:: Marine Parade Astronomical Society ::

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Lyrids Star Party 2008 (12-13th April 2008)

The Lyrids (also known as Alpha Lyrids or April Lyrids), is a prominent meteor shower lasting from April 15 to April 28 every year. Lyrids star party, an annual event organised by MPAstro in celebration of the meteor shower, is open to all students interested in finding out about the wonders of cosmos.

The first part of Lyrids star party was held in Republic Polytechnic. Our lecturer, Mr Y.K.Chia from Singastro, had taken his time off to give us a talk on his expertise, Near Earth Events – Satellites and Meteors. The talk was highly informational, and many wowed at his superb pictures on planes, satellites, meteors, and even sprites rarely seen in Singapore.

The students then had a change of air when they were led to the field nearby for our exciting game! They all had a good time finding their way out of the maze while being blindfolded, and we station masters enjoyed ourselves taking pictures as well! Our winning team, surprisingly, was a group of very young participants from Temasek secondary school.

After the game, everyone cooled down and had their refreshments while the movie “Contact” was screened. The movie was based on a novel written by Carl Sargan, the late president of the Planetary Society, and an activist in popularising astronomy to the public. With its interesting storyline, we were sure many would be greatly inspired after watching the movie.
At around 7pm, everyone was transported to East Coast Park, where we would be having our grand treasure hunt and overnight stargazing session. While the participants settled down and had their dinner at McDonalds, the organisers were ensuring all stations for the treasure hunt were in order.

At 11pm, our highly anticipated hunt began! Everyone was split into groups, and each groups were supposed to find the various stations scattered everywhere in East Coast Park based on the clues given, while having to solve the riddles on the way as well. It was tiring yet so much fun, and as everyone reached the last station, which was the campsite itself, we had a good time marking and commenting on the creative answers for the tricky riddles!

The night went on when everyone broke off into smaller groups to enjoy the beauty of the cosmos through various telescopes from MPAstro, the participating schools’, and the astronomers from Singastro. We sighted a lot of celestial objects, including Jupiter, Saturn, Orion nebula, Ring nebula, Lagoon nebula, Butterfly cluster, Ptolemy’s cluster, Beehive and Little Beehive cluster, Southern Pleiades, Christmas Tree cluster, Stargate cluster, globular clusters M4 M10 M12 M22 and Omega Centauri, among others. All in all, despite the momentarily cloudy skies, everyone from the amateurs to the veterans enjoyed East Coast’s southern sky to the fullest.

As the sun rose the next morning, we went back home, feeling fulfilled with all the astronomical objects we had seen, gave ourselves a good sleep, and prepared for our next overnight astro quest!

posted at 9:43 PM

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Admiral Garden CC Astronomy Exhibition - PM Lee visit on 6th April 2008

Reported by Anne =)

As a part of a larger exhibition organised by Admiral Garden Community Centre in conjunction with Racial Harmony day, Admiral Garden Astronomy Club, a newly establish astronomical society affiliated with Marine Parade CC YEC Astronomical Society, made its first appearance with its own exhibition. Featuring 5 talks and posters on 6 different astronomical topics, the event has managed to gained its popularity with the local community.

The day started off as our ushers enthusiastically ran around introducing the public, from the very young to the very old, to our poster panels. The posters featured were on Solar system, Celestial events, Deep sky objects, Local activities, Astro bites, and Snapshots from previous events. With our tourguides leading the audience around the posters, everyone got in touch with some basic ideas of astronomy in an easy and simple manner.

As the event went on, our lecturers came into action! The talks of the day included A history of time, The Universe, Life out there, An introduction to astronomy, and Basic astrophotography. A lot of people, especially young children, were fascinated by the various wonderful sights, be in on Mars, somewhere else in the solar system, or in the deep space of the Universe.

With PM Lee’s visit to the exhibition and signature on Mr Albert Lim’s photo of the Milky Way, astronomy has made another milestone in Singapore. We hope to see more and more people being attracted so that this interest can be brought to a new level.

posted at 10:06 PM

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Organized by Marine Parade CC YEC Astronomical Society

Supported by Marine Parade CC YEC

Earth Hour is a global movement that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour from 8-9pm local time on 29th march to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions. During this period of time, light pollution is reduced, and the urban population will get a chance to appreciate the night sky’s beauty. In Singapore, there are several events organized to support this movement, and our 60 Earth Hour Star Party is one of them.

Pic below: briefing time!

The event started off with a video on Climate Change at Marine Parade Community Centre, then moving on to a talk about Earth Hour and Energy Conservation, and lastly two documentaries on Stars, and Pulsars and Other Odd Bodies. The activities were not only enjoyable for the public but also immensely educational. Through this, adults, teenagers and even children had an opportunity to open their eyes to the wonders of astronomy, and were prompted to explore more through the observation session later.

Pic below: Setting up phrase...

Pic below: explain to the public (Anne caught in action!)

Pic below: Alot of curious public enquire about the posters... (Vanessa caught in action!)

At around 7pm, our exhibition in East Coast Park area D1 was set up as well. The exhibition consists of 16 posters on various topics, including the different schools’ astronomy clubs, astronomy-related topics, and energy conservation. As the pedestrians walked by, they would get a tour through our whole exhibition, and then catch a glimpse of the stunning celestial sights. As members of Singastro came to support us, the number of telescopes greatly increased, and the public was astounded with the beauty of the ringed planet Saturn, the elusive Orion nebula, or sparkling Beehive cluster. For some, it would be their first time viewing these celestial objects through a telescope, and from there we hope they would continue their newly discovered interest while influencing others as well.
All in all, albeit the uncooperative weather towards the end of the star party, the event was a success, and each and everyone of us that participated in the event, either as helper or audience, managed to have a great time! As we embark on our future events, we hope that the public have brought home some valuable experience, and continue to give us their support in the future.

Pic Below: The 1/2 family photo, some not in here are vanessa, hannah, kafoo and jink.

Stay tuned for Earth Hour Star Party 2009!

posted at 12:02 AM