Outreach · Durbin

Durbin

দূরবিন — দূর বিশ্বের নাগরিক · Citizens of a distant universe. CASSA's volunteer programme for astrophotography and science communication.

About Durbin

Astronomy that brings people closer

Durbin — Bangla for binoculars or a telescope — is CASSA's outreach programme dedicated to astrophotography and science communication, powered by a cohort of student volunteers from across Bangladesh. Our mission is to introduce the wonders of the universe to the public, using astronomy as a tool to bridge societal gaps. By situating Earth within the vastness of the cosmos and making distant galaxies familiar, we foster a sense of universal fraternity — transcending the boundaries of language, nation, religion, gender, and class.

The programme was founded on 9 March 2023 by Dr. Lamiya Mowla, with initial support from the University of Toronto's Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics. That partnership brought two Unistellar small telescopes to IUB, establishing a permanent hub for astronomy outreach in the region. From May 2026 Durbin is supported by a British Council Bangladesh grant through Women of the World.

Contact: [email protected] — Farzana Akter Lima, Project Manager

Explore Durbin

Where to go next

Astrophotography Deep-sky objects imaged by Durbin volunteers — galaxies, nebulae, clusters, comets and planets. Open
Updates Dispatches from the programme — workshops, school visits, public astronomy nights and open calls. Open
Volunteers The students from across Bangladesh who power CASSA's astronomy outreach. Open
The Durbin Manual How the programme is run — governance, the volunteer model, and safeguarding. Open

From the sky

The standouts

A selection of the most striking deep-sky images captured through Durbin's telescopes. See the full gallery →

Jupiter and its Galilean moons Jupiter Needle Galaxy Needle Galaxy Phantom galaxy Phantom galaxy Horsehead & Flame Nebula Horsehead Nebula Sombrero Galaxy Sombrero Galaxy Whirlpool galaxy Whirlpool galaxy

All Durbin images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.

Latest from Durbin

Updates

  1. Participants and Durbin volunteers gathered on the TSC lawn at night, several holding framed astrophotographs, with a telescope at the left of the frame. Even Without Stars, the Sky Had Stories to Tell On 14 July, Durbin carried telescopes to the TSC grounds of the University of Dhaka for the first evening of Asman Jominer Golpo, in partnership with Bhoirobee. Clouds hid every star — so the evening belonged to photographs, memories and the people who told them.
  2. Participants of the BDOAA Women's Astronomy Olympiad Preparation Camp standing with an instructor in front of a whiteboard covered in blackbody and spectral energy distribution notes. Two Days, One Sky: Inside the BDOAA Women's Astronomy Olympiad Prep Camp On 10–11 July, CASSA at Independent University, Bangladesh hosted a free two-day camp run jointly by BDOAA and Durbin, introducing girls in Classes 6 to 10 to observational and theoretical astronomy — from hands-on skymaps to photometry.
  3. Workshop participants seated at round tables folding paper into zines during Astrophotography Meets Zine Making. When Astrophotography Met Zine Making A two-day workshop under the Durbin WOW project, in collaboration with HerStory Foundation and Dhaka Zine Mela, brought science, art, and storytelling together — folding paper into zines on Day 1 and turning them into digital booklets on Day 2.

All Durbin updates →

Beyond Durbin

Part of CASSA's wider outreach

Durbin is one strand of CASSA's public outreach, which also runs the Bangladesh Olympiad on Astronomy & Astrophysics and a Bengali-language popular-astronomy writing programme — including Durbin's own series, দূরের কথা.

Outreach overview দূরের কথা Durbin on Facebook ↗ Email Durbin