Astrologers can never go wrong! - Part 1

I admire the writers of astrology columns. Piling up so much of bovine excrement on a daily/weekly/monthly basis is not easy. Give it a try yourself, if you think writing a few pages every day is easy. I am referring to writing sensible stuff, of course.

Many a time when I tell people whom I meet that I am interested in astronomy, they think I am a fortune teller. Not just ordinary village folk but even educated and otherwise seemingly rational looking people. The trouble is, astrologers are better known than astronomers. Every (well, almost) newspapers carries a page dedicated to (wasted on?) a column by an astrologer. TV channels have regular “shows” where in astrologers enlighten the masses on how the Sun, the Moon and the Planets – including a couple of imaginary planets of course, influence our lives. You get advice on how to ward off their ill effects. It is a well oiled machinery, supported by the media playing to the masses, never mind the fact that there is no clear evidence that it works. After all, when it comes to faith, all that matters is what you believe. You don’t need to prove anything. In fact, the more bizarre the claim, the better it is.

 

Well, if astrology does not work, why do so many people believe in it? Are scientists just plain wrong when they say astrology has no strong foundations?

Before we answer that question, let us look at some samples of the so called the astrological predictions. I picked up the following one from today’s Bangalore Mirror for “Cancer”.

Conserve your time and energy and focus on things that you can get done by yourself. Planning something special for your partner will enhance your love life. If a home improvement project is on the anvil, set a budget to ensure that you don’t go overboard

I read it twice to see what the prediction is and failed to see it. To my simpleton English understanding it just looked like a piece of advise which anyone could have written rather than a prediction! But if you are believer, you will twist those words, read between the lines and find something that is at least remotely connected to your own life and say that the prediction was right!

How do different predictions match up? Since I wanted to write this blog today, I picked up today’s newspapers at home and looked up. I could have done it on any other day and looked at any other newspapers. It really would not matter.

Here is the prediction for today for Cancer in Times of India:

It could be a difficult day. You may have some trouble accepting responsibilities. There is some nervous tension surrounding you. Don’t go in for any risks. Find new ways to unwind. Mixing with influential people is important for your future.

Here, at least there is some semblance of prediction. “It COULD (emphasis mine) be a difficult day” and “There is some nervous tension surrounding you”.

Well, any day COULD be difficult for anyone. What is difficult is also subjective. Missing the bus and having to catch an auto to reach office could be your definition of a difficult day. Having to face an irritated customer could be it for someone else. Not finding those ten minutes to have a smoke could be it for yet another person. And if you look back, every single day of your life you will find something that could be a candidate to make the day difficult.

Of course, there just could be days which are absolute perfect. Such days may be rare but they do happen. If it was such a day for you and your were a Cancer, what do you do? Thank your stars that the prediction did not come true for you! As for the nervous tension, do you find anyone nowadays who says s(he) has not tension?

Plus there is this important psychological factor one should consider. Humans are by nature remember bad events more than good ones. Bad events, however small they may be will have a lasting effect perhaps thanks to the way we have evolved. If you went to a particular stream to drink water and found a tiger lurching behind a boulder, you have to be careful about that spot in the stream next time. It is basic survival instinct. You can’t afford forget that. On the contrary, if you found a greener pasture on one particular day, you may find another one equally good somewhere else. And of course, the green pasture may not be green all the time. No need to try hard and remember the good things in life. They may be of help to you, yes. But the bad ones could kill you. So you better remember those.

Does astrologers have a large following only in "backward" countries like India? No way. The scene is more or less the same wherever else you go. We Indians have no IP on stupidity.

Looks like writing an astrology column is something where you can never go wrong. After all, no one takes it seriously when it does go wrong. On the contrary, the rare cases where one does get it right are highlighted both by the believers and the astrologers. Well, if you predict a hundred things to a few thousand people you have to get it right sometime. No one can be wrong all the time.

In any case, as I quoted in the examples above, you don’t even need to predict something. You write what you want and the believers will find the ‘right’ meaning out of that. If they interpret it incorrectly, you are not to blame!

Great, isn’t it?

Actually, I envy them. I wish I could find a job as simple and risk free as theirs.

* * * * * * * * *

Well, astrologers counter such arguments with a string of questions. What about the ‘scientific’ stuff that the astrologers use? Science tells us that the Sun keeps its herd of planets, their moons and plenty of other smaller rocks going around it. It does have a gravitational effect that does the trick. It creates tides on our Oceans. If all of that is right, is it not plausible that the Sun could also affect the human beings who live on the Earth? What about the Moon? Moon has a greater impact on the Earth in terms of the tidal forces than does the Sun though it is a much smaller object (Surprised? Well, that is for another blog). Does it not have a right to affect us too? Don’t we all know that two thirds of human body is water? And roughly two thirds of the Earth’s surface is also covered by water! So what the astrologers have been claiming all along has now got a “scientific” confirmation?

The apologists of astrology also keep pointing out that there are so many things that science can’t explain even today. When that is the case, how do they know that a planet like say Mars or Saturn can’t have an effect on human beings? There are so many unknowns in nature; so astrology could well be right? Just because we don’t have a proof today, should we despise it?

Well, I will come back to it in the next blog in this series.

Moon and Venus - the second and third brightest objects in the sky have always evoked interest among people. When they come close together it gets all the more interesting. Just like the eclipses which are rare events thanks to the orbital properties, Moon and Venus appearing together - at least at a convenient time for us to observe - are somewhat rare. Though not as wonderful or celebrated, they nevertheless attract attention. That's what happened today morning. The two celestial bodies were separated by less than a degree and it was indeed a great sight. Managed to take a few pictures of the event. The pictures were taken from Lalbagh.

The pictures of course, don't do any justice to the real thing.

Chasing a runaway Comet

Comets are a good omen. No, your astrologer would not agree, I know. But for astronomy buffs comets are always welcome visitors. They have a great attraction not easily paralleled by most other celestial objects. In fact, my own interest in astronomy owes a lot to the Halley's comet that did its last trip into the inner solar system in the mid 1980's.

Other comets like Hale Bopp, Hyakutake, Holmes and now Lulin have all left their mark in the skies, so to say. Contrary to common belief comets are not that rare. In fact, on any given night there are a handful of them around but most of them are only visible only through telescopes; quite a few of them will need a fairly big instrument to really see any details. Therefore, every time a bright comet visible to the naked eye comes around, it creates a lot of excitement.

Scientifically, comets are important since they are believed to carry with them the primordial matter not cooked by effects of solar radiation. Astronomers believe that studying comets can throw a lot of light on the conditions that existed in the early days of the solar system's formation.

A comet has broadly three parts: The nucleus which is the "dirty snow ball" and the only permanent part of the comet, the Coma and of course the tail. What makes comets so interesting to the general public is of course their tail and to a lesser extent the coma. The nucleus is just a few kilometers across - something like a small mountain on the Earth. This rocky, icy mountain contains plenty of dust too. And because they don’t reflect much light (measured by albedo, the reflectivity) they go unnoticed for most of their life time. But when a comet comes closer to the Sun, the ices melt/sublime and the gases thus produced bloat up in size and the comet's coma can grow into several thousand kilometers and the tail can grow into millions of kilometers. And that’s what gives the comets their typical structure and the size. After spending a few months in this glory they disappear from view only to return after a few years in most cases. Some of the comets may never be seen again.

The recent appearance of comet Lulin gave us yet another excuse to make a trip to our usual haunt near Mysore. We wanted to take some pictures of this "green" comet. Of course, we don't have the sophisticated drive and other equipment to take professional quality pictures but that does not deter us from trying to get what we can! The pictures of Holmes we had taken last year were still fresh in memory. That was absolutely breathtaking, with the coma appearing as big as the disk of the moon! And was that bright!

So we were off to Mysore; myself, Seema, Gaurav, Dilip and Akshay,. We started from my place around 6 pm and reached our destination 165 km away around 9.30 pm. After a short, ten minutes rest, we went out to see if the comet was visible. It was barely visible to the naked eye but easily seen in binoculars. Through my 5" the coma was quite bright and the tail was visible too.

And then were busy setting up our telescopes for photography. Dilip started off with the six inch telescope and the drive assembly (see here for a description on basic astrophotography and equipment that was used for these pictures) that he had recently got modified and I started setting up my Meade 5" scope.

As it happens so many times, especially after a long journey, fixing the stuff and getting a proper polar alignment took quite some time on the six inch. In the mean time I had started taking some pictures with my Meade, experimenting with polar alignment for the first time. The tube was precariously positioned and with camera hanging upside down and I had to get into some yogic postures to look through the eyepiece/view finder. The tracking was quite ok and I wanted to take multiple exposure and try to stack them to get some acceptable pictures. So most exposures were around two minutes. The images were quite sharp. In the meantime, Dilip was fighting with his setup to get things on track. In fact, by the time Dilip got a proper alignment and ready to shoot it was around 2 am. Time to retire for the day - or night - actually. But our day had just begun. And Dilip started taking pictures. He got a couple of good shots in the session and decided to close by 4 am. Off he went to take a nap and while going remarked that it was the first time in his life he had stayed on till 4 am during an observing session!

It was my turn to try and take some pictures now. Since everyone else had gone to sleep I was working alone in absolutely silence. The alignment was really good and there was no need for any dec correction. After taking a few exposures I decided to close my photo session at 5 am. There was a hint of twilight by now and I was quite tired with my back protesting and hands aching with tracking. It’s been a long night.

The next morning we got up around 8 am and after a good breakfast prepared by Seema downloaded the pictures. When running through the pictures we were surprised to see the amount of shift in the comet’s position. Though we knew that the comet was really running against the starry background, the shift in position seen within minutes was a revelation. The time difference between pictures was about 6-7 minutes and the shift was easily seen between pictures. We knew that it would make an interesting video clip. But we were too tired after a night’s work and did not think about going about it. The clip was ultimately done after returning to Bangalore.

Here are a couple of pictures of the Comet taken over the two weekends in Feb 09:

Here is a video clip made with eight different exposures over a period of 47 minutes and here is a video clip made with four different exposures over a period of 30 minutes.

We generally mix astrophotography with another of our interests – going after birds. But this time we were just too exhausted and stay put in the farm house. Dilip was leaving for a trek in the afternoon and after a leisurely lunch I decided to take a much needed nap. I would have probably slept for an hour when the phone rang. It was Dilip on the line. He had seen a group of bar headed geese in a lake on the way to Hunsur. He wanted to know whether I would be interested in a short drive to check out what I could get. Well, it was too tempting and I didn’t take long to decide that I was going. It was around 3 pm when Dilip called and after a quick shower I was ready to go around 4 pm.

There were about a hundred of these cute birds in the lake. And of course, the common coot, little grebe and other common water fowl were all there aplenty. But there was one which was looking somewhat different and not seen before. It was a cute little goose. Since I had not carried my bird watcher’s guide, could not recognize it immediately. After returning to Bangalore and a quick check showed that I had got the Cotton Pygmy Goose. A good catch! The picture below is of a juvenile Pygmy and the one next is of an adult bird.

On the way back I noticed a black shouldered kite on a tree perched at the very top and stopped to see if I could get a good shot. He was quite co-operative and did not get alerted. In a tree next to this one there were a noisy group of rosy starlings and got a couple of good pictures.

After the return to our base it was time to take out the telescopes and start with our star shooting all over again. Since Dilip was not around, I had the entire telescope time to myself. The comet was in the East now. Due to the limitation with our equipment, objects that are in the East are to be tracked by turning the knob with the left hand and that turned out to be quite a challenge. After struggling for an hour and getting a few reasonably bad (!) pictures I decided to stop trying and shifted to my Meade with 17-70 lens piggybacking on it. I managed a dozen or so reasonably good images by mounting it in equatorial configuration. It was now around 1.30 and I decided to take a short nap.

When I woke up at 3 am the comet had crossed the meridian and was comfortably located in the western sky. So I was at it again, alone under the skies in complete silence save for the occasional call of an owl and the thud from the falling coconuts. Thanks to the power cut it was pitch dark and there was no one disturb me either. Ideal conditions for some astrophotography!

After getting ten pictures of the comet I briefly turned to a couple of open clusters in Scorpio just for a change. But this was in the South-East and I had to become a leftie again. That was too much of hard work at 5 am and it was time to stop and return to the comfort of the bed. When I woke up for the second time that morning it was well past 8 am. It was a sound sleep after a long night under the skies. And time to start packing up.

We returned in the last week of Feb again to get some more shots of the comet. The temptation was too strong. By next week moon would be getting brighter and closer to the comet and the "star with hair" would be lost in the glare of the moon for at least ten days. And after that the comet would be in the evening sky, probably lost in the twilight and in any case getting fainter by the day. We did two nights of shooting again and it was time to say goodbye to Lulin.

Raichur - a hot spot for birds!

If you were asked to name the top ten hot spots for birds in Karnataka which are the places you would name? If you are a netizen of Bengaluru chances are you would mention Ranganathittu, Mandagadde, Kokkare Bellur, Gudavi . . . and so on. How about Raichur? Am I crazy? It is a hot spot alright, but more because of the blistering sun than birds, isn't it? In fact, just a few weeks ago I would not believe that Raichur would be a haven for birds. Raichur district is flanked by Krishna in the north and Thungabhadra in the South and therefore has good water source and one would expect some birds there. But birds in thousands? Birds from thousands of kilometers away?

On the 25th of last month on our way back from Mysore (where we were off for yet another sky watching trip) when Dilip told me of his voyage to Raichur I had a few (?) second thoughts. The temptation was strong but the thought of taking two days off from work, two overnight journeys by bus and the feeling that the journey may not really be worth it were pulling be back. By the time I reached Bangalore I had almost made up my mind and the fact that Seema did not protest too much made it a somewhat easy decision.

So we (Dilip and me) were off to Raichur on the 29th of Jan. We almost missed the bus, waiting for the bus to arrive at platform number three in Bangalore Bus Station. We kept checking all the buses that came and were told that the bus will arrive any time. Barely five minutes before the scheduled departure time of 9.30 pm one of the KSRTC staff with whom Dilip inquired told us that we were in the wrong platform and that we should rush to platform no.15. Rush we did, only to find there that we had to go to platform no.28. And where is that? At the other end of the bus stand, a good five minutes brisk walk. It was already 9.30 and we thought we would not make it. Dilip managed to run faster than me with the camera bag, the tent, the tripod and a heavy stomach! I followed, with my suitcase in one hand, tripod in the other and camera bag on the back. To our surprise, the bus was still there, apparently waiting for people like us to join. The journey itself was uneventful though we could not sleep well, thanks to the badly designed seat.

When it was daybreak the bus was nearing Mantralaya. Except a dozen of us, rest of the passengers got down at Mantralaya. We had a cup of tea there before the bus started on the last leg of the journey. It was one bumpy journey, thanks to the wonderful road. The distance of 50 km took an hour and half in our non-stop bus. But we were not complaining on the slow pace of the bus! Guess what! There were so many wonderful birds all so close to the road. Rosy Starlings, Brahminy Starlings, Bee Eaters, Drongos, Larks, Indian Rollers . . . by the dozen! We half seriously considered getting down somewhere on the way, take some pictures in the perfect morning light and continue our journey later! It was so tempting. We were now getting the feeling that the journey of 450 km would be well worth it.

At last we reached Raichur around 8.15 in the morning, had a quick wash and breakfast in the hotel right opposite to the bus station. The Prabhu hotel turned out to be quite good indeed and we were to return there twice on the next day. Now we had to reach Shakti Nagar, some 20 km from Raichur town (well, one can't call it a village since it happens to be a district HQ, but it looks like a big, unorganised village, nevertheless). Umashekar, our host for the trip would be waiting there. In fact, it was he who had initiated the whole trip. We reached Shaktinagar after a back breaking journey - the bus was a non-stop shaking machine - where Umashekar was waiting for us. After a coup of tea in "Gulbarga Hotel" which is a non-descript tea joint that serves very good "chai" we went to the room that Umashekar had arranged. It was already 10.30 and there was no time to be wasted. Of course, it was quite hot and we doubted if we would get to see any birds, let alone get good pictures, but it was better to try and get something, rather than stay put in the room and sleep.

Umashekar had arranged two bikes with Madhu and Raghu, two of his friends from Shaktinagar. Dilip and myself "boarded" the bikes and off we go!! Our first destination was a tank. Quite a tank it was, at least five km in circumference. But were there any birds? Thousands of them. Bar Headed Geese, Spot Billed Ducks, Shovelers, Shelducks . . . The picture below was taken with my 500mm lens and there over a hundred birds in the picture!

Soon the excitement turned into disappointment. The lake was covered on all sides by thick growth of spiky bushes that were threatening to pierce through our trekking shoes. After treading heroically for 20-30 minutes, we accepted defeat and climbed back to the tank bund. So, here we are, a few hundred meters from a few hundred birds, so near yet so far. We decided to walk a little more on the tank bund to try and find some opening that would allow us closer to the tank. A few minutes later we found ourselves within shooting distance of a group of painted storks, black necked storks, grey herons, terns and a lot more. It was close to noon now and the lighting was far from perfect, but that was that. You take what comes your way! The good thing was, we could shoot the birds from above the nest which we don't get often and seldom in places like Kokkare Bellur.

There were of course the little sun birds, bush chats, bee eaters, flower peckers all inside the bushes taking cover from the scorching sun. And the terns trying to catch their lunch.


It was too hot for comfort and we were getting tired, especially after the night journey by bus on bumpy roads and we decided to close our first session of birding.

After a simple but good lunch at one of the small hotels in Shakti Nagar we are joined by Umashekar and Rudrappa, an old friend and colleague of Umashekar. He is a bird watcher with a great passion for his hobby. Their enthusiasm to take us around was so great that we just went along in spite of the hot Raichur Sun of 2 pm, immediately after the heavy lunch. The expertise of the twosome in the various birds that are resident in the area was quite evident from the word go. We were going to a place called Magnur, some 15 km from Shaktinagar, across the border in Andhra Pradesh. As described by Rudrappa there were hundreds of birds, including a lone lesser flamingo but again so far from the tank bund, not within reach of our lenses. As if to make us slightly happy a group of birds took off all of a sudden providing a grand view for about a minute and settled down even farther away!

By now, we were quite tired and really wanted some rest. So we decided to go back to our room and come back to Magnur lake in the evening, to catch the birds from the other side of the lake and hopefully from a closer range. We slept like logs and woke up well after 4.30. After another cup (two cups for Dilip) of refreshing tea at Gulbarga hotel we were off again to Magnur lake. We reached there around 5.30 and the light was fading quickly. We had to walk about ten minutes carefully, taking care not to disturb the birds. Unfortunately there are no trees, bushes or anything to provide cover around this tank and we were sticking like sore thumbs against the skyline as we walked towards the lake, with cameras and tripods in hand. That was enough to alert the birds when we were a few hundred yards away. And that's it. Evey one of those winged wonders took off, and landed safely at the other end of the tank, way beyond the reach of our lenses. Disappointment was writ large on our faces. By now, the sun was about to set and there was just nothing we could do to catch the birds that evening. As a consolation we were treated with a colourful sunset.

We had a special place to visit that night. It was the tank bund of a lake where we would be staying for the night in our small four men tent. The idea was to catch the birds when they start their early morning journey to nearby fields to catch their share of worms and other delicious stuff! It was a wonderful stay, with stars twinkling overhead. Andromeda Galaxy, Orion Nebula, h & chi Persei and other familiar objects in the sky were keeping us company. It was a fairly sound sleep for us, except for Rudrappa. In our dreams we were probably thinking about just one thing: will the birds oblige tomorrow morning?

Just as Umashekar had told us, the bird calls started around 5 am. We peeped out of the tent only to see complete darkness outside. There was no point trying to spot the birds at that time. So we lied down for another half an hour or so and then came out into the cool morning breeze. The activity of birds was a lot more by now and many birds had left/leaving already. Our anxiety grew. Will we be able to get a few decent shots? Or will the birds disappear before the light is enough to get some pictures? Our luck seemed to be running out with every passing moment. In the meantime, Umashekar was enjoying the view of the distant birds with his spotting scope. He said he had purposefully kept away from trying to photograph the birds, just because of this reason. The number of birds in the lake kept reducing and we only got some silhouette shots as a reward for all our efforts.

Just when we were almost giving up, a small group of spot billed ducks passed overhead, turned around showing off their colourful wings and the next moment they were gone. What wonderful colours these creatures have! And the grace! We were lucky to get a couple of good shots.


We didn't know then but Umashekar had arranged for delivery of hot tea to the tank bund. He is one resourceful person! Madhu who was with us the previous day had come all the way with a flask full of the wonder fluid which was the most welcome drink at that time and location. After the tea break we packed up our tents and started back to have a shower, breakfast and some rest, hopefully. We had not got very far when we found this Blue Faced Malkoha right next to the road, obligingly sitting on the power cable and allowing us to take some close ups! The morning was now proving to be more exciting than we thought!!

After the quick breakfast myself and Dilip set off again on Madhu's bike for Manslapur lake, a good 30 km drive. It was close to 11 am and sun was beating down. But go we must, having come all the way to catch something special. After a drive of an hour we reach Manslapur lake. And there, from a distance of half a kilometer, find what we came looking for. Lesser Flamingos! There were just about 15 of them, quite close to the shoreline and we thought we were getting more lucky. But these birds are so alert, they start slowly paddling their way deep into the lake. Fortunately, in this lake we had some bushes and small trees to take cover and we manage to get within shooting distance.


In the mean time, I spot a group of Indian Silverbills in a nearby bush. They were so obliging, never got perturbed by my presence and gave enough chances to get some nice pictures.


In the meantime, the flamingos decided to take to their wings, probably bored with their fishing bout. If these birds are gracious in water, they are just magnificent in flight. I thought they will now go away and disappear. But surprise! They decide to make a round trip and land exactly where they were a minute ago. That was completely unexpected and gave a chance to get several pictures in flight. It was indeed a lucky day!!

Flamingos were not the only birds in the lake. There were Shovelers, spot billed ducks, cranes, herons and of course, egrets; hundreds of them.

When we were busy shooting, a couple of boys working in the fields next to the lake joined us, curious to know what we were up to. They were surprised and happy to know that we had travelled all the way from Bangalore just to see and photograph these birds which they see day in and day out! Fresh, sweet carrots and green "chana" arrive along with water along with the assurance that the water is safe for drinking!! You should go to the rural India to experience hospitality, pure and simple.

The boys do something more than that. They tell us that there is another lake close by and there are lot many more birds. Marchard Lake is the name and it is just one kilometer by walk and 3-4 km by road. We are tempted. Will we get to see more flamingos? Or some bar headed geese? Or something else? At close range? We did not have much time at our disposal. We had to drive back to Shaktinagar and then back again to Raichur to catch our bus to Bangalore. We had to hurry up if we wanted to take a chance.

Back to the bike whose seat was by now hot enough to bake Dosa. We were at Marchard lake in ten minutes. And there, less than a hundred meters from the road, we see what we had hoped to see. In hundreds. The visitors from the Himalayan foothills, the Bar Headed Geese!! These beautiful birds breed in the Himalayan foothills and migrate down south during winter.

After spending about half an hour at Marchard lake we drive back to Shaktinagar after a short stop at Raichur to eat something at 4 pm. We were completely exhausted by now. But then, the trip was well worth it. Two full days spent in the hot sun, three sleepless (OK, half sleepless!) nights, 900 km journey by rickety bus, it was all worth it. And we met four nice gentlemen. The success of the trip was largely because of the foursome; Umashekar, Rudrappa, Madhu and Raghu. Thanks a ton for all that you did during the trip!! From my side, Dilip is the one who instigated me into it, so special thanks to him!

For more pictures from the trip see my web album at: Raichur Trip Photos