We are starting Digital Stargazing Nights (DiStaNt) with the Unistellar eQuinox telescopes we received from University of Toronto.

Our aim with these new digital or smart telescopes is to change the perception of people about our citizenship of the cosmos. In order to be a cosmic citizen, it is no longer enough to use manual telescopes and just see a few nearby objects. With the AI-powered robotic eyes of modern amateur telescopes we can see distant galaxies from the heart of light-polluted city like Dhaka.

For example, here we see the image of the Outer Limits Galaxy (NGC 891, Caldwell 23) taken from IUB roof on 25 Nov 2023. It is a 10th magnitude galaxy located almost 27 Mly (mega/million light year) away from us in the constellation of Andromeda. The edge-on view of the thin disk of this spiral galaxy would have mesmerized the physician-astronome (not astronomer but astronome) Mesmer himself.