“You spend so many nights alone in remote places. Have you ever seen a ghost?”

This is a question I have been asked many times.

I do a lot of astrophotography and spend countless nights outdoors with my telescope, often sitting alone under the stars. Sometimes I am in a remote location where there is hardly anyone around. There may be nothing but darkness and silence, with the occasional sound of dogs barking in the distance. And sometimes, there isn’t even that—you hear absolutely nothing.

So I understand why people ask.

We naturally associate dark, silent and lonely nights with ghosts and the supernatural. To many people, the thought of someone sitting alone in the middle of nowhere at night sounds like the perfect setting for a ghost story.

But I am a student of science, and I don’t believe in ghosts.

And thankfully, none of my countless nights under the stars has ever given me a reason to change my mind.

However, there is one incident I remember that I would like to share.

At the time, I had an observatory on the outskirts of Mumbai, approximately 70 kilometres from the city. One night, I decided to visit the observatory to photograph the Orion Nebula. One of my friends decided to accompany me.

We reached the observatory, ate the theplas we had brought with us, and made ourselves some hot, refreshing tea.

After dinner, I powered up my setup and pointed my telescope towards the beautiful Orion Nebula. I started the imaging sequence, and everything was going smoothly. My friend also began his own imaging session.

I was very tired, so I decided to sleep while my camera continued capturing the nebula. Within minutes, I had fallen asleep.

My friend, meanwhile, was simply chilling while his own imaging session continued.

Then, suddenly, nature called.

He had to use the washroom.

The washroom was about 100 metres away from the observatory. He opened the door and stepped outside.

And that’s when he saw it.

Standing in the darkness was an eerily appearing figure dressed in white. Its clothes were gently blowing in the wind.

My friend froze.

Fear took over instantly. He decided there was absolutely no way he was going to the washroom. He quickly shut the door of the observatory, retreated into a corner, and stayed there.

But as the hours passed, his urge to use the washroom became harder and harder to ignore.

His fear, however, was stronger.

He didn’t wake me up because I had already told him that I was exhausted and desperately needed some sleep.

So he sat there, trying to figure out what to do.

Then he came up with a plan.

He started playing a devotional chant of “Om Namah Shivaya”, hoping that it would scare the ghost away.

Perhaps he also hoped that the chanting would wake me up.

Neither happened.

Every now and then, he gathered enough courage to look through the window.

And every single time, he saw the same figure standing exactly where he had first seen it.

The night seemed endless.

He struggled to control himself throughout the night, refusing to step outside.

Eventually, the darkness began to fade.

The first light of dawn appeared.

Now, with enough daylight, he finally dared to look outside properly.

And there it was.

The mysterious white figure.

Except now he could clearly see what it really was.

It wasn’t a ghost.

It wasn’t a person.

It wasn’t anything supernatural.

It was simply a piece of white cloth tied to a structure to protect a small farmland.

My friend couldn’t believe what he had been so terrified of all night.

He cursed himself for being such a fool and, finally, went outside to relieve himself.

The so-called ghost had existed only because of his fear.

His mind had taken a vague shape in the darkness, dressed it in white, and transformed an ordinary piece of cloth into something supernatural.

And that’s the fascinating thing about fear.

When we don’t understand what we are seeing, our mind doesn’t always wait for an explanation. It creates one.

So, no, this wasn’t an actual ghost encounter.

But it was an incident that taught me something far more interesting:Fear doesn’t always need a ghost. Sometimes, all it needs is darkness, uncertainty, and our own imagination.