Stargazing

The first time I got interested in stargazing was in summer of 2000 when I moved to Wolfsburg in Germany to work for EDAG. We lived in a lovely place seen below called Isenbüttel which was 20km away from Wolfsburg.


At night I was amazed by the clear and dark sky filled with stars. I read a little about astronomy on the internet and started to identify some constellations. It was a wonderful experience. In Dec 2000 I went to Bangalore in India for spending the holidays with my parents. I told my father about my new hobby and he asked me to buy a good book. I went to a bookstore called Gangarams Book Bureau and liked the following book.


This book was quite expensive (Rs. 900) and I was not sure if it was a justifiable investment. When I told my father about the book he came with me to the bookstore and bought it for me so that I don't settle for anything less !!

After returning to Wolfsburg I spent more and more time at night watching the sky. I never liked staying out in the cold before but the joy of star gazing made me do that. Soon I bought a binoculars (Nikon 10x50 Lookout), a stand, an adapter to attach the binoculars to the stand, a compass and a red torchlight which along with the book were my guide to the sky. I got married in 2003 and my wife was also interested in this amazing hobby and I pursued it wherever we were - India, Germany, Malaysia and the US. In 2008 my wife and I moved to Sindelfingen in Germany.

Year 2009 was being celebrated as the International Year of Astronomy.



To mark this event and as a part of their Christmas sale, Lidl was offering a Meade LXD-75 6" Newtonian Reflector Telescope with Autostar, a computer controlled motorised mechanism to track stars for 599 Euros. I ordered it soon after seeing the offer and it it arrived before Christmas. I had been wishing for a telescope for quite some time! This is its photo in our study room.


After my wife and I return to India we plan to start a stargazing club for children and adults called