Ancient skies and stargazing’s enduring human fascination pull

Across centuries, curiosity about the cosmos drives amateurs to explore skies with simple tools and boundless imagination

- SUMIT PAUL

Celestial bodies hanging like chandeliers in the sky have always fascinated professional astronomers as well as those who love stargazing as dilettante or amateur astronomers, observed American astronomer and planetary scientist Carl Sagan, whose theories about the origin of the universe still hold ground.

Stargazing is indeed a hobby that has a niche aura about it because it is one of the most absorbing pastimes for curious souls since time immemorial. In fact, professional astronomy became a proper discipline only a century ago. Before that, people used to observe celestial bodies with the naked eye and those who could afford it would resort to binoculars or a cheap telescope.

The universe, sky, comets, stars, and all that have always made human beings inquisitive. There is areference to this in the Mahabharata’s ‘Anusthaan Parv’, where Krishna predicted that a look towards the sky would one day open up a plethora of possibilities. The predominantly warrior Arjun could not understand the import of Krishna's prophecy, but Bhishma did, remarking that the sky would continue to fascinate people in the times to come.