A while later our host announced dinner was ready. Everyone left the field but even though I was hungry as a bear, my greed for photons took the better of me and I stayed glued to the eyepiece. After dinner was over and the guys were back in the field, someone asked: "Is it the dust getting settled or is it our eyes getting better adapted?" It was both. Now the sky began to really shine. The host told his man to prepare tea. The Milky Way was very bright and highly structured. With no artificial lights around, we were genuinely surprised at how easily we could see our surroundings. Was it really starlight? If it was, starlight must be mighty bright stuff.

Hanif bhai was busy in photography, but the rest of us lay down on a large floor mat. The constellation of Cygnus was directly overhead and the Milky Way arched from horizon to horizon. What a wonderful feeling it was, exploring the intricate dust lanes in the galactic plane, stopping here and there to pick up bejewelled clusters and chasing the sporadic meteors. The old 7X35 showed so many faint stars that familiar patterns like the Coat Hanger almost seemed to be camouflaged. Presently my eyes fell on the region near the bright star Deneb. There was the North American nebula in plain view without optical aid!

Brilliant Jupiter slowly made an appearance followed by Neptune and Uranus. I had my first telescopic look at the ice giants. Both sported pretty lively hues. Soon M31 had just cleared the cliffs too at an altitude of about 30 degrees. It was visible without optical aid using peripheral vision. Then the first signs of dawn began to appear and a while later the memorable night had become a thing of the past. It had been clear throughout. What's more, there had been no mosquitoes.

Once the sun had risen, we set off to explore the terrain. We were driving slowly on the winding dust roads near the Hingol river when Hanif bhai caught sight of a herd of about twenty ibexes. There are leopards too in the national park as well as crocodiles in the river, but we did not see any. Back on the coastal highway, we went about 25km further west to see the Kund Malir beach and the rock formations before we turned around. After having breakfast near a bridge on the river, we drove to the Chandra Gup mud volcano field before heading back to Karachi.

This was one memorable trip.

Zain Ahmed
Karachi Astronomers' Society