Democratizing Astronomy | Antariksh Ki Khoj | Low-Cost Telescope

My passion for spreading the knowledge of space

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Such Conversations Matter

3 min readAug 28, 2023

Humans have been studying space since the beginning of time, ever thought why? Because of our never-ending curiosity to learn about things around us. The night sky is something they saw every night, and because they couldn't reach it, they kept developing theories and thinking about it.

But nowadays in our busy lives, we are losing the inquisitveness to explore this domain( although this science is becoming more and more interesting with every passing day).

And this is not something very uncommon in our society, so I decided to give my time and effort to bring back people’s and especially kids' interest back to this vast domain of space. To do this I started Antariksh Ki Khoj(which means space exploration in Hindi) — a non-profit organization that wants to spread the knowledge of our great universe to all communities.

For this we started to do sessions in which we started to teach underprivileged students about space and introduced them to resources which they could use to enhance their interest, because since they didn't know much about this field they tend to go for more mainstream career choices despite having an interest in astronomy.

A very important problem faced by Indian students these days is hands on learning. With zero focus on learning by doing, somehow the great caliber of this country remains unleashed. Imagine if with the current resources we can land Chandrayan-3 on the south pole of Moon, what we can do if the right resources are used in teaching since the beginning.

To provide this hands on learning in the field of astronomy and provide amateur astronomers with the right amount of resources, I started to work on my low-cost Dobsonian telescope.

A Dobsonian Telescope is a type of reflector telescope which has a Dobsonian mount(i.e. it has to be moved both horizontally and vertically to set up on an object). So this telescope was is made in a fashion that it is cost-effective and easy to operate and carry around.

Lastly, it’s not about education or profession, but the beauty of space provides people with the much needed happiness. Space provides people with composure which is very much needed in our stressful lives. Don’t believe me? go to a nearby planetarium aand just look at the dome (try it out yourself). And if you get this view from a telescope it is even more enchanting. I’ve seen the eyes of people actually glow up after watching objects through a telescope.

Astronomy is a science that is going to expand a multifold in the future, so lets us come together and expand our and other’s interest in this field.

Check out my talk on this topic in detail on SCM Youth’s youtube channel in which I explain everything in very much detail.