share.  It's a great image of the moon  and the beauty to  this image or the the leaves in  the foreground. So if it is just  a plain moon with just the sky,  it would be like boring. Is  there a lot of images just   capturing the moon. so, So you  can add only two ways.  Of adding beauty to the moon one  is by capturing it with the  foreground another  one is capturing it closer. Like  you can zoom into the moon with  the telescope or zoom lens and  you can capture the details on  the moon. So that would look   traumatic because we humans are  like, when you see the moon with  your naked eye, you're seeing  it at one times magnified view,  right? So whenever you see the  moon, In the sky. Mostly people  see it when it is high up in the  sky. But when it is  rising, you see against the  foreground, you see it against  the Tree Mountains, buildings  on the furrow. So when you see  moon rising or setting against  these objects, it looks more  beautiful and more dramatic. So  when you capture, At that point  of time, the image comes out  very well. so second thing is,  when you capture the close-up of  the moon, which we are not used  with because when you see, when  you, when you capture Moon very  close with all the craters and  mountains, like the previous,  photographs captured by the   shortlisted participants here.  So that looks beautiful because  you're seeing something new. So  in these two aspect you have  captured the first one, although  you did not capture the moon  when it is rising on the  horizon. But you have captured  Moon through the tree and the  leaves in the foreground so that  added beauty to it. Other than  that, there is nothing much on  the moon to comment. It's just  You can only see the mad region,  not craters at all because there  is a vision is too less. But  the leaves in the foreground are  not smeared, it all looks  sharp. So overall it's a good  attempt. Thank you, Strayers   >> 24F3004451 SHREYASKAR  SRIVASTAVA: You so much sir.  >> Khadija Hussain: Okay, so  this was the end of all the  submissions. Thank you so much  to all the participants, as  well as thank you, so much, sir  for your lovely and  encouraging feedback and  congratulations once again to  all the participants talked and  participants who were selected  very well done. And a very good  work done by you  guys. Hoping to see you guys in  more evens like this. And so you  had a presentation, I guess,  right?   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Yeah. How much time do we have  before that?   >> Khadija Hussain: We can  continue till night. So if you  okay with that, please go on.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: I  need to convert it to Indian  Standard Time, just okay.   >> Khadija Hussain: So it's  eight nine right now. We have  almost like   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: so  we have. Yeah, yeah, we have to.   >> Khadija Hussain: 50 minutes  here.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: 15  minutes of time. All right.  yeah, I can present my journey  and along with it, I'll be  sharing some like the process  of astrophotography centrix  although  >> Khadija Hussain: Sure.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: it's  not it's not going to be a  lecture in astrophotography. I'm  just going to share my journey  and I'm gonna share how I  learned on my way up. So,  when you listen to this  presentation so you can get some  information which could be  helpful for your journey as  well. So, I'm just  >> Khadija Hussain: Sure. So we  would love to know that.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Okay.  Let me know. The PowerPoint is  visible.   >> Khadija Hussain: Yes, it's  visible. oh,   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: All  right, so welcome to my journey  in astrophotography.  So before I begin so let me give  you my short introduction. So,  my  social media name is Prabhu's  Kuti, that's a different story.  So because today is my pet name  because I was shot. I was  I was a small kid among the  among the other tenants there in  my hometown. So they started  calling me as Kuti. So  My actual name is Prabhuqaran,  so I'm working as an education  coordinator at Shah Jain  Investment and Development  Authority in UAE which is a part  of the Government of Sharjah.  so,  this was my very first  astrophotography captured back  in 2015, although I was doing  observation, but I got into  astrophotography.  so, my background is, I'm from  a city in the southern, India  called Trichy not in the heart  of the city, but about 25  kilometers away from the heart  of the  city. So the like pollution was  less, comparatively, it was  bottle full in a  way. You can see Billy, quite  clearly from the terrace. You  can make out a lot of details  on the Milky Way, so it was that  much darker although there were  street lights all around so,  since my childhood I was looking  up the night sky because in, I  mean in India sometimes we go  out especially on the terrace  and you look around and  sometimes you've been sleep on  the terrace. Whenever there is a  power cut whenever during the  summer whenever it's hot. So I  had this practice of sleeping   sleeping outdoors on the  terrace. In the summers. And  sometimes, like, even in the  winters as well. When I started  getting into a strong. So I  always noticed the night sky  filled with stars, I  recognize some of the patterns,  like, Orion's belt, apply any  stock list delfin Delphinus  constellation, Big Dipper  Cassiopeia these things but I  did not know what these were  so every day I started  memorizing, all these patterns  so that I could like recognize  the next day quite easily. So  then I  suddenly assembled upon Milky  Way Galaxy without knowing what  it is. I thought maybe it's just  some pattern of clouds. Just  always staying in that you Then  I was asking my mom and my  sisters Like Do you see a cloud  there? They said. Yeah. They  also seeing the same. But how  come it's appearing every day  then after reading about Milky  Way Galaxy and how it appears  and That's when it hit me hard.  Like that. I've been looking at  the Milky Way. Galaxy that we  are living in. So, ever since  then, I  have been observing the night  sky with the naked eye without  any equipment. So that was a  very very beginning stage.  then after reading about this  astronomy in just such gender  basics, then I I was trying  very hard to look through a  telescope. So, in my area,  there were no telescopes. There  were no observatories as such,  so the only  opportunity was waiting for the  Science Forum guys to bring a  telescope during some celestial  events, like like eclipses or  curing, some comment apparition  like eyes on comments and other  comments which comes once in a  while. so that you have a  public outreach.  once you get an opportunity to,  to stay in the queue and get  your done,  so I got one such opportunity  but after like, waiting waiting  in the queue for a long time  that the clouds covered  everything so I couldn't get a  chance to look through it. So  Then I then I decided to save  money and buy a telescope and  then look through it. So the  first I mean, I, I save money  for a year and then I bought my  first telescope This is this  was my first telescope so let's  run Astro Master 130mm.  EQ mount, and the very first  object I saw was this moon?  This was captured with my mobile  phone, like just placing the  phone camera on the eyepiece.  And then the second object that  I saw was satin, and the moment  I saw Saturn, I don't know,  some reason I started crying  because it was unreal. The  moment you see faint rings  around  an object in the blackness of  space, it gives it gives you  spons. And also it's a lot of  emotional, A lot of emotions  comes in place when you're  seeing these things for the  first time. And then I quickly  watched Jupiter. These were  the first three objects I was  right away after Unboxing.   Then.  every night I started using the  telescope for observation. I  started watching deep sky  objects and dramata Galaxy,  Orion Nebula Star clusters a lot  of things. It was very fun, it  was very exciting. I still  cannot forget those exciting  nights, which I spent Then  eventually.  because once you are into this,  like sometimes,  you go crazy like you want to  like see everything, sometimes  you get this aperture fever of  getting bigger  telescopes to see more details.  So I came across, this used  telescope on olx, I think I got  a good deal of. It just bought  this because I wanted to do   astrophotography, but just using  the telescope, although, the  electronics were not working  somehow. I, Just dismantled it  and then I removed the optical  tube assembly and then I made a  doubtail and the adapter  everything on my own, even the  camera adapter. And then I  connected it with my  Telescope mount and added a  tracking motor to it. And I  captured my very first deep  scale object. So this is Orion  Nebula. So here I missed.  after using my mobile  photography. I mean, after using  my mobile for astrophotography,  then I eventually moved on to  buy a dslr and then  capture deep free objects with  this setup, then I realized that  you won't get better details  with this primitive refractor.  This is an acromatic refractors  a lot of Chromatic Aberration.  You can see this purple and  blue. halo around the stars. So  then I  caught a tracking device and I  use my Dsla camera and the  telephoto lens, 55 to 250mm and  I'm mounted it on the tracker to  capture longer exposure. And  this is same Orion Nebula.   After buying the track. Then I  slowly, I started in getting  into a nightscapes. Basically,  why? What angle  astrophotography capturing the  night, sky, with some  foreground, capturing star,  trails, capturing meteor shower,  and all the other things with  the kit lens. And also, I  started capturing.  deep scale objects with my  tracker like you can see the  Milky Way and traffic and Laguna  below all the kit lens and that  so then I joined Space, India.  I started working as an  astronomy educator, where was   was teaching Astron.  Mean in Chennai. So I got to use  the office telescopes, they had  a lot of eight inch telescopes,  so I was doing  planetary imaging, like  capturing planets, and moon and  all the same time, it was using  it to observe the deep gray  objects. So, in that aperture  fever, I had this five inch  telescope, right? So I didn't  have to buy a telescope although  I  wanted to because I had  opportunity of using my office  telescopes. So I skipped that  upgrade. So after using eight  inch for some years then I  eventually caught that fever  again like I wanted to see more  details So then, I eventually  ended up getting the biggest  telescope.  I think at that time, amateur  telescope at the time, in Tamil  Nadu, probably in India as  well. So  so this was a 16 inch telescope.  It is it weighs around 80 to 90  cages, so you have to assimilate  in parts. I bought this when I  was in Chennai, and then  my house in Chennai was about, I  mean I lived in the first floor  so the terrace was on the fourth  floor. So I had  to take all those 18 kilograms  in pieces whenever I want to do,  observation or do plantary  imaging, which was quite tiring.  So I use the telescope to do  planetary imaging the photos.  You can see of Saturn and  Jupiter captured from there.  And also, I did some amount of  outreach as well. So so being  part of observation so I  sometimes I like to show  what I see through the telescope  to the general public. So  sometimes I take the telescope  to orphanage and old age homes  and public to show these  objects.  Then I moved to UE after three  years. I got an opportunity here  in the same field and also  another things. So, basically,  what I do is I teach astronomy.  We  have astronomy activities and  workshops and also archeology  anthropology billionthology,  geology, so when I moved to  UAE, I Had a lot of opportunity  because in the office, they had  much more bigger telescopes  computerized telescopes. At the  same time, the I got access to a  lot of dark locations and also  the the number of clear nights.  Are much much higher. So, in  India, if you're trying to image  or observation  out of 360 days only 60 days of  clear remaining like 305 days or  like  Always cloudy or rainy. So it's  very, very tiring to like see  the weather forecast and plan  your session. So most of the  times you have to cancel it most  of the time, you have to cover  the telescope with the tarp. So,  I've done that several times  whenever I take the telescope to  the dark locations from   Chennai. So here  In UAE the number of clear  nights or very very high or 365  days. 300 days are clear. Only  about two, two months, maximum,  or clouded, and it rains just a  week or so here. So, rain is  not a problem. It's just the,  the wind and the dust and   sometimes cloud is a problem  here, but  This is like Milky Way from a  very dark location when I came  to your way. This is captured.  I think eight years ago. and  then I started doing the same  thing which I was doing in India  doing  The timelapse of star trails  nightcaps. And also I got into  high resolution  plantary imaging as well. Since  I got access to Computerize  telescope a much more bigger  telescope. So I started doing  high resolution planetary  imaging so at that time, I, my  6-inch was still in India.  So I couldn't use my 16-inch, so  I was using my office  telescopes.  And also I was doing high  resolution. Move, do not imagine  capturing fine details on the  moon using different different  equipment like accessories, like  cameras and lot of other  accessories to enhance the  details to get the best out of  it. It was also capturing media  servers, basically. My idea was  to do everything in  astrophotography. Not leave  anything. Just do everything in  astrophotography. So I was doing  all the things  in and out, and whenever I get  vacation like really ones, I go  to India, so I can use my 16  inch which is interesting. So,  whenever I go there, I set up 16  inch to do plantary imaging and  I I got a tracking platform made  for this device to track the  motion of the sky so that I  could do longer.  imaging, like capturing videos  of these objects for a longer  time to capture better details.  and then, I reached a point  where I realized that I needed a  proper telescope for deep sky  imaging. Not just the camera and  lens. so then I bought the  bought, an Apple chromatic  refracted telescope, where you  don't get any aberrations like  chromatic, aberrations is  purple, blue hues around the  stars. You don't get with this  telescope. So one downside is  these kind of telescopes are  very expensive but here there  are a lot of astrophotography  here. So you get a lot of  things in the second end market.  So the price is 50 percentage  cheaper and all. So here the  tax, everything is less  comparing to India, so I was  able to acquire more equipment  for cheaper, price comparing to  India. So I Access to this  chromatic telescope and I got  much better results than I was  getting with the DSLR camera.   And also was capturing all  celestial events as well. This  is a partial lunar  eclipse and mercury transit  happened in 2019. This is  mercury in front of the sun.  And then I realized that just  using the tracking motor.  you are limited to exposure and  weight and other things. So then  I bought in Kotorial Mount which  has more weight load so you can  put a lot of things on the mount  there. So there is more  leverage to add more equipment  on the top. So I was able to  connect connected with the  computer to get more.  Liberty like taking automating,  lot of things. Otherwise you  have to do a lot of things  manually. For example, if you  want to focus the telescope, you  have to stop imaging and then  focus manually and then take.  But if you add accessories,   like  electronically, automated  focuser and you connected to the  laptop and then the software in  it will do everything for you.  From starting the image   capturing, till  ending the image. Capturing,  everything is done in between  automated so I got into  automation and eventually I  moved my six students to you,  wait because I'm a person.  so I like observing the objects  then photography, the main  reason, I started   astrophotography was to showcase  these beautiful images on the on  the social media so that other  others can also get into it. So  that was the initial point, but  then I started liking it more  than I wanted to do.  for the public. So then I  started doing it myself. So I  didn't leave observation  astronomy because I also  like to observe while I'm  imaging. So I have iPads like  the pirates. If you look at the  pirates you will see. I patches  one day. Eyes is covered. That's  to  protect the night vision so I  always have an eye patch. I use  one of my eyes for the  observation and I use the other  eye for astrophotography even  though I want  to look at the laptop that I  just cover my eye with the eye  patch. So then I was doing both  whenever I, I mean whenever  after work I sometimes  directly to the to the mountains  there to do imaging, most of the  times whenever I'm off, I just  stay there for two nights and  come undo astrophotography   astrophotography throughout and  then get back home. This all was  happening. When I was still,   Single, not married. So I had   like, no one to tell me to go to  sleep. So I was just doing my  own stuff. and then I was also,  into more high resolution  imaging of planets and and other  objects when I moved my 16 inch.  So my 16 inch is still now the  biggest telescope here. So I  cannot use anything else if you  want to get the best order best  image. So this is International  Space Station on the on the  left, you can see the solar  panels and other things. And  this is a Southern Region on  the Moon, you can see the  details of the craters. So  that's the resolution that you  can get with such a big  telescope.  so I also managed to take a  several panels of the Moon  making  These are just smaller segments  of the moon captured with the  plantary camera, but when you  stitch all of it, it produces a  very high resolution image of  the moon. So you can zoom into  the moon still, you can keep up  the resolution. You can see   find details between the  creators. So, this one I made  with my 16 inch. and this  image, I mean, this video went  viral on YouTube and also this  was featured on a lot of  magazines, like BBC.  A similar image like this. Also  got featured on Isro as well.  So, there was a few images got  featured among those.  Among those images. Mine was one  of the images featured on ISO of  the Moon and then from DSLR  camera, I moved to.  proper astrophotography camera,  which is a cool camera. You can  reduce the temperature of the  sensor so that you can get rid  of the noise and you can do, a  lot of people can get a lot of  details, so this is a  monochrome camera. It's a black  and red camera so, Blackmonite  cameras are better than hello  camera. So you can put different  filters, you can capture   different.  Wavelengths of the objects and  it can get different details  based on the wavelength. So,  this one is black and white  camera with the three different  filters which captures in three  different specific bandwidth. So  these are all narrow band  images like the Hubble Space  Telescope James Webb Space  Telescope. So captured in a  similar way using different  filters, and you put the filter  and you put all these different  data into it into the crossing  software and you can create the  color you want. These are not  real colors. These are the  colors that you can choose to  enhance.  Views. So most of the  astrophotography stick with one  such color pattern which is  called Hubble Palette  since same, as Hubble Space  Telescope, so which is like  orange red glow and the blue  green  glue at the center of the  details. So this palette is  called Hubble you, whatever,  narrow band images. You see, you  will see similar palette people  use different colors color  palettes but this is the one I  prefer. This is one most of the  astrophotography prefer. So this  is Triffid and Lagoon. This is  a Eagle nebula. And this is  Orion Nabila. so,  this is not like narrow band.  This is a normal broadband. So  this is red, blue, green color.  This is how your naked eye would  see if you look. I mean, you   cannot see the colors through a  telescope unless you have a very  big telescope. I've seen some  colors of ORINDABELLA through,  my big telescope from a dark   place, but  this is how the actual colors  look like. And I added a layer  of hydrogeneral for to it, so  that you can get more velocity.  So, these are all captured with  that.  black and red camera with  specific filters. And this is  normal color. The visual color  of Pliny Star cluster  And then this is attack Arena.  This appears very low from here  here, it doesn't go higher than  five degrees altitude. So it's  very, very challenging here from  India, from my place, it is very  easy, it comes very high up, but  these are the things which I  captured with my apple  chromatic, then I got into solar  imaging, not just  the solar imaging of  photosphere, but the  chromosphere, so Sun has  different layers. So you have to  use different filters to capture  different layers of it. So  white light filter is the  easiest and the cheapest you can  get just get the photosphere of  the sun, you can get the black  spots the sun spots  easily but to get the  chromosphate of the sun, all the  prominences and And all the  other features you need to have  a very expensive filter. So I  bought this in this filter and  connected with my telescope to  capture. The sun and it's  features including sunspots.   and then,  I wanted to capture wide view of  deep sky objects. So some of the  difficult objects are bigger,  some are smaller. So in terms of  size, I mean, so  you have to have different size  of telescopes to capture  different objects. So, with my  ATM or programmatic telescope.  The focal length is 400, mm. So,  I was able to get as many as  objects I wanted in my mind so  then I wanted to capture even  wider objects. So here you can  see Orion Abella and you can see  Horse Head and  Flaming Villa and also you can  see other one here. There's  another messier object, I think  it's messier 78. So all in one  So, this kind of framing you can  only do with a very short focal  length lens. So this one was  captured with 135. Mm. This is  also the same lens. You can see  Christmas tree, cluster here,  and then Rosa turnabulla. So  all in one frame and this is a  monkey head nibila and   jellyfish nebula all in one  frame. And this is Seagull  Nebula, and this is those  helmet. So, all in one frame. So  these kind of images, I was also  capturing with my white view  setup so I don't  capture all in like, I don't  capture it simultaneously. So I  I pick up one focal length and  I do the use that focalend for,  for two, three months. And then  I move to the next focal and so  it is easy in that way so that  you can sort out the data can  process it as well. so then,  once I exploited the 135mm focal  length after capturing all the  targets that I wanted, then I  wanted to capture galaxies which  requires bigger telescope   higher focal length. So then I  bought an eight inch regic right  into telescope.  This design of the telescope is  similar to the space-based  telescopes including  Hubble Space Telescope. So this  size is fairly economical  comparing towards the other  sizes so it was easier to  purchase at the time and then I  just use my same equipment, the  mount and other cameras,  everything and I was able to  keep, I was able to capture the  galaxies  like this. So that is a 101. And  here you can see crap nebula.  So, Then every no one then. I  mean, I'm during that time I got  married so because of The  different lifestyle, I couldn't  go.  every every night or every  weekend to do astrophotography.  I was trying my best to go every  weekend but then as some point,  you will have some fine between  your. I mean, it's it's very  common, we beat any hobby, so  if you're taking too much of  your personal time. So if you   don't share family time, then,  end up with end up in a lot of  fighting debate. So then I  decided to just to go to dark  locations, only ones and a  month. And The whatever I could  during those times. So I  traveled to very very dark   locations, which are about five  hours drive from my home and I  stayed there two nights and I  capture whatever I could. So,  the sky is very, very dark. You  can even see  A lot of things like ecliptic,  and you can see the glue of the  objects in the solar system,  all appearing very clearly. And  that's how Milky Way appears  from there. Of India has even  more darker places than this.  and from So these are the  objects just these were capable  of span of just two days. all  it was just a span of two days,  but I was able to capture a lot  of things  with a lot of details. These are  All Star Galaxy clusters, Leo,  Triplet, triplet Nebula. This  is row of your guy. This is  pillars of creation.  So, all capture, just two nine.  So whenever I got time, I used  to just go out and then also,  sometimes I capture  from my just go to location  which is not very far away from  home. So this is Andromeda  Galaxy close up.  And then this is the Christian  nebula. This is Bubble Nabila.  This is triangulum galaxy m33  with all the star forming clouds  in it. And then I wanted to  automate everything. So instead  of using a laptop and sitting  all night, I connected it with  the mini computer and then I  remotely started operating it  by sitting in the car. Because,  in summer, it's very brutal.  It's very, very humid. So  you've got to sit inside. Also,  there's a lot of insects like  scorpions and snakes come  around, so it's not very safe to  sit all night. I have stepped on  several things. Luckily, I'm  still alive. So one advice I  would give is whenever you're  going to a dark location. Make  sure you you carry a torch and  make sure you're surrounding is  safe. Not filled with insects  and other things. So that is one  primary thing. You have to do  before starting  astrophotography. So know your  terrain, make sure it is safe.  so then there  after some point of time, I  realized that it's not working  out because it will be too much  of pressure and and the family  time and also your personal  time. So then I decided like  one of my friends in started an  observatory remote  observatory was also a member in  our astrophotography group. So  then we decided  to install our telescopes there  permanently and then operated  remotely since I started this  remote imaging, it was with my  Mini PCs. Easy for me to.  Just move on to remote remote  plays. So that the process will  be the same and the integration  will be the same. So this roof  over here, that's my  observatory. So I installed the  same equipment which I had  I could a real mount and my ATM  refractor telescope. That's this  guy. There model. I won't bottle  three and I  added all the things to make it  more more automatic. So, also  added and all sky  camera to, to look at this guy.  So this will be my I on the sky.  Like how this  guy is, whether it's cloudy or  hazy, and also, I added a  weather weather Wayne. So this  is like with a station which  gives you. How much is the wind  which direction is the wind so  that you can plan your imaging  accordingly?  So this is the time-lapse of the  sky. That's how the sky appears.  So it's fairly darker, although  it's not as dark as the other  locations in India, but it's  fairly darker to get decent  astrophotography. It's much  darker than my go-to Google  location near my home. So, it's  very happy to move my setup  there and do astrophotography  whenever I  wish. So here I get to image  whole night. Every night, only  exceptions or the full Moon  Full Moon days. So I have a  window of one of the moon  approaches like  70 percentage, elimination. I  stop amazing. And I capture the  remaining days. So we still  have some cloudy skies and hazy  and windy guys. So  we don't image every night so  only when the sky, when the  conditions are very, very right?  So this is Crescent Nebula and  the background, they velocity  all captured from my remote  observatory because here I can  capture for several nights. So  these are integrations caps to  over 40. 50 of us.  So this Leo triplet with the  title tail, you can see the the  material from this galaxy being  stripped off because of the tile  force among the galaxies. These  request darker location and more  longer integration.  This is M78. The Orion  Constellation. This is Dolphin  Nebula and this image was  featured in NASA as astronomy  picture of the day. So this is  my only image which got  featured on NASA And at the  same time I was doing solar  imaging from my balcony.   Capturing.  the prominences and time lapse  of the solar eruption by  capturing longer period of  time. So I was able to make time  lapses. So, at the same time,  whenever I go to observatory to  do maintenance and to clean the  stuff clean telescope, another  things I also take my 16 inch to  do, observation and planting  aging. So over the time, I my  plantary imaging got better, I  was able to get better details.  And then I reached a point where  I needed a better amount to get  better, tracking accuracy to do  a lot more automation. So I  ended up selling that EQ mount  and I bought the centralized  equatorial mount, this is called  sense, 70. The payload is  around 31 kilograms so I could  mount even bigger telescope So  then I sold my upper primary  telescope as well because  Had captured whatever I wanted  in my mind with the wide angle.  So I did not  require that anymore. So I sold  that and I bought I mean I  ordered a  a 12 inch Rishi creating  telescope but it took some time  to to deliver. So in the   meantime, I was using my solar  telescope in the observatory for  two months to capture some of  the deep scale objects. So these  are the objects which I   captured with it. Stand poles.  And then this is all satanibila.  And then eventually I got my 12  inch ruchik writing, it was  bigger than I thought heavier  than I thought the big the  mount, which I have cannot take  this  much load, but still I ended up  overloading it. I was like  willing to take the  risk so I mounted everything and  then I started using it. Only  mistake I did was not having a  cap automatic cap for this. If  you look at my previous  telescopes,  it all has automatic caps so it  closes it doesn't let the dust  go in so this  one is such a huge telescope. So  keeping him. Big Cap is very  expensive and it was not  available at that time. Plus,  the design is different, so you  don't have any  any place, any solid surface to  strap on the the panels. So it  was very difficult to integrate.  So I was capturing without the  cap, for one year I was I   captured so many galaxies so  many. Checks. So for our  capture, our 90 different  celestial objects with my  remote.  observatory, but I have process  only about 20 of it. I've Capt,  I have 60  uh having over 40, 50 hours of  duration, still in my hard disk,  I'm not finding time to process  these. I sometimes I process the  the data which I want to  process. So the roof opens  automatically telescope captures  and the roof of closes. So  everything is automated all set,  even turning on the computer can  be automated but still being a  big telescope. I'm doing some of  the things manually checking in  the if the roof is fully closed  before the telescope goes up,  otherwise if it hits, it'll,  it'll damage the equipment. And  then with this 12 inch, I  captured some of the amazing  images of galaxies. This is M51  And then this is and 63  Sunflower Galaxy, and this is  Hercules Cluster. And this   image with with this image, I  won the Astrophotography of the  Year 2024 competition. And for  this, I got an eight inch  telescope as the price as well,  which is in India and this is  Hamburger Galaxy. And this is  Hercules Galaxy cluster. All  these vein dots. You're seeing  all  galaxies, you can see different  spiral galaxy and some  elliptical galaxies.  and then I got any harmonic dry  mount, which is lightweight,  because the general Germany  Equatorial mount which has gears  or very heavy. You need, you   need to have counterweights, so  it's not very portable. It's  heavy but harmonic  drive started getting  popularized recently, like past  four, five years they've been a  lot of harmonic draymonds almost  from all the manufacturers. So  this is very lightweight. You  can live in one hand. It's very  portable. So what are something  for the balcony to capture Sun  at the same time? To use it for  observation as well, like for  the public observation. So I  have  this harmonic dry mount. As a as  my go-to portable mount for the  solar imaging. and observation.  And then I had the worst thing  which I worried of so which is  the dust. So the  primary mirror collected, a lot  of tests, it has got so much  dust that some of  the objects were very faint, so  I decided to dismantle it  dismantle Everything's I  stripped it, stripped it down  down to the small bowls on the,  on the telescope and remove the  primary mirror. I had to clean  it. I took it home because it  takes a lot of time to clean and  put everything back and calling  me everything. So, for the  time, being I installed,  My new wide angle telescope  which is 300mm focal ratio. I  mean focal length. So although  I had captured a lot of wider  targets with my other Soul  telescope. But still I realized  later that I needed to capture  some more details so some more  targets. So I ended up getting  one wide angle of programmatic  telescope. So this is a backup  telescope for the 12 inch  whenever I want to clean the  telescope. So, I put this thing  and I also remove the tripod   and I installed up here. So this  pier is quite higher than the  tripod. So the  telescope sticks out outside  the, the roof. So here, the  safety is is very important  because even with the normal  tripod, even if the telescope is  not in any orientation. So if  you close the roof, it doesn't  hit. But here, the telescope  has to be on the sideways.  Otherwise, the roof will come  hit and it'll break everything.  So,  this was a very challenging with  the new here, but the peer is  very, very important because the  peer is strong and it's  connected to the solid ground.  So there is no change in  alignment. So it's it's much  much better for tracking  accuracy. So I install the pier  and then, with this new wide  angle telescope, I was able to  capture some amazing images. I  still have so much of data  left. I hardly have time to  capture. I mean process, so I  capture only two of the images.  From the students of time, this  is SQL Nebula and this is A   Cigar and borders galaxy, along  with the integrated flux nebula  on the background.  And then I eventually got the  flat panel to close the  telescope. So it automatically  opens and closes, but since the  roof is small, the room is  small. So I have to do a lot of  sequence. To do to make the  telescope in a vertical position  and then open the roof.   Otherwise it hits the walls. So  it is very challenging. Now with  the big telescope Ada I have to  get a much more bigger room or  dome like a proper observatory  to make it more efficient.  So that's my interior journey of  astrophotography. So down the  line I got a lot of Features  on.  higher, servo NASA. And BBC and  several other magazines which  are not show which I'm not  showing here because the images  which shared. So some of the  images that featured on those.  So it wouldn't be nice to show  the images again. so,  Just my next plan is to finish  all the remaining targets in the  Galaxy list. And then I'm gonna  move on to do some science. I'm  going to install install  spectroscopy.  And then I'll be capturing some  spectrum of stars and doing some  science. So that's my and also  some some projects on asteroids  and comments and other things.  So that will be in another year  or two. So till then I'll be  capturing only, I mean, I'll be  only doing astrophotography for  now. so about Meeting Sunita  Williams. I had an opportunity  to meet with our Williams, I   think it was in 2023. So she  was attending here, Shahjah.   Raja Book Festival. So  since I worked for the  government of Raja, so so she  came to our office. I mean to  our  destination to experience. So, I  was hosting her, so we had good  time. So I think I was with her,  for about two. Three hours with  her and her mom and it was  loudly and we  talked a lot about her  experience and International  Space Station. And also, we, I  mean, she was a guest in my   previous company as well in  India, but I didn't get an  opportunity to meet her but my  colleagues in Delhi had. So I  was also sharing those  experience that how I couldn't  meet. I wanted to meet up early,  but I couldn't meet because of  the distance. So  We had very good time. And also  at the time I had an, I had a  notification of ISS visibility  on my app that I told her like  Isis coming up. Would you like  to see then?  Yeah, so the very next second,  she became a child like going  after Iss, trying to spot it  through the, through the,  through the leaves of the   trees. Then I was trying to  show, say my sister was a  telescope, but it was very low  on  the horizon. So it was very  loudly to see how much affection  she has for ISS  And now I'm hoping for a meet  again after this once she gets  back. Alright, so I think she  might come back to UAE if so  then I might have another  opportunity to  meet her to discuss more about  her. This almost one one year,  long trip and International  Space Station. And also  I had an opportunity to shoot a  video clip for my son who was  gonna turn one year by the  December 8th. So I named my son  after Jupiter. So his name is  Jovian in Latin. So I explained  everything that I would  recreate to, to have a wish so  that I could show that to him  when he when he  grows up. So it'll be amazing to  know that such a legend has  fished him. So I got a media  clip. And then I also got  another video clip of her   explaining, the earth is not   It's it's fair because I get to  meet a lot of people who believe  in flat Earth.  So it was an opportunity to  shoot a video of from the  person. Who had been to space a  lot of time so that it'll give a  pretty good  credibility for all the people  who believe in flattered. So, it  was very loudly for her to   share all those things. So that  was my experience with students.  >> IRIS Society: It's a great.  Oh my God. What? And in lighting  evening this was  I have no words. Actually no, I  want to see more of these clicks  here. Right guys.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: so,  you can   >> Kaustubh DS: Because two  amazing. Two amazing.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: So,  I post most of them work on my   >> Susheel Soni: like,  >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Facebook page and Instagram so  you can follow my work there and  can see my updates. I had a  website earlier but I couldn't  keep up with the updates so I  ended up like, not renewing it.  So all my high resolution  images or featured on Astro,  where you can see all these  images in high resolution. I  can share the link later on but  hope you enjoyed  >> Susheel Soni: we absolutely  loved it. So when I followed you  on the, your instep is the  moment. I got to know that you  are our the church. So,  and the best one was the  whirlpool galaxy that you have  captured. That's just too good.  too good. Like even before  watching your these pictures  that you should just now.  That was my favorite on your  page. You whirlpool Galaxy. I  have zoomed in and out multiple  times to see what actually is  there in that just too good sir.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Thank you. Thank you.  >> Susheel Soni: Amazing. No  words to say anything like that.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Thank you society.   >> 24F2008360 RAKSHITHASRI  SHRINIVASAN: Thank you so much,  sir, for this wonderful session.  It really gives us a very  good insight into  astrophotography. What we can do  to go forward in this. well,  and so I just wanted to ask   where exactly in trichy are you  from because even I am from  trichy.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography: so,  um, I mean my place I have two  places. One is my in-law which  is in Sri Rangam proper like in  the middle of the Sri Rangam I  mostly stay there and my my  dad's house is in Petabyte which  is about 30 kilometers from  Trichy. so, Okay.  >> 24F2008360 RAKSHITHASRI  SHRINIVASAN: okay, so actually  my dad is also from Shri Rangam  so to know that you've started  your astrophotography journey  from my home town is really  inspiring in the next time I  visit Shironormal definitely try  to capture images from there as  well.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Sure. Thanks.   >> Kaustubh DS: I,  >> IRIS Society: So, anyone  wants to ask any doubts to serve  otherwise and conclude the  session?  >> 24F3000899 BRAGADEESH R: so,   >> IRIS Society: Okay.  >> 24F3000899 BRAGADEESH R: I  actually got inspired very much  by watching your photos.  Actually, I started liking  astrophotography since very  young age. I used to start this,  I  used to follow an Instagram  called Rami Astro and after   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Yeah, it's a friend of mine.  >> 24F3000899 BRAGADEESH R:  watching Yes sir. He used to  take so good photos and that's  he's the one who inspired me to  take astrophotography. First of  all,   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Really.   >> 24F3000899 BRAGADEESH R: I  actually joined this.  Community. After the contest  ended, I could have joined but  they are being able to meet you  and me being in this session is  more than grateful society.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  really social all  the I will tell them that there  is one guy who was inspired by  you when I made him. Yeah.  >> 24F3000899 BRAGADEESH R:  Thank you so much.  >> IRIS Society: Cool, great.  Thank you so, so much. So being  present over here and   >> IRIS Society's Presentation:  I,   >> IRIS Society: we are so  grateful to have a sharing, your  inspiring journey showing us  those mind-blowing epic  astrophotography clicks. I mean,  I don't want to go from here  now. I want to see more and more  and more, but you don't think  time constraint, we should  compute the session. I'm sure  everyone  here was absolutely stunned by  what I think. Yeah. Everyone is  motivated enough to become the  future astrophotography, right?  Really really great. So thank  you once again, sir. We  generally enjoyed every  second of the session and I'm  sure it left, all of us,  motivated to explore  astrophotography even deeper  now, and of course, a huge.  Thank you to our amazing.  Participants, you know, it takes  a lot of courage. Whatever work  present your work.  define your ideation and present  your work amongst the world,  right? So yeah. Keep learning,  keep clicking, keep capturing  and keep learning all the  best for the future  photographers. This is and  signing off. I used to more  creativity, most, as more future  ahead, right? And we'll see you  all live. Add paradox right at  our  Beautiful, the most flagship  event, which is shutter. Safari  2.0 The registrations are Open  Now. Link will be shared in the  description. You can stand with  QR code Thank you.   >> Prabhu Astrophotography:  Thank you, everyone. Thank you,  Iris, Iris Society. And I was  just society for making me a  part of this Luminastram  astrophotography contest. And  congratulations to all the  participants.  both shortlisted and not not  shortlisted participants. So  just Keep looking keep drawing,  keep doing astrophotography, you  will get eventually better. And  then Advance, wishes for the   >> IRIS Society: Yes. So  Cool. Thank you so much,  everyone. Thank you so much for  joining. See ya. Have a good  night. Bye.   >> MANNU YADAV: Okay, thank you  so much running.  >> Prabhu Astrophotography: Bye.   >> Aryabhatta Vymanika &  Antariksha Shastriya Society:  Thank you.  >> MANNU YADAV: okay, so at the  and I'll say to the members who  have joined in this mate so with  this, your officially, like we  officially and this made this  session last  few notes, so we have shared the  feedback form. Please do feel  that right. Everyone I would  love to, you know,  know if we can improve ourself,  we can add some new things if we  can, you know, you have some  speaker, you know, mind. And if  you haven't topic that we can  do a session on this, we can  have a workshop sessions  etc, anything, right? So, feel  free to share you ideas,  anything in this form. At the  same time, as you can see, one  of our even is being selected  for the  paradox, right? So we would love  to see like your participation  in that even   >> IRIS Society: Society  Register. Now, register now.   >> MANNU YADAV: Register ASAP.  Okay.  And we have also shared the  LinkedIn tree, okay? And sorry,  Link Tree of Iris.  Society, okay? To do. Click on  that link and you'll get all the  links.  You may, like you will get the  LinkedIn insta, Whatsapp  membership form. Okay, so do  feel all of them, right? And at  the end, again, thanks for  joining till  and some of you were in starting  as well, like they join 20  minutes before as well. So it  was really great. Having you all  right. Your love and support.   Thanks a lot. Yeah.   >> IRIS Society: Thank you so  much, everyone. Thank you. Once  again for joining keep capturing  keep creating, keep conquering,  and yeah. All the best for the  future. Bye.  >> MANNU YADAV: So, I just  completely recording.   >> IRIS Society: We can end the  meet. Yeah, live.   >> MANNU YADAV: so, Okay, so  live and recording both."}]