Up above the sky so high – Times of India

Last March, Akila Prabhu did the Messier Marathon in Yelagiri with her daughter. The senior project management analyst at Frost and Sullivan is now lacing up for her second run at it this March. If you’re wondering, it isn’t a run on the ground, but a race for the stars.
The Messier Marathon, which takes place around the globe, is an attempt by amateur astronomers to find as many Messier objects as possible in one night. The task involves finding 110 relatively bright deep-sky objects such as galaxies, nebulae and star clusters.
The Messier Marathon is just one of the several astro-vacations that Chennai-based astronomer Neeraj Ladia, CEO of Space Aracade (part of the SPACE group of companies) organises throughout the year.
Another is tracking the Perseid meteor shower. According to Greek mythology, Zeus, the God of the sky, visited Princess Danaë, the mother of their child Perseus, in the form of golden rain. Zeus continues his rain of gold every July-August, known in astronomical terms as the Perseid meteor shower, and amateur stargazers across the globe wait to catch a glimpse of these fireballs streaking across the night sky.
“Both the Perseid and the Geminid — the December meteor shower – are important dates in the astro-tourism holidays we plan,” says Ladia, who takes his vacationers up the mountains of Yelagiri to sample the celestial rain.
Surveys indicate that since the pandemic, tourists are more interested in travel experiences than geographical locations. And this puts astro-tourism on top, with all the stardust it offers, like chasing eclipses, sighting constellations, gazing at meteors, and witnessing the sheer magnificence of natural astronomical phenomena, in combination with harnessing scientific and geographical theories behind them. “It’s a wonderful experience,” says Prabhu. “It begins with you standing under the dark new moon sky. All you have for light is a torch wrapped in red cellophane, to keep the light pollution minimal. And then, suddenly, the heavens begin to light up. That astro-vacation got me so hooked to the sky that now I cannot go a day without stargazing. ”
With more Indians taking to the skies, astro hubs, ports and parks, astro B&Bs, and pod planetariums are coming up in “dark sky” locations across the country.
While the SPACE group is setting up a series of 20 astroports in India (Yelagiri being one of the focal points), another astro-experiences company, Starscapes, has Ooty (coming up as early as May), Kodaikanal and Mammallapuram in its sights this year, apart from one in neighbouring Puducherry.
“Any dark sky location that is not polluted with light makes for a good astroport, which is why hill stations, coastal areas, and quiet, remote locations are preferred. That’s another big draw for tourists; you’re getting away from the crowds, which is great when there is a pandemic,” says Paul Savio, CEO of Starscapes.
The astro tours, says Savio, are popular with families as well as amateur astronomers and astro-photographers.
“The internet made astronomy more accessible and social media has made it trendy,” says Ladia. “Astro-tourism gives astronomy, tourism, and rural employment a boost. Most of the areas where the ports are coming up are in the more rural areas, where locals are being employed. Astroports are like private planetariums, and usually set up in collaboration with a resort. ”
Sonal Asgotraa of Astrostays, a community-led astro-tourism initiative set up in a village called Man near Pangong Lake in Ladakh, says the experience is entirely run by locals.
“It’s a five-member team, with four of them being women and two among them being schooldropouts. We have trained them in merging their cultural perspective with what western science has to say about astronomy,” says Asgotraa. Astrostays is now in the process of setting up an astrohub at the Phyang Monastery in Ladakh, to merge modern astronomy with the Buddhist wisdom of cosmology.
Although astro-tourism has vast potential, Savio believes more needs to be done to tap into it. “Uttarakhand is perhaps the only state that is all-out promoting it with the government, attempting to develop a district entirely for this purpose,” he says.