Telescope, Jupiter and Sketching

My father gave me first telescope when I pass 12 grade. Actually we went to buy a binocular but we ended up in purchasing telescope. It was good deal in binocular budget. My new telescope was 90mm reflector telescope. I was very much excited to see through it. First light descended in my telescope from heaven was the light of Jupiter. The greatest planet in our solar system. It was stunning view of planet Jupiter. The bright yellow disc with brown and orange belts on it. Two belts on equator region was very prominent. It was much like of cricket ball with seam. Then there were four bright lights specs from some distance of this Jupiter disc all align in equatorial plane. These four light specs were four Galilean satellites. This was permanently imprinted in my memory. It was my first observation. On that day planet Jupiter gave me very encouraging picture of upcoming telescopic observation.

After Moon I find Jupiter is the most promising candidate for the telescopic observation. It is big and shows observable features on its discs. These features included it's equatorial belts, polar region belts, great red spot and many storm like features. Jupiter is gaseous giant planet so it's features keep changing and always shows us something new. It's four satellites displays eclipse show. Every thing happens near Jupiter is very rapidly so we can see changes in one night only.

Jupiter through telescope, Image taken by my friend Ashish Sharma with telescope and mobile camera combination

Now when you have telescope then you should also take down your own observation from it. For long time I only used to observe objects through telescope I was not having idea how to record my observations. Then I found book for beginner observer, 'the Sky' written by David Levy. This book become holy book for me. Levy has given many techniques to record observation. When I started recording my observations I preferred to draw objects like old time sky observers rather than taking photographs. I did this because drawing can develop observation skills. Capturing direct image with camera can not give always good observations as most of the times one can get image with blur lines. Drawing does not required great skill or knowledge of art. One can just start doing it and he/she goes on improving in it.

Galileo's sketches of Jupiter, I wondered how he manage to do such nice sketches of Jupiter with four satellites through his crude telescope, Image source, Internet

Jupiter is good to draw but it is challenging too. Jupiter day is less than 10 hours, means everything on Jupiter rotate very fast and scenario changes rapidly. So, you get very few minutes to draw it. If you take much time then picture at Jupiter region change. Due to such fast rotation Jupiter has pressed at polar region and slightly expanded at equatorial region. Jupiter looks oblate in shape due to this. There are features on Jupiter like equatorial belts, in between these belts there are bright belts are called as zones and these belts and zones are disturbed by festoons and bridges.

Jupiter sketch by me, we can see its moon Io at left edge of Jupiter and its shadow on Jupiter, Upperside I sketched Jupiter and its four moons

I take 5 to 10 minutes to look at details appearing on Jupiter surface and after that I sketch it. First I sketch outlines and then fill details in it. One can observe many detail on disc with bigger telescopes. I did most of the observation with the 90 mm telescope so for me it is easy to observe features on Jupiter's equatorial region, at polar region I can not observe much. Even colors are difficult to identify. I started to use color pencils for drawing but after sometime I realizes that it is not giving correct picture of actual observation so I stopped to use color pencil. I now use just pencil with 2HB or 4HB. For color I just write the color of band. Observing planets also required good sky conditions.

When I see my old observations and recent ones I can see how my observation has improved my sketching and details. Every time I look at Jupiter, it shows me new scenarios. Sometimes his belt disappears, new storm appear on it, its moons plays hide and seek around it, also one can see moons shadows marching on it. What else one observer wanted to see. 

Jupiter Sketch by me, we can see Great Red Spot a storm on upper center of sketch

Story of Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species

God said; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

-Bible on creation

I think it’s very difficult to tell when humans have started thinking about their origin as well as the existence of material world around them. But, it was obvious to think themselves as a unique creature and entire world is built to conquer by them. It gives more meaning to human life. Bible tells story about human’s creation in such a way. Not only bible tells story of creation, it was narrated in every religion in every culture. Religion tried to give some answers about creation. Philosophers like Aristotle said that “nature never work aimlessly, instead it try to make things more perfect. Like that nature created life form from very simple form to complex and more perfect beings like humans.” Aristotle’s philosophy literally influenced every religion which develops later. Everybody believes that all life forms were created by some supreme power and humans are more perfect version of that creation.

But, what if life came into being by accident and all species existed are by chance only. Yes it sounds more unconventional but true. In 1859 ‘the Origin of Species’ was published and after that world was never same place. This book put big question on story about creation in religious books. Darwin’s book with simple language and arguments shows that there is no one running the show of life on earth. It also gave birth to various debates on religion vs science after that. It was a major turning point in the history of science.

I was fascinated by the idea of evolution so decided to read some book on that. One day I picked a Marathi book named ‘Utkranti’ (Evolution) by Sumati Joshi. This book tells about how theory of Evolution developed throughout the course of history from ancient Greeks to Modern Human Genome project. It was nice book. But I stuck on the Darwin’s character. Darwin’s work revealed the evolution of life was obvious. I decided to know more about Darwin and his work The Origin Species. Then one day I found a book ‘Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species’ by Keith Francis. This book told that story of ‘the Origin of Species’ is not simple one.

Keith Francis book is one of the books in Greenwood Guide to the Historic events, 1500-1900. This book is very descriptive and narrates story of Darwin in six chapters which tell about the impact of Darwin, his life, about his book and its background, reception of his theory, evolution in twentieth century and way forward about theory of evolution. If one reads the Origin of Species, he or she needs to understand the drama which had happened behind this book. Here, book by Keith Francis book ‘Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species’ fulfills that.

A book by Keith Francis Tells the story around Darwin's work

Keith tells about life of Charles Darwin in second chapters. He covered many small events in Charles life. Like his family, life at Edinburgh and Cambridge Universities, his hobbies, his friends, life on HMS Beagle, Life after voyage includes his marriage and writing on various topics, and death of Darwin. Charles Darwin Born in very rich family in England. His dad Robert Darwin was very successful doctor of Shrewsbury town. He lost his mother when he was eight. His sisters became his surrogate mother. From the early childhood Darwin became fond of activities like long solitary walks, collecting eggs, shells and mineral, collecting varieties of insects and beetles. These activities laid foundation for him to understand nature to become a Naturalist. But, his father worried about his son activities, he thinks that Charles should stop these activities and should pay attention to his studies or he will be disgrace himself and name of family too.

Like his Brother, Erasmus Darwin, he was also sent to Edinburg University to become a doctor. At that time medical science was not that much developed. Even use of anesthetics during operation was yet to be discovered. Crude methods of treatments, sight of human blood makes him sick. He fled during stomach- churning operation on child. He decided that he will never become a doctor. During his days at Edinburgh he continues his activities to learn more about nature. He made many friends like John Edmonstone, freed black slave who taught him how to stuff and mount birds. Charles another friend Robert Jameson taught him course in geology and zoology. His friend Robert Grant also inspired him because he abandoned his medical practice to study marine life. He also joined ‘Plinian society’ a group of students who meet regularly to discuss papers on natural history. These things were going to help Charles during his voyage on HMS Beagle.

His father became angry after hearing that Charles literally wasted his time on his natural stuff rather than studying medical. Then Charles was sent to Cambridge for studying Art. There he met two person who change course of his life John Steven Henslow, botanist and geologist. John Henslow motivated him to learn geology. Henslow also suggested his name for the Voyage of HMS Beagle as naturalist. Another person Adam Sedgwick taught him basics of geology and he became enough knowledgeable to be the ship’s geologist.

When Charles was appointed as naturalist on the HMS Beagle he got the lifetime opportunity to explore the world outside the England. Charles was good at recording and documenting. He recorded each and every species he saw during his voyage. He was also recorded geography of places he visited. This record and documents help him later to formulate his theory. During voyage he spent more time near South America coast. There on Galapagos Islands he saw variety of geographical conditions and life form. His study of geology and biology helps him to understand connection between geography and life forms.

HMS Beagle, Source:internet

Charles became a very famous man after publishing his papers on Beagle voyage. Now his father was proud of him. After voyage Charles married to his cousin Emma Wedgewood. He spent happy and quite married life. Charles spent most of the time writing various papers as naturalist. He was honored by various awards. He wrote book Origin of Species and Descent of Man. He usually avoids going in public functions and dinner parties. Darwin died in 1882 at his house. Darwin had lived a full life, fun-loving student, explorer, naturalist, husband, father, best-selling author, public figure, and old man. From shy schoolboy to the most prominent scientist of the nineteenth century, it had been a very ordinary and an extraordinary life. 

 In Third chapter of the book author describe story behind the book ‘Origin of Species’. He described early theories on evolution, Charles work on Beagle, his writing on book. It tells Charles theory of evolution was not occurred in like eureka moment. It took long time to appear in Charles mind. His records and samples help him to formulate this theory. After his voyage he wrote many articles and papers in various journals on his voyage and geography.

His work on Origin of species started from 1854. He devoted his most of time to write his observations from notes and records. He was not only writing from his notes but also he was checking and comparing his records from various places. He read An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus and it gave Charles an idea. Malthus, an English economist, suggested that competition for limited resources, particularly food, was a major reason for disputes and wars. Applying Malthus idea to species, Charles surmised that those animals and plants that were best adapted to their environment would survive the competition for resources; the struggle for existence, species that adapted poorly would die.

Charles had connection with people from various occupations like naturalist, scientist, philosophers, breeders, and farmers. In Origin of Species Charles mentioned their work as reference. He does not state any ideas in isolation. Variation was one of such idea. In Christianity, fixity of species had long history. Peoples believed that species never changed into another species after god created them. Dog was the same dog which god have created. So idea of variation and mutation was quite in trouble. But, Charles mentioned his farmers and animal breeder friend’s experiences. Animal breeder for getting desired characteristic they choose certain individuals with available characteristic from animal group. There were many Pigeon breeders in England who breeds various species of Pigeon like English Fantail, English potter and English carrier.

In this way Charles put his arguments with very common and simple examples. Charles hesitated to publish his work because he thinks his work is challenging ideas of Christianity and he should not let involve himself in any dispute. He also thought his observation and interpretation were different because no other naturalists were close to his conclusion. One day he got a paper from young Alfred Wallace his paper showing exact conclusion like Charles. He realizes the gravity of his work. He thought Wallace will fight with him over this theory, but Wallace accept Charles yearlong work and let him publish theory on his name.  

Darwin and Wallace, Source:internet

In next chapter Keith tells the story of reception of Charles book from 1859-1920. It tells how debates happened over it in public, scientist and philosophers. Charles completed his work on his book and first publication came in 1859. His book got mixed responses, some welcome his theory some opposed it. His theory came in such time when Britain was going under various reforms. Like, British abolished the slave trade, enacted major reforms of voting systems, debates and development were happening on rights of women and on the definition of democracy. So, people accepted and debated on his theory too. Charles never participated in any debate on his theory. His friends Thomas Huxley, Joseph Hooker, Charles Lyell, Richard Owen, Asa Grey, Louise Agassiz, Ernst Haeckel and even Alfred Wallace defended his theory of evolution.

In next two chapters author particularly gave theory of evolution in twentieth century. Author says, Charles Darwin’s book Origin of Species was not complete solution on the problem of evolution but it helps to improve vision about it. Darwin’s theory of evolution not only explained existing phenomenon of life forms but also it gave predictions for unsolved problems; here his theory was best amongst other theories. Many complications in theory of evolution were solved in later time after understanding role of genes and DNA.

Darwin was not the only man who works on theory of evolution. Many people work on it like French scientist Georges Cuvier, Georges Louise Buffon, Jean- Baptist Lamarck, Etienne Geoffroy, and Saint Hilaire all were worked on theory of evolution before him. But their theories somewhere assumes that all forms of plant and animal life were created by God for specific purpose in mind. But Darwin showed by his theory that natural selection is the process that enable various forms of life to change from a particular form to different one. Here Darwin was different in thinking from other naturalist. His view of biology was mechanical. He did not involve an entity outside of nature to make the machine of nature work instead he chose to explain extinction and distribution of different species around the world by referring to the process of natural selection. 

One particular thing I like very much about this book is that list of detail references and bibliography. These references are very useful for the history readers. At the end of the book author also gave list and short introduction of peoples who influences Darwin’s theory. Darwin wrote his theory by giving some references of many scientists, philosophers and breeder’s work, list of these persons also given at the end of book. It is very useful and nicely narrated book that one should read.

Book: Charles Darwin and Origin of Species

Author: Keith Francis

Publishers: Greenwood Publishing, London

Let there be a night again!

I grew up in small town of Kalyan which is located 40 kilometers from Mumbai. Back in 90's decade it was still away from the glamorous life style of metro city like Mumbai. Most of the settlements were in the form of small houses called chawls and they were far for each other. Very few apartments one could see in this town. The sky of this town was not littered with light. I remembered that we could see most of the constellations even faint ones like Cancer, Cetus and Camelopardalis. I learned to identify most of the constellations from Kalyan's sky.

In late 90's town started growing up. Toward its west we could see the light from Mumbai city glows up entire western horizon. Kalyan's light also started to erase stars and constellations from its sky. We have to travel around 60-70 kilometers away from the city to see good night sky. Nowadays we could hardly see any stars from Kalyan. These days even going 60-70 kilometers from city not work, its quite difficult to see deep sky objects from such distances.

I think most of us have seen sky with stars in our childhood (I am talking about children from 80's and 90's decade). Present day if we go in cities or any town we hardly see any stars in night sky. Nowadays cities and town are flooded with the lights. Most of the population in metro cities have never seen sky with full of stars. Even in small towns sky is not that much promising. Artificial lights have cut out us from the beauty of night sky. 

Growing city lights are erasing stars from their sky, Source:internet

One incidence I remember from one of my sky gazing camp. One of my friend from Mumbai also joined us. She suddenly says, 'hey look at that big illuminated cloud it's looking amazing', I said, It's a center of our milky way'. She was stunned by view. She said she had never seen such wonderful object in sky. Most people from city never see such sites in sky. 

We have heard lot about different kind of pollution like air, water, noise and soil. These kinds of pollution directly affect environment and health of humans. So, that's why we are more concern about these pollution. But, there is one more kind of pollution is growing up and that is light pollution. Excess use of light is called as light pollution. We do not bother about light pollution and there no direct effect light pollution on our heath. So, we humans are lighten up more lights with growing cities. But, it does not mean that it not harmful by any means. We might say we don't need nights. But, nights are important to us. Too, much artificial light can cause sleep disorders which further causes many more diseases. You can find more detail about it on this link http://darksky.org/light-pollution/human-health/

Too much light impacts our night. Night give us sense of time. It also help in propelling our biological clock. Not only us but also many animals biological clock derived by day and night. We have disturbed this by using more and more artificial lights. Migratory birds need good night sky view to travel, but due to light pollution they loose their path and most of time get exhausted in flying and die. 

Now many countries are started glowing during nights. It is very necessary to aware people about importance of night. With increasing population, cities and societies we need light for many purposes but we also should understand how much to use and when to switch it off. In many countries people are started doing this. They aware and educate people to use light sensibly. In India too we need this where cities and towns are growing. 

If we look back in history, we find that night sky has shaped our human civilization than any other thing. Night sky gave us direction for travelling on our globe. Clear night skies told us there is cycle in some events which we can use as calendar. Observing night sky developed understanding of our place in universe. Night sky has inspired our religion, philosophy, art and science. This is the one heritage that all civilization shared. But, because of uncontrolled use of artificial lights our present generation is loosing this. Its time to get aware about using light with responsibly and preserve this heritage. 

Center of our galaxy visible from dark place, source: internet

there are various organisations like Dark Skies Awareness and International Dark Sky are working in this area. You can visit their website to understand more about light pollution.