So Friends, let’s have a look at What’s Up For June 2019 in the sky? This Month will be dominated by Jupiter with Moon and Mercury getting little closer. Jupiter will be visible throughout the night as the brightest visible object after Moon. You can take a binocular or a small telescope and view the four Largest Moons of Jupiter: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa. The planet may also reveal its bands through the small instruments used. The Moon and Mercury make a beautiful pair after sunset on 17th and 18th. Look for it in the low western horizon. We also have a beautiful opportunity for an observation this month: Moon’s tilted orbit. You will observe Saturn and Jupiter this month. Imagine a line passing through them. Now observe the Moon’s path every day. You will notice that the Moon’s path will cross the Line of Jupiter and Saturn. The line that you have imagined is more or less the orbital plane of Earth and other planets around the Sun. You will find that the path of Moon is almost five degrees tilted with respect to the orbital plane. This explains the tilted orbit of Moon and the reason behind the rareness of Eclipses although Moon completes its revolution in (more or less) 30 days. Well Friends, that’s all for this month. See you all in the next article.

By Sattik Bhowmick,
Junior Member,
​SWAN.

Friends, let’s have a look at What’s Up For March 2019 in the sky? This month will be consisting of Jupiter getting off the sky as it will be visible only for the early risers. You can find Jupiter in the south-eastern sky an hour before sunrise. You will also be able to see Saturn and Venus a bit lower in the same part of the sky. You can spot the Beehive Cluster in the sky. Look for it using the Sirius and the Procyon. Draw a straight line from Sirius though Procyon to get it. Use Binoculars. We also have the March Equinox on March 20th. That day will experience equal Day and Night. We also have the Supermoon on that very day. It will be 30 percent Brighter and and 14 percent larger. That’s all for this month. See you all in the next article.  

By Sattik Bhowmick,
​Junior Member, SWAN

So Friends let's have a look at What's up for February 2019 in the sky? We have good time to catch up the stars and planets all month long. Look west after sunset and spot the distinct reddish Mars. Turn south and look high up in the sky. You will see Bright Red star Aldebran in Taurus and Betelguese in Orion. You will also spot the Blue- White Rigel and Sirius. On 10th at 8 pm the Crescent Moon pairs up with Mars. Look for them in the west. On 19th catch up with the Supermoon (30 percent brighter and 14 percent bigger). Venus and Saturn make a close pairing for Early Risers on the 18th at around 5: 30 am. Look towards the southeast before sunrise. By 27th at 5:30 am Venus and Saturn lineup with Jupiter which is also paired with Crescent Moon on that day. Look low in the southeast before sunrise. Mercury also makes its Greatest Elongation. On 27th look west just after sunset. That's all for this month. See you all in the next article.

By Sattik Bhaumik,
Junior Member,
SWAN.

Let’s have a look at whats up for August, 2018 in the sky?

This month’s prime attraction would be the Perseids Meteor Shower. The Shower will reach its peak at midnight on 12th August. Best observations can be made on the days of and around the peak. Another factor making it beautiful is that the day of peak shower would be a moonless one. The radiant of this shower is the constellation Perseus. At last this month will be followed by the parade of planets- Venus, Jupiter, Saturn and Mars.

Hope you have a great month ahead. Clear Skies!
​
by-
Sattik Bhaumik,
Member, SWAN.

A team of astronomers from the Inter University Centre for Astronomy & Astrophysics (IUCAA), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and two other universities have recently discovered ahuge galactic supercluster of galaxies 4 billion light-years away.
Galaxies travel along the filaments of the cosmic web and form dense groups of tens and thousands of galaxies called superclusters. Our own Milky Way galaxy is a member of the “Laniakea” supercluster.
Named “Saraswati,” after the river ‘Saraswati’ and the Hindu goddess of knowledge, art and wisdom, this galactic supercluster is by far one of the most massive large- scale structures ever discovered. Located in the direction of the constellation Pisces, the “Saraswati” supercluster of galaxies is as big as 600 million light-years and is thought to be equivalently heavy as 20 million billion mighty Suns! 
Since light takes time to travel across space, so light from faraway galaxies help us take a peek back in time. Making it easy, light from a galaxy 10 million light-years away takes 10 million years to travel to us. So, observing it lets us see the galaxy as it was 10 million years back. With the “Sarawasti” supercluster being at a whooping 4 billion light-years away from us, observing this dense distribution of galaxies will help us get an idea of the universe as it was 4 billion years ago (those good ‘ol days when the universe was 10 billion years old).
This huge discovery will help unveil deeper mysteries of the sky which have been tantalizing astronomers and cosmologists for all these years and those to come.

ISS, flying 400km above Earth surface at a speed of 27,500 km per hour is the largest man made flying machine of enormous 100 meter in size. But at that distance, it appears to our eye with an angular size of only 50 arc second. Even smaller than a small marble hold at an distance of around 50 meters. or the distance between Barpost and Mid Field of a football ground. One can well imagine how critical could it be to shoot this when infrequently ISS becomes visible from a specific small patch of Earth Surface as a solid black silhouette against the face of Sun, that too only for 1/2 second, on its way through its own precise orbit around Earth.
This was SWAN's fifth ISS Solar Transit attempt and the fourth successful one. Thanks to all including the local villagers there at the location.

Things to know before you start is what it mean by "Altitude of Sun in sky?"
The solar elevation angle is the altitude of the sun, the angle between the horizon and the centre of the sun's disc.
In simple words it is the position of Sun in height wise in the sky. For example when Sun is rising it is in 0° and  as hour pasts it increases its altitude and gain the highest altitude of 90° at the noon time. After that Sun started decreasing it's altitude to 0°, that is the sun going bellow horizon. ​

Starting time of this transit is 11:12 UTC that means 16:42 IST or 4:42 pm on the 9th of may. Clearly by the timing given we can see it is the time when Sun started going down bellow horizon. So as a rule of nature the Eastern part of country like Assam, West Bengal, Odisha, East part of Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh will have Sun in low horizon making it hard to observe. Where as the states like J&K, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh , UP, MP, Telengana, Karnataka will be in much better condition than eastern states. But the good news come for the Western Indian state or the states adjacent to west coast of India, Because Sun will be in much better altitude than the rest of India. 
So it's better if you are in western part of India. Now Chose a high roof top or a area where the west horizon is completely clear. It is better if you move out from city area because the SPM Level in the low horizon sky in the city area are much higher. And because the Mercury will appear a tiny dot (.) in the sun disk so you may not resolve Mercury in that condition.
Now that you are completely positioned lest's enjoy the show with a protective eye gear. DO NOT EVER LOOK AT THE SUN WITHOUT ANY PROTECTIVE GALSS / FILETR .  

Point to note.

• For any place in India the transit will begun on exactly 16:42 IST that is 4:42 pm on May 9th.
• The altitude of sun will defer from place to place east to west wise. (North to South wise is negligible in this case) 

*This picture intend for India only Timings are given in IST the upper figures indicating the Sun's altitude at starting of transit (16:42 IST) & the lower figure indicating the sun set time for that region.
               **To get exact timing of your place click here.