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Sorted by date, here are the different dates wherein I have maintained details of our observing trips and other similar events.

This log does not ONLY give those dates when I've have gone for observing sessions. However it only gives dates when I've remembered to make the recordings of our sessions. Of course, I have gone for sessions many more times than those listed here.

The list below is classified into 2 distinctions. The events in red color have links giving detailed reports whereas those in pink list only the events with no details.

DATE

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SESSION

1 January 2002 First trip to an astronomy related place - Kavalur Observatory

First saw Mr. Kuppuswamy, one of the two co-discoverers of Uranus' rings

15 December 2002 Geminid Meteor shower

One meteor left a very long trail...for 15 minutes!!!

1 February 2003 Sky observation just ON the day of the tragic Columbia space-shuttle disaster!
8 August 2003 Went to CREST at Hosakote, near Bangalore, the control center of world's highest observatory, Hanle's 2-metre telescope

Saw Prof J.C. Bhattacharya, one of the two co-discoverers of Uranus' rings

25 October 2003 First recording of an observing log

First attempt (unsuccessful) of a comet (Comet 2/P Encke)

January 2004 Saw a bright and my first comet (C/2002 T7 LINEAR) with binoculars
July 2004 Saw a bright and my second comet (C/2001 Q4 NEAT) with binoculars from city
11 December 2004 Spotted with naked-eyes my third and bright comet (C/2004 Q2 Machholz)
1 January 2005 First Astrophotography session with my new SLR camera
12 February 2005 Memorable Southern Milky-Way Sky

Attempted (unsuccessfully) 4 comets in a single night

Saw an unidentified and extremely strange phenomena / object!!

Windiest observing session ever!

27 December 2005 Saw my most number of objects in one session

Saw my first asteroid Vesta, visually with binoculars

28 January 2006 Saw the brightest exploding meteor we have ever seen, it created near-daylight!!!
25 February 2006 Fantastic Milky-Way skies

Saw a bright and my fourth comet (C/2006 A1 Pojmanski)

01 March 2006 Accidentally "discovered" Junior Red Spot, a new feature on Jupiter
25 March 2006 Our biggest astronomy get-together

Saw my first faint but fifth comet 73/P Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, before it's memorable approach to us

22 April 2006 Observed Comet 73/P S-W 3

Lyrid Meteor shower

6 May 2006 Good Photography session

Eta-Aquariid Meteor shower

22 May 2006 One of the best Sagittarius Milky-Way's ever seen!
24 August 2006 Truly fantastic skies, saw some new galaxies, used a 11x80 giant binocular
23 September 2006 Saw my 6th comet, came close to discovering a comet!!
1 October 2006 A new comet was discovered the following dawn by David Levy very close to Saturn, and we came very close to it, but very unfortunately unsuccessfully !!
16 October 2006 Sky-Observations a day before my Birthday!

Detailed observations of Comet 4/P Faye

Saw some Orionid Meteors

21 October 2006 Wonderful observing session, saw many (33) new objects in one night

Orionid meteor shower at it's peak, we could see ~100 meteors inspite of not looking up all the time!

26 October 2006 Saw my 8th and 9th comet resp. C/2006 M4 SWAN and P/2006 T1 Levy
28 October 2006 Our group's FIRST but my FOURTH trip to Kavalur Observatory

Had a guided tour of the campus, interacted with some of the authorities there

10 January 2007 I went to Hyderabad for personal work and unexpectedly ended up doing an outreach session for 2 ICSE schools on behalf of our BAS! There was a press release too in few newspapers!

Gave a talk/slideshow presentation for around 1 whole hour on "How to discover a Comet" for around 20-25 students in one school and around 400 students in another school...something most unexpected and extremely frightening!!!

13 January 2007 Trip to Yelagiri hill, with excellent skies and wonderful chilly atmosphere/weather...it reached around 7o Celsius that day with wind chill factor included!! Trip was scheduled with a renowned astro-photographer from Chennai - Dr. Suresh Mohan

Saw my 10th comet, C/2006 P1 McNaught which was the brightest in past 4 decades!!! Saw it with binoculars from ground level.

14 January 2007 Saw Comet McNaught for the second time with a 12" f/4.5 telescope this time from above the high Yelagiri hill.

It reached magnitude -6 (negative 6!!) at peak brightness!!!!

15 February 2007 Completed observing 200 galaxies!
24 February 2007 Completion of observing 400 DSO's with a telescope!!
15 March 2007 My first Messier Marathon-2007

In my first attempt out of 110 Messier objects I could manage to get 101 of them, missing out only 9 of them...a wonderful thing for a first attempt!

17 March 2007 My second Messier Marathon-2007...a Double Marathon attempted by me!

Comparatively very bad results. Should have got much more after first attempt. Got 100 Messier objects only...one object less than the first attempt.

18 March 2007 Second Trip to CREST, Hosakote, the control center of Himalayan 2-metre telescope.

General sky observing with handful of students from REAP, Planetarium and other people from CREST.

Partial Solar Eclipse on next day dawn! Very wonderful and successful event.

7 April 2007 Observed few new Messiers with binoculars making my count go to 85 with a 10x50 handheld binoculars!
14 April 2007 Yelagiri second trip, coming exactly 3 months after the first one.

Members from TANASTRO with BAS got together and witnessed one of the biggest gatherings in South India, with a big range of equipment.

12 May 2007 Bad skies and weather

Observed the BEST Jupiter EVER!!

20 May 2007 Bad skies and weather

Introduced 5 girls into observing...something first time for me!

Saw a very bright and long orange meteor, approximately -6 to -7 magnitude!

9-13 June 2007 My 5th trip for Vainu Bappu Observatory; this time it was for some scientific purpose!

Spent 4 nights there using the 40-inch SCT telescope!! Took spectra of few objects. Also in free time got to observe 4 objects visually with it!!

I also observed few objects with the 10x50 binoculars from the Observatory.

Sketched one of my best and detailed Jupiter observed!

20 October 2007 Observation of the new season, after a long time

Extremely bad skies

Saw some Orionid meteors

3 November 2007 Observed the beautiful Comet 17/P Holmes in detail

Very bad skies

Missed Comet C/2007 F1 LONEOS

10 November 2007 Trip to Om Shanti Dhama, before Mekedatu near Sangam confluence

Foggy skies, not very good.

Excellent view of Comet Holmes!!

14 November 2007 Excellent and clear, dark transparent skies...Observing from Sivanhalli after a long time

Saw a very strange rocket exhaust looking like bright Comet Hale-Bopp in the sky!!

Another excellent view of Comet Holmes!!

Observed one of the best sunrise and morning twilight skies in my life!!

7-9 December 2007 Our biggest astronomy get together at Hampi, an ancient World Heritage site! Attended by ~35 enthusiasts!!!

Sightseeing of the historical place during daytime. Introduction to  sky-observing during night-time for atleast nearly 25-30 newcomers!

"Re-discovered" Comet Holmes with naked-eyes as a very large and diffuse ghostly patch!

14 December 2007 Geminid meteor observing...saw ~90 meteors including many fireballs!!

Observed my first new galaxy after nearly 10 months!!!

The large and ghostly Comet Holmes was just amazing!

5 January 2008 A truly superb observing session at Sivanhalli for 8 of us, this location coming after 2 years!

Very windy and cold. Good Southern skies.

The BEST astrophotography trip ever...with images of several objects with camera and tracking setup!

12 January 2008 BIGGEST star party with TANASTRO at Thiruvallur, with around 65 members and around 10 equipments!! It included a Celestron 25x100 binocs and 10" f/5 Meade Light bridge.

Light polluted skies. It was mainly introduction to newcomers

Few members carried on Astrophotography, and others observed.

17 January 2008 Astrophotography and observing trip to Sivanhalli. Very windy and chilly session. Heavy fog gathered after 4 am.

Moonset at 2 am. Activity began after that.

Best Eta Carinae Nebula!

2 February 2008 Trip to Kavalur Observatory and Hogenekkal Waterfalls; gang of 15 people from Infosys and BAS

Entirely clouded and disastrous skies!!

Guided tour of Observatory and lots of fun at the waterfalls

1 March 2008 Third trip to Yelagiri Hills; excellent session with members from BAS and Chennai

Wonderful astro-photography done and observing done

Saw quite a few new galaxies after a really long time!!

5 March 2008 Hosahalli observing session; very good skies, light polluted and some bad events disrupted the event!!

Saw few new galaxies after a very long time

10 April 2008 VERY superb and lucky session!!! Excellent skies and local conditions. Enhanced views of DSO's !!

Observed ~25 new galaxies with exceptional success rate!!!

23 October 2008 First (unsuccessful) observing with the Parallelogram mount and Oberwerk 25x100 large binoculars

EXCEPTIONAL skies, especially North, at Atgaon, 100 km off Mumbai!!!

29 October 2008 Observing with new friends in Atgaon, 100 km off Mumbai under good dark skies

Observed Comet C/2008 A1 McNaught and many other celestial splendors with the 25x100 binocs

28-29 November 2008

Totally cloudy skies. Trip to Mahuli fort-hill, 100km of Mumbai

4 December 2008

Good session after a long time; saw C/2006 OF2 Brougthon and some more DSO's

26-28 December 2008 Second trip to Lonar Meteor Crater. Saw some of the BEST dark and clearest skies!!!
30 December 2008 Sky observing at Atgaon, off Mumbai

Observed Comet 144/P Kusihda with 10x50 binocs.

5 January 2009 Observed few new galaxies after a very long time

Re-observed Comet Lulin after it's re-emergence from behind Sun

TOTAL ENTRIES 58 ENTRIES

 

Updated : 5th Jan 2009