KSS team was unbelievable in their preparation for Rohtas Fort. It is 4 hours drive from Lahore and when i reached there with my telescope and all packed in my car, everything was ready. Complete sound system, multimedia projectors and screens, diesel generators, tables and chairs, banners and posters and with all those technicians and our great fellow members of our society.

As soon as the Sun went down, we started our presentation. It was once again wonderful to talk about the Night Sky and the Universe; loved every bit of it. I Always keep my talk very simple and in Urdu because i want those kids and common persons in my audience to know and enjoy the wonders of the Universe. It was an evening really out of this world and I will let you decide for the choice of words i should had written here for that evening.. see for yourself in these images:

The lecture was followed by a very good Q/A session..i was asked all sorts of questions about Astronomy, moon sightings, lunar landings, landings hoax, water on Mars, space tourism and so on and so on.. Again i felt very motivated in answering these questions.

This was no doubt the biggest gathering of Astronomers of Pakistan at one place. Following are some of the pictures of different telescopes. (All images of the event can be found here)

Maroof with his 6 inch Maksutov Telescope

Tasmin from Islamabad, with his 6 inch Dobsonian Telescope

Dr Furrukh with his Meade 125 SCT Telescope

Azhar Basit, our Lahore based astronomer

Ali Khan, our “Galileo” (telescope maker)

Behzad (right) with his 4.5 inch equatorial reflector

Omer’s Meade 8 inch SCT and other telescopes, what a lovely view!

Around mid-night it was all over for the public and everyone went back. But the astronomers from Lahore and Islamabad stayed there for the whole night and we did lots and lots of visual observations with different telescope designs and aperture sizes.

Milkyway was easily visible with naked eye and with telescopes, we see many open and globular clusters, nebulae and almost all planets with our telescopes in one night! I had never seen so many telescopes in Pakistan in my life and it was great to meet with all astronomers; everyone was so very friendly there.

Thank you all for showing up with your expensive and bulky equipment and sharing interesting stories about our ‘Astronomy lives’. Thank you Khwarizmi Science Society for managing a very interesting and satisfying night for everyone.

Have you seen so many astronomers in Pakistan at one place!