Big Dipper - Saptarshi

One of my first constellation photos. The Big Dipper/ Saptarshi (সপ্তর্ষি মন্ডল ).

Taken from the balcony of my second floor apartment in Woodbridge New Jersey ion July 4, 2014.  This west facing balcony that offered a restricted view of the sky and overlooked a parking lot was my first "observatory" where my budding interest in astronomy took root. Little did I know that the hobby with stay with me into the next decade.

Chasing Orion - first light

"..This is an image of the Orion Nebula - a star forming region in the Orion constellation (Kalpurush/কালপুরুষ  in Bangla) as seen from my balcony in New Jersey on 25th December 2013 between 1 and 3 a.m in the south western sky.

The nebula is more than 1,400 light years from earth. So the light captured here has been travelling for 1,400 years.To put it in perspective, the light started near the end of the Gupta Empire in India and landed on my camera sensor on Christmas of 2013). "

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Thus began my email I wrote to a friend in 2013. It was the day after I had made my first deep sky photo using only a camera, a tripod and a computer (yes, no telescope). He was a friend from my undergraduate days, now a professor in the UK and shared some of my excitement. The email continued ...