A dance with planets: The growing passion for astronomy in Bangladesh

Abdullah Al Galib, who works as an architect at STH Potto, is a space enthusiast who had been planning to watch the planetary parade for over a year. 

Galib used to be a member of the astronomy club in his school in Jashore and made time to watch some astronomical events in the past. He fondly recalled when he and a group of friends had travelled to a remote area near Jashore to witness the sky when mercury had come very close to Earth. As they could not afford a telescope, he would watch the night sky with his naked eye.

As time passed and Galib's life got busier, he stopped pursuing this hobby. However, his interest in astronomy remained strong. 

"Even if there are events like this, they are usually private. So, when I came across this public event on social media, I had to participate. It has been a wonderful experience," he said.

The event Galib was talking about was taking place on a quiet, unassuming rooftop in Kalabagan, which came alive on the night of 25 January as people from all walks of life gathered together to view and celebrate the alignment of multiple planets.

It was a simple set-up, held on the roof of an eight-storey building, with a Meade 8-inch LX200 ACF telescope in the middle of the roof for the viewing pleasure of the guests. 

The telescope was of an older model, worth around Tk2 lakh, according to Shahjahan Benu, an expert who has created his own private space observatory in Sreepur, and was attending the event that night. 

It was an intimate setting at first, with volunteers helping guests operate the telescope and find the different planets that were coming in and out of hiding.

As the night went on, the roof began to fill up with a diverse group of all ages. Children were running around, excitedly pointing at any object they could spot in the sky. A group of college friends were having a laugh, while waiting for their turn with the telescope. And parents were taking pictures of the sky, under the soft glow of the heavenly bodies.

Asif Rahman, 10, had come to the event with his parents after they told him what it was about. Asif is a curious child, who loves learning about space. He excitedly exclaimed, "This is the first time I have seen a planet other than Venus! This is such a thrilling experience."

He spent much of the night discussing his knowledge of the solar system with Selima Mohsin, 9, who was also attending the event with her family.

Remarkably, despite the light pollution plaguing the city, four of the planets in the solar system — Mars, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn — were clearly visible to the naked eye. 

It was as if the night sky had become a grand stage for a play, with the planets being its star performers, elegantly gliding across the sky with a graceful rhythm only the universe could direct.

A planetary alignment, informally called planetary parade, is a celestial event where multiple planets in our solar system appear in a more or less straight line and become visible in the night sky.

The Bangladesh Astronomical Association (BAA) played host to this breathtaking event, organising a meet-up through their social media.

Observational astronomy, which includes the observation of deep-sky objects, is impossible in Dhaka due to light pollution. Planets can be seen in the sky, but if you want to see anything else, such as galaxies and nebulas, you have to get out of the city for that.

Mash-hu-rul Amin, Founder, Bangladesh Astronomical Association

The event brought together an international group of space enthusiasts who could not pass up the opportunity to marvel at the appearances of Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Venus. 

The planetary parade event was held from 6pm to 10pm, when the planets would enjoy greater visibility in the sky.

Jupiter preferred to sit high above our heads, forcing everyone to tilt their heads all the way backwards to bask in its bright light. Mars was in the east, emanating a faint orange glow, away from the others. Venus and Saturn stayed close to each other, their shimmering light illuminating each other.

Astronomy connoisseurs of Bangladesh

The BAA was founded by Mash-hu-rul Amin over 37 years ago. 

Amin advertised the event on Facebook, and offered registration tickets to anyone who would be interested. But his expectations for the turnout was blown out of the water, with far more people showing interest in the event than he had anticipated.

As I was speaking to him, he was being inundated with phone calls from families who wanted to register at the last minute to attend the event. Amin was apologetic as he had to start declining requests as the roof was already filling up with attendees.

Amin has always been interested in astronomy, beginning in his youth. In 1988, he came across a three-month-long workshop being conducted on astronomy, an opportunity he was unable to pass up.

"After participating in the workshop, I really wanted to get a telescope to explore the outer space. But back in 1988, I did not have the financial means to buy one for myself. So, I convinced two of the friends that I made at the workshop to open a science club with me, hoping to receive funds for the telescope through that," he recounted the reason that led to the creation of his organisation, 

The science club eventually morphed into the BAA, expanding far beyond what Amin had originally envisioned. Since then, the BAA has launched its own bimonthly Bangla magazine on astronomy and space science, called 'Mohakash Barta'.

Amin believes that the role of the BAA is to raise awareness of astronomy in Bangladesh. To that end, the organisation has hosted numerous workshops, festivals and star-gazing events over the years.

Since Amin first founded his science club in 1987, the world has changed drastically and so has people's understanding of astronomy. Initially when Amin would speak to people about astronomy, they would mistake it for astrology, asking him to read their palms for them. 

Over the years, this has slowly changed. Amin believes that due to the rise of internet access, and more clubs popping up, people's interest in astronomy has been increasing.

Galib agrees with this notion. "When we were children, our parents would tell us stories about stars and planets, which drove our curiosity and made us learn more. These days, the new generation has access to greater technology and scientific knowledge, and they learn about these topics in a more scientific way than we did."

He further added that there is interest in astronomy at an individual level, pointing to how there are Bangladeshis from his hometown that work at NASA and bring astronomy to the public eye through their own individual efforts.

A Facebook group called Star Party Bangladesh has become popular with 50,000 members. The group, headed by experts, organises regular star-gazing expeditions for people to practice astrophotography. As current smartphones have the capability to capture astrophotography, this has influenced many amateur astronomy enthusiasts to get into the hobby.

Zubayer Kaolin, is one such person who has gained a lot of fame for his astrophotography in the group. Zubayer was always passionate about astronomy, and in 2019, he started building his own telescope. He taught himself everything he knows about astrophotography.

Then there is 75-year-old Shahjahan Benu, another individual whose love for astronomy led him to create Bangladesh's first private astro observatory on his own land, bearing expenses that have added up to around Tk3 crore.

Benu wants to help increase astronomical research in Bangladesh. He stated, "We have volunteers who are expert enough to man the telescopes, take them to educational institutes and help students take a look at the sky." 

Neither readily accessible, nor cheap

One of the major problems with being interested in astronomy in Dhaka remains the problem of light pollution. 

"Observational astronomy, which includes the observation of deep-sky objects, is impossible in Dhaka due to light pollution. Planets can be seen in the sky, but if you want to see anything else, such as galaxies and nebulas, you have to get out of the city for that," Amin explained.

Galib believes that while individual interest in astronomy is high, the government has not done a good job in this sector. 

He believes that there should be an observatory in Bangladesh for astronomy, like there are in foreign countries. Furthermore, he thinks that there should be more efforts to educate students in astronomy in schools, including the establishment of more classes and clubs in schools.

The government actually came up with plans for a Tk213 crore project to build an ambitious Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Space Observatory in Faridpur in 2021. However, the project has been scrapped entirely recently due to lack of planning, understanding and implementation.

The location that was chosen for the project was not conducive to a proper space observatory, and feasibility studies had not been conducted before greenlighting the project.

Munira Sultana, director general of the National Museum of Science and Technology, said, "The project is no longer necessary. To derive any meaningful benefit from the project, significantly more funds would be required."

While government projects have failed, public interest in astronomy has still increased. However, the financial costs of the hobby make it difficult for most people to engage in it.

Telescopes are very expensive, especially when they are branded ones. 

"Telescopes are like computers. They have many different parts that can be bought separately and put together. This can reduce the costs somewhat, but not all parts that are available in the country are of good quality," Amin said.

Some often purchase different parts from abroad. Zubayer, for instance, had to buy the lens for his first telescope online from a Chinese store.

This is why, even the telescope used at the planetary parade event hosted by BAA was an older model, lacking in capacity. Galib, who was enjoying the event, was unable to hide some of his disappointment when he learned that a better telescope would have allowed him to view two more planets — Neptune and Uranus.