Showing posts with label Karnataka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Karnataka. Show all posts

Astronomy Camp with Vijay Kapoor

Astronomy Camp with Vijay Kapoor

Astronomy camp is the latest buzz word  in parenting circle. It had been quite some time, we were planning to attend an astronomy camp. Ultimately we decided to attend one with Vijay Kapoor in Feb 2019 at Chiguru Farm.
This article covers the following topics

Vijay Kapoor


Vijay is a multi talented personality. He is an astronomy enthusiast, Photographer, Artist, marathon runner, etc. The list is endless. By profession Vijay is an IT Professional.
Vijay runs astronomy camps in Chiguru Farm on weekends. He has hosted a telescope in Prestige Shantiniketan apartment complex multiple times on multiple astronomical events such as eclipse, bloody moon, planets spotting etc.
Vijay ventured into astronomy 5 years back. He has completed few short course from various international Universities.

Best season for planets and star gazing:

Ideally from November to February as the skies are clear.
However, there are few very clear nights in Summers also.

Location

The astronomy camp is conducted in Chiguru Farm,  Bilikal Forest, near Kanakpura. This place is approximately 70-80 km drive from Whitefield Bangalore. And takes around 2 and half hours from Prestige Shantiniketan, Whitefield to reach by car.


Chiguru Farm

Chiguru means tender, fresh leaves in Kannada and is an apt name for an organic farm venture. The Chiguru farm is owned and run by Raghu who has ventured in organic farming after a successful career as an IT professional. The place was a banana plantain farm initially. Raghu has converted the place into multi crop ( vegetables, crops and fruits) farm which can yield multi seasonal crops throughout the year. Raghu has hired local cooks to preserve the identity of the local culture. This also helps the local  villagers with side income.

Accommodation:

Rooms:

Chiguru Farm has few rooms available and they need to be booked in advance.

Tents:

Most of the participants opt for tent stay for the astronomy camp. Vijay provides you tents, sleeping bags, tent mats/bed and tent lamp at very nominal cost. We owned one tent for many years and had never used it in India. Our 9 years old son was very excited to unfold & setup tent for the first time. So we had carried our own tent.

Things to carry:

  • Light jackets as it becomes cold at night and the farm is surrounded by wilderness.
  • Shorts or three fourths for day time and full pants specially for kids at night.
  • Set of clothes to change for next day
  • Light snacks for munching if any
  • bottled water is provided at the farm. However you can carry your own supply
  • Medical kit and medicines if any
  • Torch
  • Toothpaste and tooth brush and other toiletries.

Lunch and pottery session

Previous evening, Vijay sent us pictures of the telescope and other apparatus packed in case. My son was super excited to see the telescope. It is recommended to leave Whitefield Bangalore at around 10 am. As we crossed electronic city and entered the rural area we could see many farms and small villages. The camp begins at around 1 pm in noon, with a sumptuous organic vegetarian lunch. We being hardcore non-vegetarian, were a little skeptical about the vegetarian food option. However, Raghu and his team of cooks proved us wrong. Some of the local kandadiga savouries were finger smacking good. Post the lunch, we strolled around the farm for sometime. Then Raghu took us for tractor ride around the farm.
We had a brief pottery session, where a local Potter helped us make small clay pots on the wheel. Kids were all excited and they started mingling easily with each other. Needless to say also along with the dog and it's puppies in the farm.

Tent and Telescope setup:

Around 3:30 pm, Vijay asked us to assemble in the open ground and gave us a briefing on tent setup. He demonstrated the same by hosting his tent. In less than an hour or so all tents were setup.  Vijay started his Telescope setup. As expected the kids started hovering around him. He was patient and explained us in simple words, what each part ment and it's importance in the telescope. He also explained us how the telescope uses the geographic location ( latitude and longitude details) are entered in the telescope. This helps the telescope find location of the stars and planets automatically. It was quite interesting. This was followed by hot pipping cup of tea or coffee.




Sunset point

At around 5:30 pm, we along with Raghu marched towards the sunset point. It's at relatively higher altitude within the farm. We could see the sunset, amongst the banana plantain. Raghu continually updated us on his research and day to day struggles in organic farming  in India. Many of our myths on organic products, were demystified by Raghu.



Astronomy quiz and campfire

Vijay conducts an astronomy quiz for kids and adults later in the evening. It is a basic quiz for kids to understand what solar system, planets and other heavenly bodies are all about. He also uses this time to brief the team members about the days plan. The list of expected planets and stars spottings and their tentative timings. We were informed, that we will be able to see moon and it's crators at night 10 pm. Later around 5 am in morning, we would spot Saturn and Jupiter.  We were little concerned, if the kids will get up at 4:30 am. However the kids proved us wrong later.

After the quiz, Raghu setup the campfire and we enjoyed some fire grilled onions, sweet potatoes, corns and pineapples. This was followed by sumptuous, organic vegetarian dinner.


Star gazing at night and early morning

Around 9:30 pm, we assembled near the telescope in the ground. Vijay set up the telescope to view the moon and it's crators.  Parallelly he had also set up a camera on tripod, to capture the star trail. We could see the moon's surface and it's various crators clearly. He also explained us about the multiple star constellations. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and we had to wrap up the sigthing after some time. We all woke up at 4:30 am, to watch the planets. Luckily the sky was clear and we could see Jupiter and Saturn. Then Vijay focused on the planets rings and few spots. It was an enlightening experience for us to witness crystal clear images of planets literally at a hands distance.
Glimpses of the moon's surface through Vijay's telescope.

 Jupiter

 Mars

 Milkyway

 Saturn


Star trail


A star trail is a type of photograph that uses long exposure times to capture the apparent motion of stars in the night sky due to Earth's rotation. A star-trail photograph shows individual stars as streaks across the image, with longer exposures yielding longer arcs. Camera Setup and Processing: Follow these steps to try this method:
  1. You will need to turn on your camera's Long Exposure Noise Reduction setting.
  2. After doing so, focus your lens per the steps in the Focusing Your Lens at Night Section.
  3. Next, select your composition and try an exposure time between 30 seconds to 3-4 minutes with an ISO of 600-800 and take multiple picture. Approx 2 hrs. Or more. More time .... Better trail.
  4. Software to Stack all captured pics: StarTrails. Very easy to work on StarTrails software.

Deep sky photography

The basic process for capturing deep-sky images is this: You shoot multiple, long-exposure photographs with your DSLR through a tracking telescope mount. You then combine the images together to improve the signal to noise ratio. For more details please connect with Vijay or join relevant Astronomy Event.

Morning farm visit and breakfast

Next morning, few of the enthusiastic team members, got up to witness the sun rise at 6 am. I was laying around in the tent for some time. I woke up with fright when I realised, the farm dog was trying to approach the tent.

We were served tea and coffee. Later, we went for farm walk. Raghu explained us the various crops and his strategy to have multi seasonal yield to reduce the risk of natural disaster to crops. He also showed us various organic insect repellents used in the farm. We spotted few birds as well. We were also given tour of the organic fertilizer shed. He also explained why they had placed the borewell and natural water collection tank at lower altitude within thr farm. All these things were well planned and thought through. The kids enjoyed swinging on the banyan tree.  We savoured the idli sambhar for breakfast and called it end of the day at farm. There were few farm grown organic products for sell.

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Madhugiri Fort Trek


Geography

Madhurgiri is a small village in Tumkur district. It lies to south Eastern Karnataka. It gets the name from the monolithic rock hill named Madhurgiri. Madhu means honey and giri means mountain. It is around 130 km from Whitefield Bangalore.
The Madhurgiri hill is second largest monolithic rock in Asia. Monolithic means single rock structure.

Logistics:

There are two options available

Single day trip 

In case, you are short of time and have a day to spare then start early in the morning at around 5 o clock. Have an awesome breakfast on the way near Hebbal.Reach Madhurgiri village by 9 am.  The trek would get get over between 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. Leave Madhugiri and have an wholesome lunch a late lunch at Kamat on the highway.

Weekend trip or two days trip 

Start early morning, reach Madhurgiri by noon. Check in hotel in Madhurgiri and relax. After lunch, stroll around the lake near Madhurgiri village. Enjoy karokle ride if available. Spot some migratory birds nesting near the lake. Next day start the trek early morning by 6:30 am. The trek would get over around 10 am. Head back to Bangalore. Enjoy lunch at Kamat on highway.
I was fortunate to experience the trek two times. First time, in September 2018, we were group of four ladies on two wheelers, a Scooty Streak and Activa.
Myself, Meera Velankar, Deepa Pawar and Madha Joshi. We stayed over night and did the trek early morning.
Recently, in Nov 2019, I visited again Madhurgiri in a day trip, with an enthusiastic group of trekkers from Prestige Shantiniketan appartment complex in Whitefield Bangalore.

MeeraVelankar

Meera Velankar of pedalmummy.com is a well known cyclist and sports enthusiast. She arranges treks and cycling one days tours around Whitefield for adults and kids. Meera along with Swarna Prabhu from Prestige Shantiniketan had arranged the Trek to Madhurgiri on Nov 2019 first week.

Can we do the trek on our own without a trek group ?

Yes. The trek can be done on your own without a trek group. It is recommended that you form a small group of three to four people either friends or family and visit the place.  It's always advisable to hire a local guide. The Hotel Manjunath Comforts at the base of the Madhugiri fort can be contacted few days before the trek. They can arrange a local guide. This guide is usually a local resident, who knows the fort well. There are few difficult patches in the trek where you would need some expert help for the first time. Also as the name suggests, the fort is infested with honeybee nests and spotting of bear is possible. I have seen few videos on YouTube where solo travelers have climbed the fort on their own.

Recommended Trek Gear

  • Comfortable sports wear or trek gear.
  • Sports shoes. I would recommend not to wear treking shoes or the one with plastic sole. I had a bitter experience first time as I slipped at spot. It had rained the earlier day and some parts of the monolithic rock had small streams flowing downstairs. My shoes slipped in one such area and I was about to roll down my way to the base of the mountain. Luckily I held myself to the railing and our guide Siddhu came to my rescue.Half way through the trek, it's recommended to remove the shoes and walk bear foot as the hill becomes stiff and bear foot gives a good grip.
  • Bag - carry a small sack bag with minimum one litre water, snack bars, chocolates, some light snacks.
  • Sun protection - cap and sunglasses are recommended.

Mom's Scooty experience:

I had earlier done a Scooty trip to Masinagudi forest with my husband. Females only Two wheeler trip was on my wishlist for a long time. In September 2018, along with the Dare Devil girls gang, we decided to achive this feat on one of the weekdays. It was fun to ride the two wheeler on Highway and gave us much needed adrenal rush. It also allowed the four mother's to break free from our day to day activities for two days and just be on our own. I would definitely recommend others to do a small trip similar to this once in a lifetime.
 

Silk cocoon cultivation

Karnataka state is famous world wide for cultivation of good silk fabric. The silk thread is produced from silk worm cocoon. Once you take a left on the National Highway at Tumkur,we were able to spot few silk cocoon breeders near Madhugiri town. These are usually circular baskets of 1.5 meter diameter. The villagers sometimes keep them outside their house. The moths are spread around on the circular basket to form the cocoons. Once the cocoons reach a particular size, they are removed from basket and the tread is detached. The old lady was courteous enough and showed us the process.

 Evening near the Madhugiri Lake

In our first weekend trip, we decided to explore the local area and reached the lake near the village. There was no concrete road leading to the lake and we were skeptical of exploring the area. We could spot some fishermen fishing in the karokle. We dared to venture in the wild. The fishermen had just pulled back their nets and finished collecting  their days  catch in a karokle.  We could spot some nesting birds on the other end of the lake. We  were also able to hear a lot of frogs crocking in a shallow pond. It was a perfect time for sunset. The mirror image of the Madhugiri fort in the lake at the sunset was cherry on  top of the cake. What a perfect way to end the day. Later we went to the village did some shopping at local shop, loaded our self supplies for next days trek - fruits, milk and bread butter etc. We had dinner at local joint and crashed into bed.
Note - Madhurgiri being a small village do not expect high end shops and restaurants. The village will meet your basic needs.


 
 


Madhurgiri trek difficult parts:

To begin with the trek is sort of easy with stones steps. With 25% of the trek over, the monolithic rock begins. For the next 25% of the rock has steps carved in it and is supported with railing. The first difficult section come the mid way when person has to lean on both the hands and walk sideways. It is as good as doing push up and walking sideways on a steep. The second difficult section lies almost at the end where the rock is inclined at and angle of 70 degrees. This puts your calf muscles and quadriceps at test. If you do not exercise regularly, you are bound to experience major pain next day. After my bitter slipping experience, I always prefer going with the guide no matter what someone thinks of myself.


Things to do on the top :

Once you reach the top, one can sit and relax for half hour or so. The fort remains are in dilapidated condition however kept clean. You can sit in shade and enjoy the snacks. There are no shops or vendors, you need to carry snacks and water. There are no toilets, one has to answer nature's call in open. The scenic view of the Madhugiri town and near by villages will keep your camera lenses occupied for sure.
As per locals, people carry raw food and cook on top of the hill and have a one day picnic.


 

 Photo Session and fun parts in Madhugiri Fort:

A picture says million words. There are many places at the Madhugiri Fort where you can pause and take picture along with a breather.
 

 



 




Stay options in or around Madhurgiri:

If you opt for two days trip then it's advisable to stay at Madhurgiri near the base of the fort. As it will help you kick start the trek early in morning. There are two basic hotels available Manjunath Comforts and Akshay comforts. Both of them are at walkable distance from the start point of the trek. We stayed at Manjunath Comforts, during our  scooty trip in September 2018. Otherwise there are multiple hotels near Tumkur on the highway. However it's an hour's drive from the Madhugiri fort.This would probably delay the trek early morning.

Picture Credits :
Moms on Scooty - Myself. Deepali Pawar, Medha Joshi, Meera Velankar
Group Trek - Myself, Nayana Dongre, Prakash Upadhya, Satya Chekuri, Khusboo Jain and Team.



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Location: Madhugiri Betta, Karnataka 572132
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