Aperture Telescopes

Urbania Deep Sky Imaging
2024-04-12 17:00 - 21:00 (Asia/Kolkata) | Aperture Telescopes’ Facility, Aperture Telescopes, 75, Sector 1, Manesar, Gurgaon, Haryana, 122052, India
A common cliché among astrophotographers and its quite accurate cliché – You cannot photograph anything from overly light polluted cities.
Here is one person who is making this statement a misconception, meet Sameer Dhar.
Sameer Dhar is an exceptional deep space astrophotographer, hails from one of the most polluted skies in the world. Yet he is acclaimed for his work in imaging dim, really dim nebulas hidden in the realm of our galaxy.
Our small community has seen him evolve and hone his skills, now he leads path for many new and upcoming urban sky astrophotographers, frequently consulted by other accomplished peers.
During the day Sameer works for an International Property consultant (IPC) and looks after sales for facilities and property management business for the firm, Father to an eight-year-old son, who he is nurturing to become an avid astronomer, Sameer brings unimaginable grit and perseverance to the art of deep sky astrophotography.
Breaking barriers with the skill he has acquired over short period of time, but tons of hours spent with his gears have paid off, winning an APOD from urban skies is a major accomplishment and makes the whole community admire the sheer passion with which he works.
Aperture Telescopes is organising a one day workshop with Sameer Dhar. He will reveal many of his secrets and in fact run his whole routine in the workshop. Sameer would be bringing his entire equipment inventory that he uses, to our Manesar Astro Facility.
Don’t miss this chance to learn from the champion of Urbania Deep Sky Imaging.
Glowing Region of Dust and Gas
In 2022, I upgraded my OTA from the absolutely fabulous William Optics Redcat 51 to the Askar FRA 600. I loaded this huge and heavy OTA on a measly GEM 28 without adequate balancing owing to the enthusiasm of a newbie astrophotographer eager to test out his new toy, pointed it towards Sagittarius and started shooting 10 min subs from the Bortle 9 skies of Noida. I persisted over 5 sessions (over several nights owing to the clouds and pollution) to finally come up with the image above. This image has 810 minutes of data using a triad ultra-filter. It is cropped to about 70% of the original frame and I deliberately removed the stars to focus on the angular sharpness of the core with its dust lanes and glowing hot has regions.
I hold this image dear to my heart as it was selected as the Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD) on 8th August 2022.
This image is testament that inadequate gear, bad skies and even a myriad of stars cannot hold back the passion of an astrophotographer.
Sameer Dhar

Planetary Imaging Master Workshop - Day 2
2024-02-02 18:00 - 21:00
Planetary Imaging Master Workshop (Processing)
The results of the “Aperture” Indian Astrophotographer of the Year contest were announced recently. Aperture Telescopes is quite happy to be the Title Sponsor of this prestigious annual astrophotography contest in India.
Congratulations to all the winners for contributing their best astro-images. This year the quality of submitted images were world class. We hope that this contest keeps growing year after year.

The contest also emphasised what we already knew. Join me in congratulating the winner of the Planet Imaging Ms SONA SHAHANI SHUKLA – Ace Planetary Photographer. We have been seeing her exceptional planet images since long, in the social media.
This is her submitted image. Jupiter with its Great Red Spot and an eclipse happening over the GRS. The detail visible on the Planet is fantastic, but do not miss the detail visible on the satellite too! The quality of her images is best, but that’s not all, it is her method of photography that is exceptional too. For a long time she uses an 8-inch manual Dobsonian telescope to shoot the planets, following the wandering planet with her hands, and pointing the light from the planet, on to the camera sensor.
A GIS Expert at day, Astronomer & Astrophotographer at Night. The Starry skies ignited VISHAL SHARMA‘s interest in Astronomy. He started his journey from naked eye observation of stars & sky maps and now proudly owns advanced personal telescopes, mounts and other equipment in India. One of Vishal’s image of Jupiter was selected as best planetary photograph and ranked 3rd in world by IAU . Many of his images are now serving hundreds of schools to educate the students about Planetary Sciences in Europe and other parts of the world. Here’s a great opportunity to learn from two best planetary photographers. Sona and Vishal will be conducting a Master Workshop at our Manesar Astro Facility. The workshop will be conducted over two evenings. On the first evening we will be learning acquisitions skills. They would be demonstrating the best practices, methods for acquiring videos of planets. On the second evening, best methods of processing planet videos into images would be discussed.
This is an opportunity that should not be missed by all those interested in planetary photography. The workshop is without any charges, but there are only limited seats. A maximum of 25 participants would be registered for the Master Workshop. Register for the workshop only if you are free for the dates and would certainly make it for both the sessions (so as not to deprive of those are interested and able to join the workshop).
Register here
Planetary Master Workshop Dates:
Friday – 26th January 2024; 1800 – 2100 hrs – Session for acquiring planet images
Friday – 2nd February 2024: 1800 – 2100 hrs – Session for processing planet images

Planetary Imaging Master Workshop - Day 1
2024-01-26 18:00 - 21:00
Planetary Imaging Master Workshop (Acquiring)
The results of the “Aperture” Indian Astrophotographer of the Year contest were announced recently. Aperture Telescopes is quite happy to be the Title Sponsor of this prestigious annual astrophotography contest in India.
Congratulations to all the winners for contributing their best astro-images. This year the quality of submitted images were world class. We hope that this contest keeps growing year after year.

The contest also emphasised what we already knew. Join me in congratulating the winner of the Planet Imaging Ms SONA SHAHANI SHUKLA – Ace Planetary Photographer. We have been seeing her exceptional planet images since long, in the social media.
This is her submitted image. Jupiter with its Great Red Spot and an eclipse happening over the GRS. The detail visible on the Planet is fantastic, but do not miss the detail visible on the satellite too! The quality of her images is best, but that’s not all, it is her method of photography that is exceptional too. For a long time she uses an 8-inch manual Dobsonian telescope to shoot the planets, following the wandering planet with her hands, and pointing the light from the planet, on to the camera sensor.
A GIS Expert at day, Astronomer & Astrophotographer at Night. The Starry skies ignited VISHAL SHARMA‘s interest in Astronomy. He started his journey from naked eye observation of stars & sky maps and now proudly owns advanced personal telescopes, mounts and other equipment in India. One of Vishal’s image of Jupiter was selected as best planetary photograph and ranked 3rd in world by IAU . Many of his images are now serving hundreds of schools to educate the students about Planetary Sciences in Europe and other parts of the world. Here’s a great opportunity to learn from two best planetary photographers. Sona and Vishal will be conducting a Master Workshop at our Manesar Astro Facility. The workshop will be conducted over two evenings. On the first evening we will be learning acquisitions skills. They would be demonstrating the best practices, methods for acquiring videos of planets. On the second evening, best methods of processing planet videos into images would be discussed.
This is an opportunity that should not be missed by all those interested in planetary photography. The workshop is without any charges, but there are only limited seats. A maximum of 25 participants would be registered for this two session Master Workshop. Register for the workshop only if you are free on the two dates and would certainly make it for both the sessions (so as not to deprive of those are interested and able to join the workshop). Registration link for the workshop
Planetary Master Workshop Dates:
Friday – 26th January 2024; 1800 – 2100 hrs – Session for acquiring planet images
Friday – 2nd February 2024: 1800 – 2100 hrs – Session for processing planet images

All Planet Evening
2022-12-23 17:00 - 20:00
Picture this!
It’s a crisp Christmassy evening in late December, no smog and the sky is clear over Gurgaon, and we can see all of the seven planets, from Mercury to Neptune. Sone with naked eyes and some with a telescope.
Sunset is at 5:30 pm, but the first two planets are bright enough to be visible even before the Sun sets. Venus & Mercury towards the western direction would be seen just as the Sun is touching the horizon. Venus, the brightest would be easy to spot, but Mercury, as always, would be the most difficult to spot.
Twilight colour comes around after sunset and three planets are brighter than the dusk to be visible easily in twilight. Jupiter, the overall second brightest planet high towards the south, fiery red Mars towards the east and Saturn going westwards.
As the time of nautical twilight arrives, it is as dark as it gets in the city setting at our Astro Facility – Manesar, it is time to watch the remaining planets, the Icy Giants Uranus & Neptune.
It’s an all planet evening. All the planets of the Solar System will be visible in just a matter of two to three hours.
We are organising an observation on the evening of 23rd December. Several large telescopes will be lined up to observe all the planets in this short duration.
All are welcome to this early evening observation. We will be happy if you spread the word of this event in your circles.
The observation starts at 5pm, don’t be late or you will miss the two evening planets Venus & Mercury.

Lunar Eclipse
2022-11-08 17:00 - 20:00
The Lunar Eclipse of Tuesday is trending all over the world. India will see the last part of the eclipse, when the Moon rises, the eclipse will already be underway. If you are in the eastern parts of India you will see more of partial phases, and if you are in the western parts of India, less and less of partial phases, in twilight conditions.
In Delhi and environs, Moonrise is at about 5:30 pm, just a few minutes before sunset. Partial phases would be in twilight, by the time twilight finishes, the Moon will be in penumbra.
Going by today’s weather (smog situation) it seems that the Lunar Eclipse would be seen from Delhi.
Aperture Telescopes is organising an evening observation at our Manesar Astro Facility.
Observation start time – 5:00 pm
Observation end time – 8:00 pm
We will have a couple of large telescopes lined up.
All are welcome to join, the event is free.

Neptune Closest to Earth
2022-09-16 19:00 - 23:59
On 16th September 2022, the outermost planet Neptune will be closest to Earth. Although Neptune is not visible with naked eyes, but as seen with a telescope, on this date it will be at its biggest this year.
The Opposition of Neptune is one day later, falling on 17th September. The date of closest of Neptune to Earth and its ‘Opposition’ always differs by about a day at its maximum or a few hours at its minimum.
Neptune has many associated adjectives –
The Calculated Planet
Neptune was mathematically predicted before it was directly observed. In 1846, the planet Uranus had completed nearly one full orbit since its discovery by William Herschel in 1781, and astronomers had detected a series of irregularities in its path that could not be entirely explained by Newton’s law of universal gravitation. These irregularities could, however, be resolved if the gravity of a farther, unknown planet were disturbing its path around the Sun. In 1845, astronomers Urbain Le Verrier in Paris and John Couch Adams in Cambridge separately began calculations to determine the nature and position of such a planet. With a prediction by Urbain Le Verrier, telescopic observations confirming the existence of a major planet were made on the night of September 23–24, 1846, at the Berlin Observatory, by astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle (assisted by Heinrich Louis d’Arrest), working from Le Verrier’s calculations. It was a sensational moment of 19th-century science, and dramatic confirmation of Newtonian gravitational theory.
The Outermost Planet
With Pluto no longer considered a planet but a Dwarf Planet, Neptune becomes the outermost planet. Even otherwise Pluto’s orbit comes inside the orbit of Neptune for some of its part. In 2011 Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery in 1846.
The Windy Planet
Neptune is the windiest planet in our solar system, whipping up momentous gusts that can reach 2,000 kilometres an hour, much more than the speed of a jet plane. That soothing sapphire expanse does reveal some of the whirling chaos below in the form of cloudy bands and massive gyres that look like dark smudges on its surface. Neptune rotates quickly compared to Earth, with one day taking 16 Earth hours. But its great distance from the sun means the years are long, requiring 165 Earth years to make one trip around our glowing star.
The Icy Giant
In 1952, science fiction writer James Blish coined the term gas giant and it was used to refer to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. However, since the late 1940s the compositions of Uranus and Neptune have been understood to be significantly different from those of Jupiter and Saturn. They are primarily composed of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, constituting a separate type of giant planet altogether. Because during their formation Uranus and Neptune incorporated their material as either ices or gas trapped in water ice, the term ice giant came into use. Neptune and Uranus are now referred to as ice giants. Lacking well defined solid surfaces, they are primarily composed of gases and liquids.
Aperture Telescopes is organising an evening observation on Friday, 16th September at its Astro Facility – Manesar. We will put up several large telescope on our terrace to see the planets.
Prominent attractions of the evening observation –

Saturn rises well before sunset this evening. Saturn, its rings and a retinue of moons will be prominent in the sky at this observation. Saturn is located in the constellation of Capricorn.
This evening Jupiter will have its Great Red Spot (GRS) side turned towards the Earth. We will be able to see the transit of the Great Red Spot. The opposition of Jupiter is scheduled just 10 days later on (which means that the two planets are about 10 degrees apart). Jupiter’s closest approach to Earth is on 26th September and Opposition falls on 27th
Uranus rises at about 21:06 and will be visible about 20 minutes later. When Uranus rises, all the Giant Planets will be visible in the sky at the same time.
Moon and Mars are close together in the sky and rise at about 22:41, and will be visible by about 23:00.

All are welcome to join the observation.
Learn about the telescopes that we make at Aperture Telescopes.
Observe all the Giant Planets of our Solar System.

Circumstances of the Moon on the night of observation –

Planet Parade Continues
2022-06-25 03:00 - 06:00
Stories From the Night of the Planet Parade – Read here, post event report.

ALL THE PLANETS are lined up in the morning sky. This is quite a rare situation, and is persisting for several weeks.

Join us on Saturday early morning on the 25th June, at our Manesar Astro Facility to observe the Planet Parade with several large telescopes lined up just for you.
We had organised a dawn observation on 29th May, when Mars and Jupiter were in conjunction.
The Dawn Planet Parade is still continuing and favourable till the beginning of July, after which Mercury will be difficult to spot.
What is unique now that the five planets that are visible with the naked eye are lined up in their natural order in the Solar System. Mercury is closest and Saturn is the farthest from the Sun. Mercury reaches its greatest morning (western) elongation on 16th June.
On Saturday, 25th June, the line-up of the planets will stretch from southern direction where Saturn will be visible, and going towards the eastern horizon where Mercury would be rising just before sunrise. The order of planets goes like this – Saturn in Capricornus, Neptune, Jupiter and Mars in Pisces, Uranus in Aries along with the crescent Moon, bright Venus in Taurus, below Pleiades and Mercury also in Taurus.

Planet
Rising Time at Manesar
Constellation
Size
Magnitude
Disk Illumi. (Phase)

Saturn
22:32
Capricornus
40″
0.61
100%

Neptune
00:01
Pisces
2.3″
7.87
100%

Jupiter
00:34
Pisces
40″
-2.40
99%

Mars
01:20
Pisces
7.0″
0.50
86%

Uranus
02:35
Aries
3.5″
5.83
100%

Moon
02:35
Aries
30″
-10.57
15%

Venus
03:28
Taurus
12″
-3.92
84%

Astronomical Twilight – 03:52

Mercury
04:08
Taurus
6.8″
-0.18
56%

Nautical Twilight – 04:27

Civil Twilight – 04:59

Sunrise – 05:25

Several telescopes will be available for the available at our Astro Facility for your use.

16-Inch Aperture Telescope, Dobsonian,
‘ORANGE’ 8-Inch Aperture Telescope, Dobsonian,
14-Inch Celestron SCT on CGE-Pro mount,
8-Inch Celestron SCT on Atlas EQ6 mount.

We welcome you to come & observe the All Planet Parade at our Astro Facility.

Planet Parade from Ajay Talwar on Vimeo.

All Planet Parade
2022-05-29 00:00
Post Event Report

In the Sky – Saturn at the upper right corner, Conjunction of Mars & Jupiter in the middle and Venus shining at the lower left side.
On the terrace, starting from the left – 12-inch SCT, 14-inch SCT, 16-inch Aperture Telescope and ‘Orange’ 8-inch Dobsonian
On the left – View of Mars & Jupiter together in the same field of view on the 14-inch telescope, shot with a cell phone.
All Planet Night Observation – Aperture Telescopes Astro Facility – Manesar
The evening and the early night was 100% clouded over, completely overcast, creating apprehension in the minds of the observers. Checking the weather prediction it seemed that the cloud cover would start to dissipate at around 2:00 – 2:30. Much to our happiness the prediction came exactly true.
First to appear was Saturn. As we turned our telescopes towards we were able to see Titan alongwith.
It was a beautiful sight. The conjunction of Mars & Jupiter was the main attraction of the all planet night. The steady clockwork rhythm of our solar system has brought the two planets, Mars & Jupiter, in close proximity of less than a degree as seen from the planet Earth. But in reality there was a distance of about 3.85 Astronomical Units separating them. We were able to see the two planets in the same field of view of the telescope.
A mixed group of about 35, consisting of amateur astronomers mingled together with beginners in astronomy at our Astro Facility.

End of May and first half of June 2022, the planets are aligned in such a way that ALL the planets can be seen before dawn.
It is an infrequent occurrence to see all of the planets in the Solar System observable in one night. Sometimes there are nights when all of the planets are visible from dusk to dawn, some planets are visible in the evening after sunset and some visible in the morning before sunrise, but to see all of the planets in the same quadrant of the sky at the same time is indeed rare.
On Sunday, 29th May, the line-up of the planets will stretch from southern direction where Saturn will be visible, and going towards the eastern horizon where Mercury would be rising just before sunrise. The order of planets goes like this – Saturn in Capricornus, Neptune, Jupiter and Mars in Pisces, just across the border of Aquarius, bright Venus on the other side in Pisces adjacent to the border with Aries, Uranus in Aries and Mercury in Taurus. Thin crescent Moon would be rising just after Uranus in Aries constellation.
The best part of the night is that Jupiter and Mars are in close conjunction, less than a degree apart and visible in the same field of view of a telescope.
Join us on Sunday early morning on the 29th May, at our Manesar Astro Facility to observe and photograph the planets with several large telescopes lined up just for you.
Planetary Astrophotographers welcome, two large telescopes will be dedicated for astrophotography.
(The image above was clicked in February 2016, at Binsar in the Himalayas, when five planets were visible at dawn. A time-lapse video of the planet parade on the same night can be seen below.)

Planet
Rising Time at Manesar
Constellation
Size
Magnitude
Disk Illumi. (Phase)

Saturn
00:20
Capricornus
39″
0.76
100%

Neptune
01:47
Pisces
2.3″
7.91
100%

Jupiter
02:10
Pisces
37″
-2.23
99%

Mars
02:11
Pisces
6.4″
0.69
88%

Venus
03:31
Pisces
14″
-3.97
77%

Astronomical Twilight – 03:54

Uranus
04:15
Aries
3.4″
5.85
100%

Nautical Twilight – 04:28

Moon
04:34
Aries
30′
-8.38
2%

Civil Twilight – 04:59

Mercury
05:01
Taurus
12″
3.54
4%

Sunrise – 05:26

Several telescopes will be available for the available at our Astro Facility for your use.

20-Inch Aperture Telescope, Dobsonian,
16-Inch Aperture Telescope, Dobsonian,
14-Inch Celestron SCT on CGE-Pro mount,
12-Inch Meade SCT on LX200 mount,
8-Inch Celestron SCT on Atlas EQ6 mount.

We will also be have the ‘First Light’ our new Planetary Dobsonian, the 10-inch f/10 truss tube telescope, on this observation night.
We welcome you to come & observe the All Planet Parade at our Astro Facility, any time after midnight, till dawn.

Planet Parade from Ajay Talwar on Vimeo.

Photograph the Moon, The Golden Handle
2022-02-11 18:00 - 23:30
Amateur Astronomers love to watch the Terminator day after day.
No, no, not Arnold Schwarzenegger in that movie with the same name, but on our Moon.
Definition of Terminator – the dividing line between the illuminated and the unilluminated part of the moon’s or a planet’s disk. In plain language – the line dividing the day and night on the Moon.
It’s a well-known truth among amateur astronomers that the best place to look on the moon is along the line between light and dark. Many observers study the moon along the terminator, because the deep shadows there make crater rims and walls on the line pop in relief. Day by day the terminator changes position on the Moon, illuminating different craters, rilles and mountain ranges. When the sunlight appears on the Moon’s surface from a low angle, i.e. at sunrise or sunset interesting lighting effects are created, which can be observed quite well from the Earth.
A well-known effect is the so called “Golden Handle”. This is when the Jura Mountains (Montes Jura) are just illuminated 4 to 5 days before the full moon and appear as a bright arc, in front of the still darkened Sea of Showers (Sinus Iridum) of the Mare Imbrium. This is reinforced by the terminator, runs directly through this area at this time. The Golden Handle shines rather brightly, as one side is darkness, and on the other side is the relatively darker Sinus Iridium.
On Friday 11th February, 2022, when the Moon rises at in the afternoon from Manesar, it will be 9.83 days old. Around sunset the Golden handle will be in darkness, but by midnight it will be fully illuminated by sunshine. A spectacular transition in about 4-5 hours.
Aperture Telescopes is organising an evening observation on Friday, 11th February, 2022 to observe this spectacular transition on the terminator.
Would you like to learn how to photograph the Moon is great detail, USING YOUR OWN CELLPHONE? We will have a big telescope all set up for YOU to photograph the Moon using YOUR cellphone.
Do carry your best one along! See you on the 11th.
Ajay Talwar, Aperture Telescopes.

Adornments of the Winter Milky Way - Star Clusters
2022-01-26 18:00 - 22:00
Numerous Open Star Clusters are spread all over the winter Milky Way. Even city dwellers can enjoy these decorations in the Akash Ganga. Some of the clusters can be seen with the naked eyes, Krittika (Pleiades) being the famous one. Should I mention some of the other famous ones, viz. Salt & Pepper; Hyades; Double Cluster; M35 at the feet of the Gemini Twins; Little Beehive; The Scorpion and many many more. In January these clusters are hanging high up in the sky.
So what kind of telescopes do we need to see these clusters? Some of the clusters are large, like Pleiades Hyades – best seen with wide field binoculars. Some of the clusters are small and densely packed with stars like Salt & Pepper, which require long focal length. Some clusters are faint, requiring fast focal ratio, some can be found by star hopping while some may need accurate goto telescope to locate.
We are organising an observation with numerous, and all kinds of telescopes. In this observation you will have telescopes that you can use on your own, large telescopes such as our 20-inch Dob, accurate telescope like the 14-inch SCT, giant binoculars, small dobs. A whole lot of telescopes!
Do join us for this “Star Clusters Observation Session” at our Astro Facility at Manesar.
DO NOTE – Two things could adversely effect the observation, viz. covid regulations, or inclement weather. Final go-ahead will be decided on the morning of the observation date.

Planet Observation with the 20-Inch Aperture Telescope
2021-10-22 18:00 - 21:00
We are bringing out our largest telescope, the 20-inch Truss Tube Dobsonian, under the night sky, join us this Friday at our astro facility at Manesar.
Highlights of the evening –
Bright Venus in crescent shape,
The Ringed Planet – Saturn,
King of Planets -Jupiter and its Great Red Spot.
Moon will rise just after sunset and will be almost full, showing all its ‘Ray Craters’ beautifully.
Do join us for this planet observation session.

Telescope Collimation Expertise
2021-09-12 17:00 - 20:00
The Dreaded Telescope Collimation, will be made easy.
Aperture Telescopes invites you to this session of “Telescope & Their Intricacies“. In this session you will learn how to easily align your telescope optical part to perfection.
We will have several different types of telescopes on hand and will describe their collimation in detail. You will learn about the tools of the trade that are used for precise collimation, as well as software that are used for collimation. We will learn to collimate the telescope indoors as well as collimating on a star outdoors. Do let us know in advance if you would like to bring your own telescope to this session on collimation.
After attending this session the dreaded word “Collimation” will become an easy routine task for you.
The session will end with the observation of First Quarter Moon (almost).

Astrophotography from a Plane Window
2021-08-29 18:00 - 21:00
No doubt that the endeavour is difficult, but you can catch some very interesting phenomena and images when you point your camera out of the plane window at night.
This unusual talk will be delivered by Neelam Talwar, who is a senior Air Hostess with Air India, that’s her profession. She is also a Baker, Marathon Runner and Astrophotographer by choice!
Neelam will be talking about the intricacies of shooting the night sky outside a plane window, what are the preparations required and what are the pitfalls that you may encounter. She will be showcasing some of her photos and videos clicked in the recent years, from the window of various air-planes and on different flight routes over the Earth. Meteors, Zodiacal Light, Extended Dawn, Comet, Aurorae, Colours of our Atmosphere, Glory and the Himalayas, are just some of the images that are part of the presentation. Neelam was on the first ever Indian flight over the North Pole, on 15th August 2019, which she documented in a video.

The presentation will be followed by a visual planet observation using the 20-inch Aperture Telescope (weather dependant).

Astrophotographer's Calendar 2022 Release
2021-08-29 18:00 - 18:30
It’s ready!
Astrophotographer’s Calendar 2022 – {Astrophotography from a Plane Window}
Here’s a wall calendar chock full of astro-events listed for the entire next year. Be prepared much in advance with equipment, location & plan appropriate for the future event. Emphasis is towards events happening in the night sky over India. Extensive listing of all astronomical events throughout the year. Get to know and plan your astrophotos much in advance, and not after the media frenzy starts. All kinds of astrophotography events, viz. landscape, deepsky, planetary, conjunctions, occultations are calculated and listed in the calendar.
The calendar features twelve of the best images captured, flying over the Earth. The calendar is printed on high quality heavy paper, 13 inch X 19 inch, to be put on a wall. The printing is of good quality. The Astrophotographer’s calendar is being published since many years now, and is a valuable year long companion.
The new 2022 calendar will be released on this date. All those present at the release would be able to get a copy for a heavily reduced price.

Two Shadows on Jupiter & Opposition of 2021 (Regretfully CANCELLED due weather)
2021-08-22 23:00 - 2021-08-23 02:00
Its never an easy decision to cancel astronomy observation plans. The weather prediction looks bad on the night of two shadows, all weather sites are predicting heavy cloud cover.
The event, regretfully, stands cancelled.
Late Night Astrophotography Get-Together
On the night of 22nd August 2021, shadows of Ganymede & Europa will fall on the surface of Jupiter. This relatively rare event is occurring just two days after the Opposition of Jupiter. Aperture Telescopes is organising a get together to photograph the interesting event at our facility at Manesar.
The session will be conducted by Planetary Photographer – Sona Sahani Shukla. Sona will give you an introduction of planetary imaging technique. Talk will be followed by photography of the event. A short session to process the capture before we end the get-together.
We will be setting up our Celestron 14-inch to photograph the event. The telescope has a focal length 0f 3910 mm at f/11, which will be able to resolve fine details on the planet’s surface. If the atmosphere is steady, we may be able to double the focal length for even better images.
Additionally we will also have a couple of large telescopes setup, ready for visual observations of this interesting event.
