Anyone has experiece from Stargazing treks with Indiahikes?

[Saravanan]

Hi

I saw a Indiahike blog post on Stargazing trek offering dated October 2022.

I am very much interested in that.

Can anyone here can share their experiences, and which trek route they chose?

And also if someone from Indiahikes team is reading this,

Are you offering stargazing trek this year in October/November?

 

 

Edited March 5 by Saravanan
clearer subjectline

[Shristi Kedia]

Hi Saravanan,
I was a trekker on the Stargazing trek conducted by Indiahikes to Brahmatal from 21st November to 26th November, 2022.

I have always been fascinated with the night sky and stargazing but did not have any knowledge about the stars or constellations before the trek.

My expectation from the trek was that I would be able to witness clear night sky with Milky way and many shooting stars. Indiahikes exceeded my expectations in every way, especially our trek leader Ravi Ranjan.

When the night fell, what I witnessed is beyond which can be expressed in words, it can only be felt through your presence there. The Milky way was cutting the night sky with its beautiful colours, the numerous twinkling stars, shooting stars. Remembering the moment still gives me goosebumps.

Ravi acknowledged us with almost all the constellations from the stories of Greek mythology because of which it is so easy to remember most of the constellations taught to us till date, about the shooting stars, different galaxies, the reasons for colours of the stars, about planets. They even had binoculars with the help of which we saw Andromeda, Betelgeuse, Jupiter and its 4 moon, Sirius, Mars and others.

On the night we had our camping by Brahmatal lake, we were made to visit the lake at night to see the reflection of the stars on the still Brahmatal lake. Oh! That moment was completely magical. Having able to witness it was seriously a blessing.

Not only the night sky, we were even taught about the Sun, the reasons for occurrence of seasons with live demonstration, learned how to make sun clock and there were many other small discussions continuing throughout the trek regarding formation and ending of world and several other topics.

Overall the experience was breathtaking and extraordinarily remarkable. I feel now I do have a little knowledge about things related to the night sky and that is all because of Ravi, his crystal clear understanding and passion towards these has made me intrigued to know more about it. It is a trek worth doing with Indiahikes.

[sir_car]

It is an experience of a lifetime. Gave me one of the best memories of my lifetime.  If you like space, stars, trekking. This is a must.

That said, there are a couple of cons/suggestions:
1. The location wasn't ideal. A star gazing trek should have 'very' dark skies. But a trek near lohajung, a place with lots of villages. The sky had too much light pollution.
2. There wasn't enough star gazing. Not really a con. Because we were stopped because of the cold. But it was sooo amazing to do star gazing in freezing cold. Its early days and they are probably encountering unexpected situations. But I suggest for there to be more  arrangements to have longer,  stabler time with the binoculars.

There was also lots of learning. This is both good and bad. Good if you don't know your space stuff. But fairly boring if you are a discovery nerd type personality.

[Vipul T]

Hi Saravanan,

 

I was a part of stargazing trek conducted by Indiahikes to Phulara Ridge.

 

I am always fascinated by the night sky and when I saw Indiahikes is conducting a Stargazing trek for the first time, I couldn't resist. I had minimum knowledge about night sky yet had only minimum expectations. But again this was an experience that cannot be put into words.

 

The Bhoj Gadi campsite in Phulara Ridge was a near perfect campsite with minimal treeline and almost 180° view of the night sky. Almost everything we can see with naked eyes in night sky was visible from here. First thing we saw in the night sky from campsite was the milkyway and seeing milkyway for the first time was a magical moment. We also had real fun figuring out the constellations. And we were given this task to make our own constellations by connecting random stars and to give a story to it. That was really interesting. We did see lot of things through the binoculars as well including the Andromeda galaxy and Orion nebula, Various planets and twin stars in the Big Dipper. And the number of shooting stars we saw at that night!! Mesmerizing it was! That alone made the trek the best experience I had with stargazing as we all suffer with lot of light pollution in the cities.

 

That being said, there is lot of room for improvement. I know it's difficult to carry telescopes to the mountain peak but if it was there it would have been great. We did gain lots of knowledge while trekking but it can be improved. More lessons and more activities can make it all way more interesting.

 

If you passionate about stargazing you can resist the freezing cold. Otherwise you are gonna have a tough time watching sky in the midnight. But it can be managed if you are properly layered.

 

But this is such an exciting initiative by Indiahikes to start a stargazing trek and I cannot wait to come back to the same and see what they have brought in addition. I know that Indiahikes is very professional while conducting these special treks and they will improve from their learnings. This time I came alone but will definitely be back with my sky enthusiastic sibling and friends.