NETWORK FOR OUTREACH & VOCATION IN ASTRONOMY
Nayyar's Bio
Meet the Chief Operating Officer!
I'm a student studying Physics & Astrophysics in the UK and have loved space for as long as I can remember. The fascination started with stars. There were a few scattered faint spots in the sky every night that I could see from London, and nothing more than that due to light pollution, and one day I asked myself, "Are there more of them out there?". That is when I first tried to take a photo of them using my phone and laying it down on the floor facing up, with a timer shooting for a few seconds, and the results instantly captivated me. I saw hundreds, maybe thousands of stars all beaming light down at me, but they were too faint to see with my eyes past the brightness of all the lights; nevertheless, they were there, and they were beautiful. This started my journey at around the age of 15 into what is known as astrophotography, a skill and hobby which I slowly refined from the basic level all the way up to the intermediate level where I sit today! It was one of the main reasons I decided to pursue a career in space, but there are so many different paths; I had no idea what to choose. I always wanted to do something that would allow me to look at those same stars, observing them every night and doing some sort of science, but I was too young to really know what I wanted.
As I got to my GCSEs, I had to start learning physics on my own, as the school curriculum was not made well and did not give a good understanding of physics, and the more I learned, the more excited I became. I knew my school offered a Physics course at A-Level that included an astrophysics module, so that was my goal and my first step to developing my career in space.
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It was during this period that I got my first DSLR, an old Nikon D50, but I was over the moon! I had always wanted to own my own digital camera after using the one my dad owned, and when I got it, my first night was spent trying to capture the stars. The expectations I had were out of this world, but real life caught up with me, and I realised that there was a lot I needed to learn, as my first images were noisy, out of focus, and overall not the best; however, it was my first taste at astrophotograph,y and I was so excited. As I kept taking photos and doing research, I eventually found out that my camera was far too old to really do anything more with, so I had to upgrade, and my choice was a D5500, a 10-year-old camera which I still use to this day!​
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​Along with the camera, I saved up some money from leaflet distribution to buy my very first "astro" lens, a Samyang 135mm! This really catapulted my love for astronomy as it opened up so many doors, along with my camera, to produce some of the best pictures I had taken at the age of 17. This helped me to solidify my choice for a degree, which would be Physics and Astrophysics, and that is the goal I pursued alongside my hobby, working hard to make my dream a reality and that is the goal I achieved at the end of my A-Levels!
At the beginning of my university journey, I had slightly fallen out of love with astrophotography as no matter how much I tried, my images never looked like the ones I saw online. I knew I needed to get a star tracker as my tripod did not work well enough to achieve what I wanted, so I bit the bullet and used some of the money to purchase one, and it was at this point that my passion really exploded. From that point on, I produced some of the best images of my life, and I was so happy, as this is what I always wanted.
During this journey, near the end of my first year at University I became part of NOVA. I started off as a Graphics Designer, designing the various logos, banners and promotional material reflecting our brand on social media posts that are seen! Graphic design is one of the niche skills I picked up early in my life, when I wanted to be a YouTuber and make my own thumbnails, logos and banners for my channel. Rather than paying someone to design my dreams, I decided to do it myself and this passion stuck with me and evolved into other parts of my life, including my education. As I developed within NOVA, my passion grew, and so did my drive to make this project a reality, and over the course of time and working with my amazing team, I joined the management side of things to help push this project in the direction that we as a team wanted, and to allow myself to grow in part of the space sector and apply my skills to real world uses, and it has been one of the best decisions I have made.
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Of course, this isn't the whole story. I have failed countless times, I have never been successful the first time with any of my work or hobbies, and there always seems to be something that goes wrong, but with each obstacle, I learn and push through to ensure that I can get something out of all the work I put in. Nothing I have done has always gone to plan, my current University wasn't my dream one, and I never even expected to come here, yet everyday I am so grateful that life took the turn that it did, and that I ended up coming to Sheffield, as it has been the best experience of my life and opened up so many opportunities that I don't think I would have ever had anywhere else.
As of writing this, I am in my second year of university, and I want to help others explore their interests in hobbies, giving people the push they need to pursue their dreams and make their passions into a reality, and through NOVA, I hope to achieve this goal and spark the same curiosity and passion that I saw in myself a few years ago to those all around the world, who just don't feel as confident as they should or aren't sure of what they want to, and spread the love for science and astronomy to everyone! You don't need perfect grades or to be the best at everything you do; all you need is your passion, commitment and love for something, and the results will come out as long as you enjoy what you do.