Star-struck students

Did you know that just 70 km from the city is a spot where you can see the Milky Way with your naked eye? And did you ever wonder why you could not see the stars from your rooftop? If you did, you are not alone. Taking their curiosity a step further are members of the Astronomy Society of Hyderabad. The group of six members, mostly students, has come up with a first-of-its-kind magazine in the country on astronomy. Titled Beyond Earth, the 30-page issue is scheduled for a November launch.

“Astronomy has always attracted people across different fields. Questions such as, ‘Where did we come from?’, What is the future of our galaxy?’… are the ones that we hope to answer,” says Praveen Suryavanshi, who is also enrolled in a course on astronomy at the Arizona University and is the editor of the magazine.

The Horsehead Nebula
“During our research, we realised there is not a lot of information out there for the Indian audience. What the magazine has is our experiences,” says 20-year-old Vinay Manchala, an architecture student who is in-charge of sourcing the images. “Since I am an architecture student, working on a magazine was quite an experience. You don’t necessarily have to travel to the end of the world to see the Milky Way or Orion Nebula… it’s all here,” he says.

It’s not just questions on outer space that the team hopes to answer. “We have been exploring various places to find dark skies which are kind of hard to get for people living in cities. And astrophotography demands the darkest skies,” says Aditya Gopal, senior advisor and astrophotography specialist.

Despite their hectic schedule, the members gave their best. “It has been quite hectic,” says 21-year-old engineering student Sanjeeve Siddharth. “I am in-charge of logistics and there was a lot of running around. But everyone contributed, both monetarily and with their time,” he says.  

Interesting facts from ‘Beyond Earth’
Moon is moving 3.8 cm away from our planet each year and is estimated to do so for the next 50 billion years. By the time our sun will be dead, the Moon will be taking around 47 days to orbit the Earth instead of the current 27.3 days.

The Earth is on a diet: It’s losing 50k tonnes of mass every single year, even though an extra 40k tonnes of space dust converge onto the Earth, it’s still losing weight continuously. The net loss is about  0.000000000000001% mass of the Earth every year.

Saturn can float on water: Saturn the gas giant, is the only planet in the solar system which is less denser than water, which would float if we place it in a really big tub full of water!

Our galaxy will collide with our neighbour, Andromeda Galaxy (M31) in about 5 billion years. Any how, the stars involved are sufficiently far apart that it is improbable that any of them will individually collide. The galaxy that would be the result of the collision is nicknamed Milkomeda.

Places in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana State apt for astrophotography
Markook Lake, Medak
Pakhal Lake, Warangal
Laknavaram, Warangal
Kotepally Reservoir, Rangareddy
Chinturu, East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh
Maredumilli, East Godavari
Rajahmundry, East Godavari