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: durbin.cassa@iub.edu.bd — 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. 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.
  2. Chayatol students holding up their Sun and eclipse drawings with a Durbin instructor at the close of the outreach session. The Sky Comes to Chayatol A small Durbin team spent a day at Chayatol school introducing children to the universe — a cosmic zoom-out video, astrophotography captured from Bangladesh, an acted-out eclipse, and a sky-drawing activity that had imaginations running wild.
  3. Durbin volunteers and the students of Nagarbari Maritime School and College gathered around a telescope for a group photo. Astronomy Outreach Program Held in Pabna A Durbin team brought a half-day astronomy program to 50 students at Nagarbari Maritime School and College in riverside Pabna — telescope sessions, Stellarium, the Scale of the Universe, and hands-on activities — held alongside Durbin's first imaging camp in Northern Bangladesh.

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