Won Photography Award

won 2nd place in the ‘Power’ category at the prestigious Hamdan International Photography Awards (HIPA) in Dubai.  the competition received 87,000 entries from 145 countries across six categories, with only 19 winners selected in total.  i also had the good fortune of meeting some amazing photographers from every corner of the world.  my winning photograph, titled ‘Ultimate Power’, is the Sun shot in the H-alpha wavelength, revealing its chromosphere with features such as solar prominences, sunspots, and filaments.  the description accompanying the photograph read: “The Sun powers almost all the natural processes that keep our planet functioning. It is what makes the Earth habitable. Just one hour of sunlight contains enough energy to meet all of Earth’s electricity needs for an entire year. It is the ultimate source of energy - massive, continuous, and overwhelmingly powerful.”

Astrophotography – Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS. from Mussoorie. 16 Octber 2024

Astrophotography – Annular Solar Eclipse

(image 1)annular lunar eclipse, shot through a solar filter. 26th Dec 2019. Ooty.  an annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon doesn’t cover the disc of the sun completely and a ‘ring of fire’ is seen.  this happens because the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than the size of the Sun as seen from the Earth.  this happens when the distance of the Moon from the Earth is lesser than it is during a total solar eclipse, when it completely covers the Sun.  (image 2)Bailey’s beads effect visible during the annular solar eclipse.  Bailey’s beads are caused because of the mountains and valleys on the Moon.  these surface features create an uneven edge of the Moon’s disk, where small ‘beads’ of sunlight still shine through the valleys for a very few seconds.

Astrophotography – Devasthal startrails

stars rising in the east. from Devasthal, Uttarakhand.

Astrophotography – Solar Transits

(Top to Bottom)Mercury transit, Venus transit, Kite transit. (A solar transit is a movement of any object passing between the Sun and the Earth). Shot through an H-alpha solar telescope. Mercury transit happened on May 6th, 2016. Next one visible from India will be on Nov 13th 2032. Venus transit happened on June 5th, 2012, and you can catch the next one on Dec 10th, 2117. Kite transits can happen anytime.

Astrophotography – North and East

startrails. concentric circles are formed when shooting towards the north, with the Pole Star making the innermost circle. total duration of 2 hours and 20 minutes(top image). looking towards the east, straightish lines are formed, with the angle governed by the latitude of the location. total duration of the second image is 3 hours and 18 minutes.

Two crescents

Venus(l) and the Moon(r) were visible close together on the evening of 2nd January. both showing a very similar crescent phase at the same time. not a very common sight. Venus shows phases like the Moon as it lies within the Earth's orbit. Venus, roughly four times the diameter of the Moon, was about 100 times farther away than the Moon(50 million kilometers) at the time. shot with a 400mm lens(cropped).

Mars

Mars. shot it through a 4" Celestron Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope. the brighter area on the top is the polar ice cap. manually stacked 30 stills. 1/10sec. ISO1000. eyepiece projection. no tracking. 1325mm focal length. 15mm eyepiece.

Milky Way Tree

at Majkhali, Ranikhet.

West

stars setting in the west. from Devasthal, Uttarakhand.

The house on the edge of the Milky Way

at Dhanachuli, Uttarakhand.

Lights

Moon

some photos of the neighbour. 1. in front of the Sun during the annular eclipse of 2010. 2. in front of the Pleiades star cluster. 3. waxing. 

4. with Venus. 5. waxing again.

Venus Transit

shot the transit of venus from Delhi. if you missed it, you can catch the next one in December of 2117. the image on top has been shot through a solar telescope. it has also appeared on the front page of Hindustan Times. some more coverage and a video also here.

Sun

time lapse video showing one rotation of the sun, which it does in approximately 25 earth days. the video is made by shooting one photo of the sun at the same time of the day for 25 consecutive days, which is the sidereal rotation period of the sun(rotation at the sun's equator). shot it through an h-alpha solar telescope.

Earth Moon Venus

Comet Lulin

Comet Lulin. one of the brightest comets in recent times visible in the northern hemisphere. shot with a 300mm lens, the time-lapse shows the motion of the comet relative to the stars(duration of about 1 hour).

Total Lunar Eclipse

eclipsed moon in front of the milky way.

27 minutes after start of totality.

stages of the eclipse. not true representation of the path of the moon.

12 minutes before start of totality.

27 minutes after start of totality.

time lapse. gaps and inconsistency is due to clouds and variable exposures.

occultation of star 51 ophiuchi by the moon. visible because of the eclipse. 

time-lapse video.

the total lunar eclipse from Majkhali, near Ranikhet. 15-16 June 2011. managed to get some shots before the clouds completely took over the proceedings a few minutes after the start of totality.

Colours of the Moon

shot the full moon yesterday during the 'Supermoon'. saturated the colours. though exaggerated, the colours are real. the different colors show the differences in the chemical makeup of the lunar surface - blue hues reveal titanium rich areas while orange and purple colors show regions relatively poor in titanium and iron.
Shot prime focus through Celestron Nexstar 4" telescope. Nikon D90. Focal Length: 1325mm. Stack of 35 stills. 1/400@ISO400. 19-3-2011.

Sakras

stars rising at Sakras in Harayana. total exposure of 2 hours 40 minutes.