Nights in dark Ladakh: What keeps stargazers busy through the day

This is the second of a two-part series. Read the first here.

In late September, 40 amateur astronomers and photographers from all over India converged on the tiny hamlet of Hanle, in Ladakh. We were at the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve. This is one of very few spots in India where ambient light doesn’t overwhelm the night sky.

Now that is something to celebrate. Therefore, the annual Hanle Dark Sky Party, run by the Indian Astronomical Observatory. Four nights out in the cold, looking up at the stars. Even merely thinking about it got my pulse racing, and I don’t think it was just Hanle’s altitude of 14,000 feet. After all, this is why I had applied to join the Party in the first place. And here we were, in a vast open area, among Indian Astronomical Observatory’s various telescopes, looking up at the fantastic sky, photographing, observing, soaking it all in.

Early one night, I set my camera to take multiple shots of the Milky Way, with a small Indian Astronomical Observatory telescope in the foreground to give it some perspective. Then I made my way through the inky darkness to the telescope. When I walked up its stairs, I heard a gasp. I was...

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