Doha: The new year started off on a bright note for sky watchers in Qatar as many came together to get a closer glimpse of Venus, the brightest star in the night sky and the hottest planet of our solar system.
Qatar Astronomy Club organised a meet up of its followers at Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) Park in Doha recently inviting young and elders to view the planet through telescopes.
There were about seven telescopes set up at different angles to view the Venus. Among the visitors were professionals, novices, curious bystanders and students from various schools who had come to learn about the planet. One of the founder members of the Club, Jassim Mohammed Lari, said that every meet up attracts many curious minds to study planets and stars.
"Every meet up there are students from various schools with many queries and there are also new followers who join us. Most of them see the planets or stars for the first time and it gives them great joy, which in turn make us happy. We humans are a curious lot and there is nothing more beautiful than studying the sky."
Apart from Venus, visitors at MIA Park also got a chance to see a close up of Moon, Mars and few star constellations. One of the visitors, Ishana Rajguru, who was at the venue with a telescope, wrote on her social media page, "A great evening of sky-watching with Qatar Astronomy Club! We observed Venus, Mars, Sirius, Orion Nebula and a couple of other stars. Best way to spend a cold January evening IMO (in my opinion)."
A Doha resident and a teacher, Nithya Madhavan, said that she got a chance to view the Venus quite close and it was exciting to watch the craters on the Moon. She adds: "Venus looks so small like a star but when you look it through a telescope you realise that it is as huge as the moon and in reality it is almost as big as the Earth. I am looking forward to similar meetings as they are quite informative for novices, who are curious but have little resources to study the planets."
The Qatar Astronomy Club is a society of like-minded members interested in watching and studying the planets, stars, constellations and galaxy. The idea was developed by Haji T Mammadov who loved reading up on astronomy and studying the sky. He formed the club on Facebook and was looking for other interested individuals to manage the page along with him. At the same time Lari, an astronomer by passion, was also searching for a group to build his knowledge.
"I coincidentally found him on Facebook and contacted him. It was like we both found what each one was looking for. Qatar Astronomy Club is like a contact-point where experts can share their views, novices can build their knowledge and students can ask their queries. We frequently meet up and spend time to observe the sky," Lari said.
Lari, a physics laboratorian, in a school in Qatar frequently drives to the deserts to spot optical phenomenon in the sky. He said that studying bright stars or planets that can easily be seen through the naked eye can be done in Doha but deep sky objects like a nebula or a galaxy requires you to travel to the North towards deserts to eliminate or minimise the light pollution.
Lari has been often asked if the club has an office to which he queries, "What would an astronomer do in his office? We are always out, below the sky with our telescopes in hand." Adding that all of their events are updated on Facebook page and that's how everyone - amateurs and professionals - come together.
