Trip to Goa, India, advice please.

[KeironKK]

In a few months time, I'm going to India for a couple of weeks. The first week is a tour of the major sights of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. The second week, however, is a week in Goa, at one of those beach side pleasure palaces, and I would very much like to do some star gazing, if possible there. My questions are these;

What telescope would anyone recommend to take with me, baring in mind it has to be fairly rugged due to the tour at the start and I don't want to take a fist full of eyepieces with me either? I have been looking at several spotting scopes in the 70 - 80mm with zoom eyepieces, as well as that Celestron/Skywatcher 70mm Mak. I do have the Celestron 70mm travel scope, would that be OK used with a zoom eyepiece, or maybe just a 15 - 25 mm plossl? 

What are the skies like in Goa, are they dark and clear and what objects could I observe better than in the UK or can not be seen from the UK? (Or is it a case of the only stars I'll be seeing are the ones painted on walls? )

Thank you in advance for your advice. 

(Mods, if the post is in the wrong place, I apologise, please move.) 

[KeironKK]

PS, I can only reply around this time of the day as have computer then.)

[rowan46]

the travelscope will be as good as any cheap spotting scope and with the diagonal will be more comfortable to use.  Never been to Goa but I hear the skies are wonderful. Have a look at stellarium before you go if you input times, dates and coordinates it can show you the view from anywhere and anywhen on the planet.

[tdmodels]

In two weeks time, the moon will be nicely tucked away     I would suggest taking a pair of 10x50 bins and spending lots of time around the Sagittarius region.  Orion will be quite high up in the sky, so if you are in to imaging, try and borrow an Astrotrac to take with you for some widefield images of Barnards loop etc

[EssexGazer]

I went to Goa last year.  I was hoping for very dark skies, but sadly they weren't great.  There's a huge amount of traffic and industry pollution

[KeironKK]

Thanks for the replies guys. 

This is what am thinking of taking then. My Celestron 70mm, a 12mm and 25mm plossl eyepiece, a 2X Barlow and photo tripod. All will fit nicely in the back pack I got with the travelscope. I've also contacted this group, The Association of Friends of Astronomy, http://astrogoa.blogspot.co.uk/p/about-us.html 

As for photography, I think I'll just stick to the point and shoot, and even then I manage to decapitate people 

[astrosathya]

Hi Mate,

If you going to Goa then you wont need a telescope to see stars. The Booze is good enough for that effect

One word of caution. Everyone knows it as a tourist hotspot. So will the conmen. I am an Indian living in India and you can take it from me some people will try to dupe you big time. Go with trusted travel companies, even if it means spending a little bit extra. I wouldn't want you to have a bad experience. One thing to take care would be the clothing. Specially if a lady is with you on the trip. Delhi as you may have heard is not a nice place for a woman. Shorts are a no no, men stare. I am sure you will visit the Taj mahal, given that you are going to Agra.

I know that when people visit India, they just mean Delhi, Agra Jaipur and Goa. There is more to India than that. Do try to visit the UN Heritage site Hampi, and the IT city of Bangalore. We have a strong Astronomy community here in Bangalore (Yes I am from Bangalore) and we go out for star parties etc. Just 150km from bangalore is located Asia's biggest optical Telescope, The 2.34m Vaniu Bappu telescope, along with many other instruments at the Kavalur Observatory. Ofcourse, if at all you make it to Bangalore, just ping me and I shall give you a tour of the planetarium and the museum. Ofcourse I do have the kit shown below

Have Fun!