The Society

About us

The Chitral Astronomical Society is a volunteer group of amateur astronomers, physics teachers, mountain guides, and dark-sky advocates based in Chitral, Pakistan. We meet on moonless weekends, run public star parties in schools and villages, and record the night sky over one of South Asia's last Bortle 1 regions.

The society is unaffiliated with any government body and receives no external funding. Our work is documented openly on this site — the Tonight dashboard, encyclopedia, and dark-sky atlas are all built by members for public use.

Members

~40 active observers across Chitral, Garam Chashma, and Booni.

Base

Chitral town · 35.85° N 71.79° E · elevation 1,500 m.

Member astrophotography

From our dark skies

Faisal Karim

Milky Way over Shandur

2025-07-24 · Shandur Pass, 3,738 m

Rig
Sony α7 III · Samyang 14mm f/2.8 · 20s × 12 stacked
Conditions
Bortle 1 · SQM 21.9 · seeing III/V · 4 °C, calm
Aiman Shah

Waxing crescent over Tirich Mir

2025-09-02 · Reshun ridge, 2,300 m

Rig
Canon R6 · RF 100–500 at 400mm · 1/250 f/7.1 ISO 400
Conditions
Transparency 8/10 · seeing II/V · light wind
Waqas Ahmed

Andromeda from Broghil

2025-10-11 · Karambar Lake, Broghil, 3,700 m

Rig
ZWO ASI2600MC · Redcat 51 · 60 × 120s, dual-band
Conditions
Bortle 1 · SQM 22.0 · moonless · –2 °C
Sara Nawaz

Orion rising above the springs

2025-12-04 · Garam Chashma, 1,859 m

Rig
Nikon Z6 · Sigma 35mm f/1.4 · 15s × 8
Conditions
Bortle 2 · SQM 21.4 · faint high cloud
Members: submit your images with EXIF and conditions to chitralianzubair@gmail.com. Please include the site, equipment, exposure stack, and a one-line note on transparency and seeing.

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