Spiti Valley, wrote Rudyard Kipling in his novel 'Kim', is a world within a world, a place where gods live.
Twenty-five adventurers gathered on a small plateau at Langza village in Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh. Located at an altitude of 14,500feet, nearly 430kilometers away from the state capital Shimla, the picturesque village became a destination for astronomy enthusiasts on July 27.
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They were gathered to witness and record 21st century’s longest Lunar eclipse. By 5 pm everything was set—tents were placed, telescopes were installed. They introduced themselves to each other as most of them were meeting for the first time.
The time for the Lunar eclipse was 10.44 pm to 4.04 am. But to their dismay, it started raining in Spiti Valley.
The rain could not dampen their spirits as Aayushi Tehlan, a young doctor, and Arkin, a second year student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, kept sharing stories and managed to keep participants awake till the wee hours though it was freezing even in the tents. Abhinav Singhai, an astrophotographer with Stargate India—the organiser of the event—conducted a basic astro workshop for the participants.
A visit to Spiti Valley has always been in the wish list of Mayur Puri,44, a film maker, writer and lyricist, but he used to be too busy with various film projects in Mumbai. He saw a post about the expedition on Instagram and was thrilled to be part of the adventure to witness Lunar eclipse atop the Spiti Valley. Soon, he shopped for the necessary equipment for the trip and set out to the destination.
Atish Aman, an award winning astrophotographer and co-founder of Stargate India, did the recce a month in advance and selected Langza in Spiti as the best place to witness the Lunar eclipse.
As the time for the complete Lunar eclipse was approaching, Shiva Kalyan, 37, a photography enthusiast who came all the way from Hyderabad with his wife, was ready with his camera to capture the full moon. But the clouds played spoilsport.
The breakfast of barley bread and herbs tea for the team was with a local family in the village.
Though the Lunar eclipse was overshadowed by clouds and rain, the journey to the top of the mountains was an exhilarating experience indeed. The participants pledged to return to Spiti in September for another astrophotography workshop.
Stargate India is the first of its kind private observatory to explore the universe in India. Ramashish Ray, founder-CEO, said, “We aim to provide astronomy and science workshops to people and school kids with regular interactions and expeditions and bring astronomical events closer to the people”.
He said Stargate India opened first private observatory of the country in 2017 and will be launching a mobile observatory soon.