I had planned an observing session with my friend Amjad at 10:30 PM at my place. But by 8:00 PM, clouds started to run over Hyderabad and then rain. Amjad said he could see intense lightning in the North East. I was in my room. I went out to check the sky and was disappointed to see such cloudy sky. The program was cancelled.
Near about 12:30 when there was no electricity, I moved to the terrace with a cup of Kadak Doodh Patti in my hand and boy I was amazed to see millions of stars shining over my head. Thanks to the rainfall for amazingly clear sky.
Since my binoculars were in Karachi for repair, I thought to do some Naked Eye Astronomy this time. I started with Jupiter, the largest planet of our Solar System had just risen and was shining in the East.
I turned my eyes towards Constellation Scorpius and saw Shaula (λ Scorpii) which is the 25th brightest star in the night sky and is a double star.
The Constellation Cygnus (The Swan) was so bright and at 90 degrees angle, I could easily make out all the main stars of this constellation. Moving some left from Cygnus, was the Constellation Lyra (The Harp) and its brightest star Vega (5th brightest star). I tried hard to resolve Epsilon Lyrae (The Double Double) out there but that wasn’t an easy task, so I left it.
Aquila (The Eagle) was also flying over the horizon. It was for the first time I had seen this constellation.
I now moved my head towards the South and scanned the sky from South to North and I noticed a cloudy appearance there. I figured out that it was the Milky Way. Milky Way galaxy appears to pass through Constellation Sagittarius in summer skies.
There wasn’t electricity and I was tired, so I decided to sleep at terrace. I put off my spectacles to sleep but I was amazed by the sight. The sky was so clear that I could see thousands of stars even without my spectacles. It amazed me a lot.
By 4:00 AM, electrons had again started to flow in the wires and the Moon was rising from the North East. I took out my 40x Refractor to take a look at it. The Moon was looking very awesome in that.
I thought I should now pack up and take a look at my blog because I was receiving some complains about its functionality. So I kept working on it and finally at 4:56 AM in morning, I was able to fix it.
Went to bed nearly at 5:45.
I wish I had my binoculars with me at that time, if I had, I would have scanned whole sky without tiring because we seldom get such clear skies.