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In Search of Nebulae and Galaxies – An Astrophotography Trip to Hanle and Leh



Recently BAS (Bangalore Astronomy Society) and IIA (Indian Institute of Astrophysics) organized a trip to Hanle, the first dark sky reserve of India. A team of 15 astrophotographers and visual observers (9 from Bangalore, 3 from Coimbatore, 1 from Pune, 1 from Delhi and 1 from Kolkatta) took part in this trip. I, my daughter and a friend and fellow astrophotographer Obulichandran joined this group from Coimbatore.

Before I start the travelogue, I would like to thank:

• Mr. Dorje Angchuk of IIA who extended great support in making this trip happen. He arranged IIA to sponsor our travel from Leh to Hanle, helped in picking up and dropping our equipment at air cargo terminal in Leh, provided space and uninterrupted power supply to set up our equipment in front of the IIA building in Hanle, provided a couple of rooms in the IIA building where the team could take breaks in the night and many more.
• Volunteers from BAS – Mr. Sudhash, Mr. Shashi, Mr. Keerthi and Mr. Viswanath who planned the trip including itinerary, hotels, transport, helping with preparations for the trip including target preparations, tips on how to tackle the cold nights etc. Without the excellent organization of the BAS volunteers, this trip would not have been possible.
• Mr. Sudhash, Mr. Keerthi and Mr. Subhankar of BAS (who had already done a trip to Hanle the previous year), for the tips and guidance they provided in preparing for the journey including list of warm clothes, acclimatisation tips, checklist of things to carry etc.
• Mr. Sudhash who arranged for a room with oxygen concentrator at the IIA guesthouse when I fell sick with severe cough and low oxygen saturation levels after visiting Umlingla. This helped me in having a full recovery in one day.
• Mr. Subhankar, an experienced astrophotographer (who had visited Hanle last year), who gave lots of tips about preparations for various failures that may happen in the field and backups I need to prepare etc. I arranged lots of backup equipment like power supplies and tools, added lots of redundancies to my software and prepared a detailed list of targets to capture after his inputs.
• My friend and fellow astrophotographer Obulichandran who arranged for shipping our equipment through air cargo to and from Leh.
• My friend and fellow TBHP member "SS4" who lent me his GoPro. All the timelapse videos have been shot with his GoPro
• All my fellow team members for the wonderful experience

This trip was not just an astrophotography trip, but a collection of experiences – starting the preparations for the trip 2 months before, shipping all the heavy equipment through air cargo to Leh, experiencing the grandeur of the Himalayan mountain ranges, facing the harsh weather conditions in Hanle, tasting local cuisine in Leh, facing the disappointment of 4 of 5 nights getting washed out in Hanle due to clouds, salvaging a couple of nights of imaging on the return in Leh, visiting Umlingla pass (highest motorable pass) and many more.

I also met fellow TBHP member “payaniga” who is a visual observer and a member of BAS. It was an awesome experience to meet a TBHP member with the same interest. What a small world!

As there is lot of stuff that happened in this trip, this travelogue can get long and boring, especially the preparation sections and the descriptions of the celestial targets. I will compensate by adding lots of pictures.

Table of Content

TL;DR – Summary of the trip
Preparations
Preparations Contd…
Travel to Leh and Acclimatization
Leh sightseeing
Travel to Hanle, setting up the equipment
The MACE telescope and a visit to Umlingla Pass
Astrophotography in Hanle
Astrophotography in Leh
Travel back home, Collecting the equipment from Cochin, Learnings and Conclusion

TL;DR – Summary of the Trip:

BAS organizes a trip to Hanle once a year. Hanle is classified as Bortle-1 in the light pollution chart. This is the darkest location with zero light pollution. This means you can see 10x or even 100x the number of stars you see in cities with naked eye. The whole of Milky Way can be seen with naked eye.

One of my dreams as an astrophotographer is to visit Hanle and do astrophotography there. BAS announced this year’s event a couple of months ago and I immediately registered for the event along with my daughter.

We started preparations 2 months before the event which included booking flights, getting warm clothes, making a list of equipment to carry, testing all the equipment, packing the equipment, and sending through air cargo etc.

We sent the equipment by air cargo a few days before leaving. Mr. Dorje of IIA arranged someone to pick up the equipment from Leh airport and kept them in the IIA guest house in Leh.

I, my daughter, and my friend left Coimbatore on 20th September. We reached Leh early morning on 21st September and the first thing we did was to go to IIA guest house and collect our equipment. We spent two days in Leh for acclimatization. We spent one day just resting in the homestay and one day doing some local sightseeing and shopping in Leh.

On 23rd morning, we loaded all the equipment in a truck and started for Hanle. IIA had arranged a truck to carry all the equipment and luggage of the 15-member team and a couple of Innovas for people transport. I and my daughter chose to travel in the truck, and this was a wonderful experience.

We reached Hanle in the evening of 23rd, only to be welcomed by cloudy skies. We had very bad weather with clouds and occasional rains and snow for the next three days. We setup the equipment and left them covered waiting for clear skies.

Meanwhile on the 4th day, we took a day trip to Umlingla, the highest motorable pass in the world. Luckily, the sky cleared up on the 4th night and I was able to capture a few targets that night. The 5th night was also a washout. So, we got only one clear night out of the 5 nights we were in Hanle. But data quality of the two targets I shot on that one night was out of the world!

On 28th morning we travelled back to Leh. We had two nights in Leh before flying back to Coimbatore. Though the location of the resort was not that convenient with lots of trees, and a building obscuring the Polestar (very important for performing something called polar alignment), I decided to setup the equipment again in Leh. And this proved to be a good decision as I was able to capture some more targets.

We dropped our equipment at air cargo on 30th and took the flight back to Coimbatore. Reached home late night on 30th.

The connecting flight from Mumbai to Coimbatore for the air cargo got indefinitely cancelled and the airline (GoAir) redirected the cargo to Cochin. I and my friend drove to Cochin and brought back the equipment which concluded our trip.

Preparations:

The preparations started 2 months in advance of the travel date. There were many aspects of the travel that needed to be planned and executed before we started. Experienced folks from BAS who had already travelled to Hanle the year before gave us newbies lots of tips and kept guiding us.

This section is long and can be boring. I have documented all this as a reference for my future trips and for anyone who plans to undertake such a trip.

Itinerary and flight tickets:

This was the easiest part of the trip. The only criteria we were looking for was a single airline with through check-in of the luggage. We booked the GoAir flight leaving at 4:15PM in Coimbatore, with a 7 hour stop over in Mumbai, reaching Leh early morning at 6AM.

Warm clothes:

Warm clothes are a very important part of the trip. We expected temperatures as low as -10 degrees in the night and winds which would make it feel another 5 degrees lower. While regular tourists would be in their rooms under two layers of blankets, in astronomy, we would be spending most of the night outside. So warm clothes are much more critical for this hobby. Following is the list of warm clothes that we carried.

• Thermal layers - top and bottom
• Fleece jacket
• Winter jacket
• Two layers of gloves
• Woollen socks
• Neck warmer and winter cap
• Waterproof hiking shoes

Small yet Significant Stuff:

There were many miscellaneous stuffs we had to plan and carry. These may look small but are very important in the conditions we were going to face.

• Sunscreen lotion: The sunlight can be very harsh during daytime at those high altitudes. So we were asked to carry sunscreen lotions to prevent blistering of the skin when exposed to sunlight.
• Lip balm: It is very important to constantly moisturize the lips to prevent cracking. We were asked to keep a lip balm always on hand and keep applying it frequently. Cracked lips can be very painful.
• Sunglasses: There will be lots of glare from the snow-capped mountains and the clear skies. So, carrying a pair of sunglasses is essential.
• Spare batteries: In the cold weather, batteries drain quite fast. So we were asked to carry lots of spare batteries for all the equipment. I carried spare batteries for my camera, GoPro and head torch.
• Garbage bags and Car cover: As the weather is very windy in the daytime with lots of dust, we were asked to carry covers to protect our photography gear in the daytime. I carried large garbage bags and a car cover and lots of rope. I used the garbage bags for the first layer and then the car cover to protect the equipment from dust in the daytime. I carried smaller garbage bags to cover small things like cables, extension boxes etc.

List of Equipment:

I prepared a detailed checklist of equipment to carry. The equipment was divided into two groups – air cargo and hand carry. Following is the list of important equipment.

Through Air Cargo:

• EQ6-R Pro equatorial mount
• EQ-6 R Pro Tripod
• EQ6-R Pro Wi-Fi dongle
• Mini PC, power supply, LCD display, HDMI cable, USB cable
• Wi-Fi Router, power supply
• Camera Tripod – 2 Nos.
• Counterweights – 5kg, 1.5kg
• Spare power supplies – 4 Nos
• Spare USB cables
• Tools and miscellaneous – Cutter, stripper, knife, insulation tape, screwdriver kit, cable ties, ropes, garbage bags, packing tape, car cover
• Extension cords – 3 Nos

Hand Carry:

• GT-81 telescope + EAF (Electronic Auto Focuser)
• ASI 2600 MC main camera
• Guide scope + ASI224 guide camera
• Field flattener
• Filter tray
• Canon EOS R6 full frame mirrorless camera
• Lenses: 15-35 F2.8, 24-105 F4, 100-500 F4-7.1
• Spare battery and charger
• GoPro
• GoPro spare batteries and charger
• GoPro tripod adapter and handheld tripod
• External Hard disk
• Head torch
• iOptron Sky guider
• Laptop, power supply
• Power banks
• Chargers for phone
• Assorted USB cables – Type-c, Micro USB
• Binoculars

Preparations Contd...

Preparation of targets to shoot

I prepared a detailed list of targets to shoot. The first step was to use a website "telescopius.com" where we can enter the cooridnates of the site, date, and conditions like what type of objects (galaxies, emission nebulae, reflection nebulae etc.) and how high we need the objects in the sky etc. Once the filters are configured, the site lists all the targets that are available to shoot. Below is the screenshot from this site.


The next step was to check the size of the objects against the focal length of my telescope and eliminate the ones that are too small or too large for the frame. Then create the final list based on how interesting the target is. Once the final list is created, record the rise time above 30 degrees, time at which the target transits the meridian and the time when the target goes below 30 degrees. Then fit the target into a time zone in each of the 5 nights. Below excel table shows these details.


Though the clouds spoiled the plan, having a plan is very important so that we don't waste imaging time at the field in choosing targets.

Dry runs – assembly and disassembly of equipment

I did two rounds of dry runs of setting up the equipment and dismantling and packing in my living room. This was to make sure that I was packing every small item needed in the field. Something as small as a camera spacer if left behind could become a showstopper in the field.

Shipping the equipment in air cargo

My friend Obuli handled the air cargo formalities. We found a shipping agent in Coimbatore who made it very simple to ship the equipment to Leh. We had to provide a declaration with list of items being shipped and about these being equipment for personal use. A few pictures of packing and shipping.

All equipment packed into three boxes.




Loaded into the boot of my car



At the air cargo terminal


I made a short video of the dry run of assembly/disassembly and shipping through air cargo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKrH_lEHi6c

Travel to Leh and Acclimatization

We left Coimbatore on 20th September at 4:15PM. We had a flight to Mumbai and a 7 hour stop over. The Leh flight was at 3:00AM from Mumbai reaching Leh at 6:00AM.

The Coimbatore team at the airport.


The Leh flight was almost empty, and I was able to move between window seats on both the sides and capture some beautiful pictures.

The flight passing over some big city.


On the east side, red sky with Venus shining bright. Venus is not visible in this picture. Could not get my iPhone exposure settings to get Venus.


On the west side, we could see dark sky with stars and Jupiter shining bright.


As we approached Leh, we had the first glimpse of the beautiful snow capped mountains below the clouds.


The first order of business on reaching Leh was to visit the IIA guest house and collect our equipment.



We then proceeded to Chomal cottages in Stok, where the landlady welcomed us with tasty butter tea and biscuits. In Ladakh people have butter tea throughout the day. The fat from the butter in the tea provides lot of energy to deal with the cold temperatures. I had at least 4 to 5 cups of butter tea every day.


We spent the first day just resting, eating, sleeping, and taking in the beautiful scenery around the homestay.

Food was simple but tasty. It was mostly aloo parathas for breakfast with rotis, dal and rice for lunch and dinner.

Traditional ladakhi dining room.




Aloo paratha.


Simple yet tasty lunch.





We were surrounded by views of snow-capped mountains. A few pictures of the views from the homestay.









Stok Kangri. This peak has an elevation of 6153 meters and there used to be a famous trek to the summit of this peak. Post COVID, this trek has been discontinued.


A beautiful Eurasian magpie.




Fresh apricots straight from the tree.


In the evening, we were greeted by clear dark sky, with Milkyway visible to naked eye. Below is a picture of the Milky way shot by my friend Obulichandran. This is the winter arm of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxy can be seen in the picture.


Picture Credit: Obulichandran

Another picture of the clear sky early morning with crescent moon.

Leh Sightseeing

The second day of acclimatisation, we decided to visit some local points of interest. We first visited the Leh market to purchase some small things like batteries, medicines, sunglasses, energy bars, dry fruits etc. We then had a filling lunch of local delicacies at Tibetan Kitchen. We then visited Shanti stupa.

The last visit was to Stok palace. However, the palace was closed when we reached. So, we just clicked some pictures from the outside and returned back to our homestay.

Leh market. The market has shops where one can buy anything - souvenirs, warm clothes, hiking gear, fruits and vegetables, provisions, dry fruits etc.


Along the middle of the road, there were benches to rest. Sitting in the bench and getting some sun exposure was very good in the cold weather.




Tibetan Kitchen.



Thukpa


Sha Phaley - bread stuffed with meat filling


Momos and fried rice.


Dry fruits roasted in butter and topped with fruits and icecream. This alone was as filling as a full meal.


A few pictures from Shanti stupa.


















A view of Leh from Shanti Stupa.


With fellow TBHP member Payaniga.


Stok palace




A Budha statue near Stok palace


Beautiful scenery of mountains outside Stok palace.

Travel to Hanle and Setting Up the Equipment:

On 23rd morning we left for Hanle. IIA had arranged for a truck to transport all our equipment and luggage and Innovas for people.

The truck.


All the equipment and luggage loaded in the truck.


With the truck driver Mr. Konchuk Nema, a very friendly Ladakhi gentleman.


I and my daughter decided to travel in the truck for the experience. It was a fun 7 hours of drive from Leh to Hanle. Mr. Nema stopped at various locations to let us admire the scenery and take pictures. Throughout the 7 hours journey we were treated with breathtaking views of snow-capped mountains, beautiful winding roads running along rivers, mountains showing various colors like green, brown, purple (is this due to the mineral composition?), wild asses grazing in meadows by the rivers etc. Except for a 25km stretch that was under construction, we had very good roads. As we neared Hanle, the terrain became flatter with desert like views on both sides of the road. A few pictures from this journey. Click on the pictures to open in full resolution.

The truck on the road.


The Sindh river.


Breathtaking scenery of mountains.








The road winding along a river.


This should be a glacier in winter.


This could be a huge glacier in the winter or the path for a river when ice melts.


Wild ass grazing in a meadow by the river.


Roads under construction.




A symphony of colors.


Terrain becoming flatter and like desert as we near Hanle.




We reached Hanle around 4:30PM to be greeted by clouds. The forecast was also was for clouds throughout the night. So, we decided to just rest for the evening and setup the equipment next day.

We setup the equipment over the next two days. Usually, we would have set it up the same evening of arrival and started shooting. But due to the inclement weather (heavy wind, and light rains), we had to stop the installation midway and cover up everything and continue the next day. A few pictures of the installation of the equipment.









A few pictures of the views we had for the first three days – depressing!




The equipment waiting for clear skies.


Below is the timelapse video of setting up the equipment in front of the IIA guest house. This setting up also was done over two days due to heavy wind and light rain as we were setting up the equipment.

https://youtu.be/QxBHKYYAAT0

The MACE Telescope:

We had a chance to interact with Mr. Rinchen, the engineer in-charge of the installation of the MACE telescope.

Major Atmospheric Cherenkov Experiment (MACE) telescope with 21 meters diameter is the second largest gamma-ray telescope. It was assembled by Bhabha Atomic Research at the campus of the Indian Astronomical Observatory at Hanle, Ladakh. Following is the operating principle of MACE telescope. This information is collected from online sources. I am not an expert and other than at a highlevel, do not understand finer details of this concept.

Gamma rays from anywhere in the universe do not reach the land because when a high-energy gamma photon interacts with the Earth's atmosphere, it produces an electron–positron pair with enormous velocities. Cherenkov radiation results when a charged particle travels through a dielectric medium with speeds greater than speed of light in that medium. When any charged particle passes through a medium, it polarizes the particles of the medium. The charged particle excites the molecules in the medium, and the molecules return to the ground state by emitting the energy as a photon. These photons form the spherical wavefronts and seems to originate from the moving particle. By studying these photons, we can infer about the gamma rays that resulted in these photons.

Located at an altitude of 4270 meters MACE telescope is the highest Cherenkov telescope. It has a parabolic primary light collector constructed using 356 mirror panels, each of the mirror panels is a square mirror with an area of 1 m2. The focal lenght of the primary mirror is 25 meters and is sensitive to light having 20 to 100 GeV energy. The light from the mirror falls on a high-resolution imaging camera placed at the focal plane of the telescope. The camera has 1088 photo multiplier-based pixels. The camera communicates the collected data to the control room through optical fibers. The telescope is mounted on a structure that enables two axes movement and works similar to a telescope placed on an alt-azimuth mount.

The MACE telescope.


Interacting with the engineer.


The primary mirror, 21 meters in diameter.




The high resolution camera (under the covers) which is placed at the focal plane of the primary.




The team near MACE.

Picture Credit: Mr. Snehith of BAS

In front of the MACE telescope, there are several buildings with smaller arrays of Gamma ray telescopes.






The primary mirror and the receiver.


The reflection of MACE on the primary.


Trip to Umlingla:

On the 4th day, we decided to do some local sightseeing. IIA arranged two Innovas for us to visit Umlingla pass. This was a fantastic experience.

At 19024 feet, Umling la is the highest motorable road in the world and sits even higher than the Everest base camp. We drove through 25km of dusty plains with no paved roads. With no marked roads, it is easy to get lost, but the drivers knew their way. There were a few shallow water crossings that the Innovas took easily. We experienced breath-taking views of the snow-capped mountains. There is a Cafe at Umlingla where we had hot maggi and coffee. A few pictures from this trip.

Dusty plains.




Beautiful mountain views on the way.




The Innovas.


At Umlingla.






BRO Cafe. World's highest cafe.


We had piping hot maggi.


It was super cold and windy at the pass. The guy at the Cafe was kind enough to let us into the warm cabin and get some warmth from the stove.


Customary selfie :D


Very low oxygen levels.


We made one mistake. At that altitude, the oxygen level in the atmosphere is only around 50% of sea level. Because of this, it is recommended to stay no longer than 15 to 20 minutes. But we stayed in Umling la for almost 90 minutes. Blood oxygen levels were around 50% for most of us. This triggered severe cough for me and I had to use an oxygen concentrator in IIA guest house for a night to recover.

A clear night and some astrophotography at last:

Thankfully, when we returned from Umlingla, the weather had cleared up and we were greeted by pristine blue sky. I managed to shoot 3 targets on this night – Helix Nebula, North American + Pelican Nebula, and the Jelly fish Nebula.

Before I post the pictures and details about the targets, below is the list of equipment and software used to capture and process all the images.

Equipment:

EQ6-R Pro German Equatorial Mount
William Optics GT81 APO triplet refractor telescope
William Optics 50mm guide scope
ZWO ASI2600MC Pro cooled colour camera with an APS-C sensor
ZWO ASI224 guide camera
ZWO EAF – Electronic Auto Focuser
Intel NUC Mini PC controlling the equipment

Software:

N.I.N.A for image acquisition (Image composition, slewing and centering the target, auto focus, plate solving, and exposure control)
PHD2 for guiding (through N.I.N.A)
Pixinsight for calibration, stacking and post-processing.
Lightroom for final touch-ups

The helix nebula was the first target which was more of a practice target to check various parameters like focus, exposure times etc. I was not able to get very good quality data for this target.

Jelly Fish Nebula

IC 443 (also known as the Jellyfish Nebula and Sharpless 248 (Sh2-248)) is a galactic supernova remnant in the constellation Gemini. Its distance is roughly 5,000 light years from Earth and it is roughly 70 light years in size. NASA’s latest research estimates the age of this supernova remnant to be tens of thousands of years, which aligns with previous work that estimated IC 443 to be about 30,000 years old. IC 443’s true age remains in question, as other scientists have inferred much younger ages of about 3,000 years.

Exposure (2:25 hours total integration time)
Lights - 29 x 300 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats – 25



North American and Pelican Nebulae:

The Pelican Nebula (also known as IC 5070 and IC 5067) is an H II region associated with the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. The gaseous contortions of this emission nebula bear a resemblance to a pelican, giving rise to its name. The Pelican Nebula is located nearby first magnitude star Deneb, and is divided from its more prominent neighbour, the North America Nebula, by a foreground molecular cloud filled with dark dust.

The North America Nebula (NGC 7000 or Caldwell 20) is an emission nebula in the constellation Cygnus, close to Deneb (the tail of the swan and its brightest star). The shape of the nebula resembles that of the continent of North America, complete with a prominent Gulf of Mexico.
The distances to the North America and Pelican nebulae were controversial, because there are few precise methods for determining how far away an HII region lies. Until 2020, most astronomers accepted a value of 2,000 light years, though estimates ranged from 1,500 to 3,000 light years.[10]

But in 2020, the Gaia astrometry spacecraft measured the distances to 395 stars lying within the HII region, giving the North America and Pelican nebulae a distance of 2,590 light years. The entire HII region Sh2-117 is estimated to be 140 light years across, and the North America nebula stretches 90 light years

Exposure (2:51 hours total integration time)
Lights - 57 x 180 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats – 25



The Orion Nebula (M42)

In our Astrophotography WhatsApp group someone shared this meme.



M42 which is also known as the Orion Nebula is the most shot target in the winter months. This nebula is a very bright nebula situated in Orion constellation and is mostly the first target everyone shoots when they start astrophotography. Orion was my first deep space object target as well. As this is a very bright nebula, you can shoot this even from highly light polluted cities. Hence the meme that one does not waste a Hanle trip to shoot M42.

However, just for fun, I did shoot M42. But I shot only one single exposure of 5 minutes just before twilight. And below is the image. There is noise in the image, but the details visible in this image is not possible in the light polluted city skies.



The Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)

The Helix Nebula is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Aquarius. This object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae. It is situated about 694 light years from earth and has a radius of 2.87 light years. This is a relatively young nebula at an age of 10,600 years. This nebula is also called the "Eye of God"

This target is a little small for the focal length I am shooting at, and because of this it is heavily cropped.

Exposure (2:03 hours total integration time)
Lights - 41 x 180 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats – 25



Milky Way with HCT (Himalayan Chandra Telescope)

After this one clear night, the 5th night also was a washout due to clouds. There was a brief period of clear sky in the evening when a small group of photographers visited the HCT (Himalayan Chandra Telescope) and shot some beautiful Milky Way pictures with the HCT in the foreground.

Below are a couple of images captured by my friend Obulichandran at the HCT. This is one of my dream captures, but I could not make it during this trip. Hope I get to take this picture next year.


Picture credit: Obulichandran


Picture credit: Obulichandran

Astrophotography in Leh:

On 28th morning, we all packed our equipment and left for Leh. IIA had arranged the same truck and two Innovas for our travel back. This time I and my daughter took the Innova for the travel. We reached Leh in the evening and checked into the resort. Everyone was leaving on 29th. We three from Coimbatore had planned to stay an extra day in Leh and leave on 30th. As we had lost 4 nights in Hanle, I decided to use the two nights we got in Leh to do some astrophotography. As everyone went out to Leh for dinner, I and my daughter setup the equipment in the terrace of the resort.

A small timelapse of this equipment setup and working on the targets through the nights and a timelapse of Orion constellation moving through the sky.

https://youtu.be/Z2hpVFGjSWw

For the first night, I had planned to capture Bubble nebula and Iris nebula. Framed the bubble nebula and setup an exposure of 3 hours and went to sleep. When I woke up, I found that only 50 minutes of data was usable. Sometime in the night, the USB cable on the mount had become loose and because of this the guiding software lost connection to the mount. Because of guiding failure, the remaining exposures had star trails and had to be scrapped.

The second target I had planned for the night was Iris nebula. I set up for another 2:30 hours of data. But after a few exposures, clouds rolled in, and no more usable exposures were found. I processed the 6 exposures that were usable and brought out as much details as possible.

So, the first night was a disappointment. I still did not loose hope and waited for the 2nd night. Thankfully, we had a clear sky throughout the 2nd night and there was no equipment failure as well. So, I managed some good data on two targets – The Triangulum Galaxy and the Eastern Veil Nebula. Just before twilight, I pointed the telescope at the Witch-head nebula and collected about 30 minutes of data.

Below are the pictures I captured from these two nights in Leh.

The Bubble Nebula (NGC 7635) and M52 Open Cluster

NGC 7635, also known as the Bubble Nebula, Sharpless 162, or Caldwell 11, is an H II region emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It lies close to the direction of the open cluster Messier 52, which can also be seen in this picture. The "bubble" is created by the stellar wind from a massive hot, 8.7 magnitude young central star, SAO 20575. The nebula is near a giant molecular cloud which contains the expansion of the bubble nebula while itself being excited by the hot central star, causing it to glow.

Exposure (50 minutes total integration time)
Lights - 10 x 300 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats – 25



The Triangulum Galaxy (M33 / NGC 598):

The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC 598. With a diameter of 61,100 light-years, the Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way. It is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye.

The galaxy is the smallest spiral galaxy in the Local Group, and is believed to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy or on its rebound into the latter due to their interactions, velocities, and proximity to one another in the night sky. It also has an H II nucleus.

Exposure (2:18 hours total integration time)
Lights - 46 x 180 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats – 25



The Eastern Veil Nebula (NGC6992):

The Veil Nebula is a cloud of heated and ionized gas and dust in the constellation Cygnus. It constitutes the visible portions of the Cygnus Loop, a supernova remnant, many portions of which have acquired their own individual names and catalogue identifiers. The portion I have shot is identified as the Eastern Veil or NGC6992.

The source supernova was a star 20 times more massive than the Sun which exploded between 10,000 and 20,000 years ago. At the time of explosion, the supernova would have appeared brighter than Venus in the sky, and visible in daytime. The remnants have since expanded to cover an area of the sky roughly 3 degrees in diameter (about 6 times the diameter, and 36 times the area, of the full Moon). While previous distance estimates have ranged from 1200 to 5800 light-years, a recent determination of 2400 light-years is based on direct astrometric measurements.

The red hues in this image are from ionized hydrogen content of gas clouds that emit light in the H-alpha wavelength, while the cyan hues are from oxygen ions.

Exposure (2:00 hours total integration time)
Lights - 24 x 300 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats – 25



Note the uncanny resemblance of this nebula to the creature from the movie "Alien"


The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023)

The Iris Nebula (also known as NGC 7023 and Caldwell 4) is a bright reflection nebula in the constellation Cepheus. This means that its color comes from the scattered light of its central star, which lies nestled in the abundant star fields of the constellation Cepheus. Located some 1,400 light-years away from Earth, the Iris Nebula’s glowing gaseous petals stretch roughly 6 light-years across. This nebula is of particular interest to scientists because of its colors. Reflection nebulae glow because they are made up of extremely tiny particles of solid matter, up to 10 or even 100 times smaller than dust particles on Earth. These particles diffuse the light around them, giving the nebula a second-hand glow that’s typically bluish (like our sky). While the Iris Nebula appears predominantly blue, it includes large filaments of deep red, indicating the presence of an unknown chemical compound likely based on hydrocarbons.

Exposure (30 minutes total integration time)
Lights - 6 x 300 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats – 25



Witch-Head Nebula (IC 2118):

IC 2118 (also known as Witch Head Nebula due to its shape) is an extremely faint reflection nebula believed to be an ancient supernova remnant or gas cloud illuminated by nearby supergiant star Rigel in the constellation of Orion. It lies in the Orion constellation, about 900 light-years from Earth. The nature of the dust particles, reflecting blue light better than red, is a factor in giving the Witch Head its blue color. Radio observations show substantial carbon monoxide emission throughout parts of IC 2118, an indicator of the presence of molecular clouds and star formation in the nebula. In fact candidates for pre-main sequence stars and some classic T-Tauri stars have been found deep within the nebula.

Exposure (20 minutes total integration time)
Lights - 4 x 300 seconds
Darks - 25
Flats – 25



Ideally, the witch-head nebula is framed with Rigel. This requires a shorter focal length like 200mm. As my telescope has a focal length of 400mm, I could not get Rigel in the frame. Below is a picture of this nebula with Rigel shot by my friend Obuli.


Picture Credit: Obulichandran

Travel back home, Collecting the equipment from Cochin, Learnings and Conclusion

On 30th morning, I and my daughter dismantled and packed up our equipment. We planned to drop the equipment at air cargo and then board our flight to Delhi. However, when we reached the air cargo terminal we found that there were no flights that day that can connect the cargo to Coimbatore. They asked us to come the next day when there was a Mumbai flight which would then connect to a Coimbatore flight. So, we took all the equipment back to IIA and left it there and informed Mr. Dorje who arranged transport the next day to drop the equipment at air cargo. Mr. Sudhash of BAS also happened to be there in Leh the next day and he accompanied the equipment and booked the air cargo for us.

Our return flight home was uneventful. We had a connecting flight in Delhi and reached home at 10:30 in the night.

Visit to Cochin to collect the equipment:

On 4th October Obuli received a call from GoAir that the flight from Mumbai to Coimbatore has been indefinitely cancelled and hence the air cargo will not be able to reach Coimbatore. We were asked to choose an alternate location. We considered both Cochin and Bangalore. As Cochin is closer, we asked them to redirect the cargo to Cochin.

On 6th, we drove to Cochin airport and collected the equipment.

The packages. My tripod carton (the outermost one) was damaged and I had to discard it there. Need to get a sturdy suitcase for the tripod as well.


The equipment loaded in the car.






My friends "batterylow" and "mallumowgli" from the Coimbatore TBHP gang recommended a good restaurant “Salkara” that was close to Cochin airport and not to miss the Parotta + Mango fish curry combination. And we obliged :D


Fluffy parottas with mango fish curry and nadan chicken curry. It was heaven!


This empty pot is the proof of its taste!


Finishing with a sweet note - some fruit custard and carrot halwa.


With this sweet note, our Hanle trip officially came to a conclusion.

Summary of Experiences:

Following are some of the good experiences from the trip:

1. As this was the first trip where I carried all the astrophotography gear by flight, learnt about packing the equipment for air cargo, procedures for air cargo, packing the hand carried equipment between checked in luggage and hand carried luggage etc.
2. Learnt to manage harsh weather conditions and work on the equipment in field. Working on the equipment wearing 4 or 5 layers of warm clothes including 2 layers of gloves made it very difficult and slow but was a nice experience.
3. Experienced the grandness of the mountain ranges of Himalayas. The huge mountain ranges with snow capped peaks make one feel humble!
4. Experienced no-frill simple living at Hanle where we stayed in a simple homestay with no electricity most of the day (electricity available only from 7 to 11PM), no hot water etc. I went without brushing teeth or bath for 5 days :D
5. The trip to Umlingla was a fantastic experience
6. Enjoyed local sight seeing in Leh and enjoyed local cuisine like momos, thukpa, sha phaley etc.
7. The view of the snow-capped mountains from the flight was a wonderful experience
8. It was a very satisfying experience when the equipment that I had put together the past couple of years worked like clockwork (except for the one instance of USB cable coming loose) and yielded some beautiful images.

Some learnings:

1. The unexpected weather conditions. Though I had prepared a lot for the trip, weather was one thing that was totally out of control. The only thing to do with bad weather is to accept bad weather as part of these trips and experience other good things from the journey.
2. I had planned for wide field images of the Milky Way, and time lapses of the Milky way etc. But for some reason I could not get these to work on my camera due to some unexpected problems with timelapse and intervalometer settings. I did not get a chance to test all these settings and procedures before the trip. I will be learning and testing these features before the next year’s trip to Hanle.
3. Unlike visual observers who are busy moving from target to target throughout the night, astrophotographers have lot of time in between targets. Once we frame a target and start data acquisition, we have 2 to 3 hours to kill. I usually go to sleep with an alarm to wakeup to prepare for the next target. In Hanle, we did not have a proper place to rest and sleep. Though we had the IIA guest house, we only had facility to sit and rest, not sleep. Next year, I plan to carry a small tent with sleeping bags. Will pitch the tent near the equipment and sleep between targets.
4. One of the nights in Leh, the USB cable in the mount came loose which resulted in failure in guiding. I lost about 2 hours of data on a beautiful target (the bubble nebula). To solve this, will cut the cable and use WiFi to wirelessly control the mount in the future. This needs some setting up and I will be testing this in the coming weeks and be ready with this wireless setup for the next trip.
5. We had spent about 1:30 hours in Umlingla. This proved to be a very big mistake. Continued exposure to low oxygen levels in Umlingla triggered severe cough throughout that night which drained all my energy. I had to spend a night on oxygen concentrator to recover. I came to know later from many friends that you should not spend more than 15 to 20 minutes in Umlingla. It is also advisable to carry oxygen canisters when visiting such high altitudes. Though I had planned to get a few oxygen canisters in Leh, I did not follow through on this. Will correct these mistakes during the next trip.
6. There is no warehouse facility at Leh for air cargo. The packages must be collected the same day they arrive and must dropped on the same day the flight is scheduled. When we shipped the equipment from Coimbatore to Leh, they arrived the very next day, 3 days in advance of our arrival. On our day of return, we first visited the air cargo section to drop off our equipment before boarding our flight. But we found that there were no flights that day to ship our equipment. We had to go back and leave the equipment in IIA guest house and they shipped the equipment the next day. So, if anyone is planning to ship their equipment by air cargo, better to have a buffer day on the return and time the cargo arrival during the two days of acclimatisation.

Conclusion:

Purely from astrophotography point of view, this trip was very disappointing as I could capture only 4 of the 14 targets that I had planned, in good quality. But if astrophotography was considered as a part, then the trip provided lots of good experiences and learnings. I have already started looking forward to next year’s trip.

That’s all folks, I have on this trip. Thank you so much for the patience in reading through this long record!

Wow! What an amazing experience and an amazing travelogue, Coach! Thank you for taking time to share your experiences in details. The "astrophotographs?" (funnily, astrophotography is a word in English, but astrophotograph does not seem to be a valid word rl:) are really fantastic! These are once in a lifetime kind of experiences and I am so happy for your that you were able to complete this mission.

Thanks for including a few 3GT photos in the end too. Without the 3GT photos, no travelogue from you would be complete.

Thanks again for sharing this and wish you many more such amazing experiences and travels in future!

Fantastic journey, a true expedition and fabulous photography! Thanks for sharing.

Nice to see images from Leh and Umlingla. Brings back memories

Jeroen

Thank you for the kind words AD!

Ha ha. Many times I was tempted to just load everything in the GT and make this a road trip. But resisted the temptation as I was not sure about the road conditions there. My dream is to do a road trip to Hanle with all the equipment.

Thank you for the kind words Jeroen!