The Moon’s within your reach — here’s my telescopic journey!
Having my own telescope has been one of the most thrilling experience to me, it made me realise that everything I love has always been within my reach!
Here’s how it started,
I was 11 when I first saw Saturn in a telescope. It was at one of the nature camps at CEC-BNHS, at Flimcity, Goregaon. Stargazing was one of the activities, and I am so glad they invited someone with a telescope to enhance the activity. The kids lined up and looked through the telescope, one by one. When it was my turn, the guy made some adjustments and then asked me to proceed. What I saw was a tiny ovular planet with blurry rings and darkness around it.
Like everyone else, I also expected to look at something remotely large. That wasn’t the case, and that is never going to be the case. But what I saw was enough to plant a seed in my soul. That image is still vivid in my memory. I could make out Saturn’s rings and it felt wonderful looking at it, even if it wasn’t as I expected it to be. That was the first, and until yesterday, the last time I saw through a telescope.
Ever since then, I have always been fond of stars and the night sky. The love only kept growing, and I did not notice it until 2016 when I started writing poems. I was in the second year, studying BMM at St. Andrew’s, Bandra. My course definitely pushed me to explore my creative abilities. I realised I could write, and my poems were mostly about the sky, stars and love. I started off on tumblr, and for reasons unknown, I wanted to stay anonymous. So I came up with a pen name — ‘trustonlystars’. I remember the day I typed it out as my username, everything about that moment felt right. (Trust only stars.)
In winters 2018, I started working, and I don’t remember since when I wanted to have my own telescope, but it had always been on the list. Back then, I had no clue about the type or the features and neither did I have the budget. So, I kept looking for different models and got a fair idea of the amount. I was trying to save up since that time, and this was one thing that I couldn’t let anyone else purchase it for me. It had to be me, and I am glad it took its sweet time to come.
To my surprise, I learned that beginner telescopes aren’t that expensive. If someone can purchase a phone worth 20–30K without thinking much, then a telescope is way within your reach.
Fast forward to March 2020,
A week before the lockdown, I had visited Nehru Planetarium in Mumbai, with my best friend- Vally, for an Astro-photo exhibition. We planned it that very afternoon, it was as random as it could be. We travelled all the way there, at an odd hour, and luckily there weren’t many people. Which left us with enough time to adore those photographs at our pace. The photographs looked astonishing and mesmerizing. I could only wonder what would it be like to look at galaxies like that for real. I was awestruck!
The photographs had the details and credentials mentioned below. And this one name kept caught my attention- @ wandering.stargazer I looked her up on Instagram, read up a bit about her and learned that she made her first telescope all by herself. (How cool is that?) Her bio read that she’s a mother to 3 telescopes and that’s by far the best thing I have ever read. I followed her then and still do.
Then lockdown happened.
I managed to save some more and started looking for telescopes again, after 2 years since I first did. I was still not well equipped when it came to equipments. My small brain could fathom very little when I did the research on my own. I couldn’t understand the details, I read up articles but it was still confusing.
But, I was blessed with the best people in my life. I needed help, and with all might and energy, I bothered this highly educated, logical and smart best friend of mine — Shubham. He helped me with each step- literally every step. The type of telescope, the mount, focal length and diameter to view planets, all that within my budget. Everything. This amazing human gave me the clarity I needed to get the right telescope for me. The thought itself was so exciting!
I now had the details and the budget but didn’t know where to get it from.
Online, was not the answer, because I don’t think any beginner would want to pull off that kind of a stunt. I looked up for stores in Mumbai. Let me tell you, there aren’t many. (Or at least I couldn’t find many.) Again, I needed to talk to someone who had a telescope. Someone who was based in Mumbai, so they could suggest a store. I didn’t know anyone like that in my contacts. And I was sort of struggling my way through then I remembered our visit to the planetarium.
That’s when I thought of wandering.stargazer — aka Pooja Tolia. I got in touch with her and asked her if she could help me. She was so sweet and ready to help me. Our conversation went really well, and to my surprise and luck, she was going to visit the dealer in the coming week to help one of her friends pick a telescope. And that, I could join.
Could it get any better? (The universe loves me, I know.)
13th November’20. I tagged along with her to the store. She helped me pick the right model and even helped me understand a few basics. I was clear on the model so it didn’t feel that intimidating anymore, and got just what I wanted. I bought it, and it had been one of the proudest moments in my life.
It seemed like a beautiful journey when I looked back on how it started, and how every small incident led me to that moment. I connected the dots and felt so emotionally wonderful about this experience. Everything aligned well, even the delays had a perfect timing. And it happens to be the best time for I can track down Orion, my favourite constellation.
It was also the magic of winters- it always brings me the best things in life. I realised how everything I loved was within my reach. Last winter, I published my first set of poems — Starlight & Seashells. This winter, I got my telescope home, and there’s something about winters that I will always cherish.
The picture of the moon is what I consider a present when you make decisions that your heart is convinced of.
- trustonlystars | Jannie F.
PS — It took me a week to set up and learn the features, and damn it has taught me life lessons. Will talk about it the next blog!
Originally published at http://trustonlystars.home.blog on November 22, 2020.
