The Most Anticipated Astro Event of the Year!
(Photo courtesy of Nirmala Singh, provides a wide angle long exposure shot of the view we got that night).
The CARINA star party is the most anticipated Astronomy event of the year in Trinidad and Tobago and tickets are sold out before you know it, so much so that last time they had to have it twice. Of Course this year it was cancelled but in lieu of that I wanted to share with you guys what it is usually like. CARINA is the Caribbean Institute of Astronomy and is responsible for the promotion, development and growth of Astronomy in the Caribbean Region. It is usually held in the darkest area that they could legally acquire for the event, far away from light pollution to get the best views of the sky. One could actually see the Milky Way centre as well as stars that one has never seen before due to modern street lighting and buildings at night.
We start off our journey to the party by driving to the north western end of Trinidad called Chaguaramas. There, the abandoned missile tracking station (used during the cold war) that was built by the United States is situated far from any sort of light pollution. You can see from the photos that the tracking dish is situated within a flat open space amidst forests and hills, thorugh a bamboo cathedral. This makes it the perfect spot for stargazing as it provides shelter from light pollution on top of being a good distance away from large towns! the bamboo cathedral is called as such due to the bamboos on both sides that create a formation that resembles a cathedral.
I took this photo at the bamboo cathedral on another date but this shows you why it is called as such.
We did a bit of exploration before setting up our little area in the grass to spend the night looking to the heavens. There were some nearby buildings that were remnants of the American facility that complemented the tracking dish. It was now creepy and very abandoned, the walls dreary and filled with blood curdling evil looking graffiti and the ceilings and floors looked like time had gotten the best of them. It echoed the past and I could almost feel the cold war era and the uncertainty of nuclear apocalypse in a way. As someone who loved games like Fallout and Metro 2033, this was awesome to me. The darkness that the evening brought, made things even more creepier but exploring and having frightful fun with friends was an amazing experience.
Exiting the horrifying building, we saw the beautiful expanse of hills and mountains that the tracking station was situated in amongst. The setting sun and the wonderful mists as well as the clouds made for a breathtaking view and preceded the beautiful night of stargazing to come. A nearby stairway that took us back up to the dish itself within the open area where we were to set up our camp looked beautiful in a way as nature was just about to retake it just as it had almost done with the building. It made for some awesome photography!
When we finally went back to the open field near the dish, a lot of people had already arrived and most of the spaces were already claimed by groups and their tents. We hurriedly claimed our spot, spread our mats and put up our beach chairs. Some friends met up with us there and we decided to team up and share food and drinks. They brought pizza and we had fried chicken and snacks! We were excited for the night to come!
There was an introductory speech by the CARINA officials and an awesome tour of the sky for novices of Astronomy with the lightsaber as they call it, an extremely powerful laser that was used to point at stars and constellations as they named and explained each. Who knew humans would be able to point at the heavens one day with powerfully focused light?
As the night settled completely, the place was extremely dark, the darkest I had ever witnessed any open air place to be in my life. The milky way centre was in full view and it immediately became clear that we were indeed just hurtling around this huge galaxy through space. It made me feel so small and I realized how much the aspects of modernity had taken humans away from the proper perspective in the universe. Lights at night made the stars disappear and it made me sad that we had to come all the way here just to see what should be naturally seen by everyone.
As you can see I really tried to get some shots using my phone as I did not as yet have a DSLR at the time. It did not at all pick up the beauty that we saw. As the night progressed, we engaged with likeminded individuals and learned a lot about astronomy. I even got to see the sombrero galaxy for the first time with this huge telescope that someone brought. Of course, photography of these things were a no go for me. Since I have gotten a camera no though, I hope to next time be able to capture more of the event in the darkness hopefully after the pandemic clears up! The CARINA star party is hella fun and I hope you guys could have gotten a jist of how it is from this blog in honour of it not being held this year!