Muslim and out of his mind.
Or perhaps sharing his mind and soul with Allah, the Moon god. Demonic religion means bad juju.
A toboggan?
That’s gotta be a typo.
Otherwise - the professor of astronomy is described as somebody who is prepping for a little bit of night sky observation.
He’s dressed warm because it is cold out and the skies are very clear in the winter time, and the lights are low because he doesn’t want to blow his night vision. Some people wear red glasses or goggles so that when they step outside at night they still have a better sense of night vision then do those who go in from a lighted room.
If it was indeed a toboggan perhaps he was using it to transfer his telescope out to a site nearby and set it up so it could become acclimatize to the outside temperatures.
I don’t see that this is anything other than that.