Marine Parade CC Astronomy Club

2009-07-13T01:23:00.007+08:00

AstrOrdinary Camp at Pulau Ubin

20th - 21st June 2009

Report by Siu Yung

We met for lunch at the Changi Village Food Centre and took the bumboat ride over to Pulau Ubin. Clouds were rolling in and it seemed like bad weather was heading our way. We loaded our equipment onto a hired van and the 3 of us whom didn’t know how to cycle boarded the van to head to our campsite while the rest rented bikes for transported. All was well till we were near the campsite. It so happens that a dead tree had fallen across the only path heading to our destination.

There was no way that the fallen trunk could be cleared in time therefore we decided to unload everything and carry them to the actual campsite. We were lucky it was a 15 min walk to our ob site or the weight of all the bottled water would have broke my back.

We set up the tent and laid our groundsheet once we had all our stuff over to the campsite.

The clouds came in passing while our cyclists went exploring round the island.

At one point the thunder and lightning near the western horizon seemed to be heading our way but it headed towards Singapore mainland instead. (We found that it rained over at the mainland after the trip. Lucky us I guess.) Tried to do some solar observing but the Sun was blemish free on that day like most of the past year. We managed to catch some crepuscular rays though thanks to the thunder clouds.

As evening approached the clouds seemed to be gone for the most part with some passing clouds. We started off our overnight stargazing with Saturn. The clouds kept interfering with our view of the ringed planet but it was still nice to sneak a few peeks. I decided to take a look at gamma Leo, a nice looking pair of yellow stars. Jewel box was not particularly fantastic due to the skyglow over Singapore mainland over our southern horizon and some passing clouds. The view at omega centauri was also affected similarly. The view over the north was much better. Mizar and Alcor was a pleasant sight as always. We took a quick view at Rigil Kentaurus as well. As the night passed, we looked at M13, M4, M6, M7 and NGC6231. The open clusters were lovely sights with good contrasts under the darker sky. M13 was prominent and appear resolved to the centre. The Ring Nebula was nice and good through the OIII filter but the lagoon nebula was spectacular particularly through the OIII which resembled some of the short exposure photos. Albeiro did not fail to impress with its nice contrasting blue and gold. We could make out most of the constellations in the sky that are usually not visible or incomplete on mainland. Libra, Sagitta, Delphinus, Corona Borealis and part of Draco are some of the hardly visible ones on mainland that we had seen on Ubin. The Coathanger was great as you could easily see how it got its name and no explanation is needed. Jupiter rose at around midnight with its Galilean moons but only 3 was visible as Europa was in transit. The north and south equatorial belts made a pleasing sight through the telescope. Close to 3am, Europa showed itself as it ended its transit across Jupiter. IC4665 in Ophiuchus looked sort of plain in the telescope. We could see the entire constellation of Pegasus and Andromeda as well as Cepheus and Cassiopeia as the night passed. Even Capricornus and Aquarius was visible. The Andromeda galaxy showed its familiar oblong disk shape in the telescope instead of just the core that we normally see under mainland skies. I fell asleep for about half an hour and when I awoke I was greeted to the sight of a manmade satellite making its way across the southeastern sky. Through the night I managed to catch sight of 2 meteors that were not particularly bright. As the morning twilight approached, the dazzling Venus rose in the eastern sky along with Mars to its left. The slightly more than quarter gibbous phase of Venus was clearly visible in the telescope while Mars was unremarkable as a small orange-red disk. As it got closer to sunrise, I was pleasantly greeted by the Moon with its razor thin crescent while the rest of the moon was lit up by earthshine clearly visible to the naked eye. It made a wonderful view through the telescope. As the Sun rose we had breakfast and packed our equipment to head home. It was a good trip as we seldom get clear local skies while getting to see so many different objects. Hope to more people joining us on our future trips to share the great celestial sights.

Clear Skies Always!

2008-11-08T23:20:00.003+08:00

AstrOrdinary Camp @ Pulau Ubin

31st October to 2nd November 2008

by Ka Foo

PART 2

The rain did not stopped until 9am on the second day just when one of us decided to pull out. Due to the fact that we do not possess any form of transportation, we are forced to move on foot out to town to rent bikes for further use. After escorting Maziyah to the jetty, we had our lunch at one Ubin restaurant. During the trip back, we received the news that Mooey has been mobilized and has to leave the camp, thus, after we reach the campsite, we have to move out again.

The rest of the day has been uneventful save for the occasional fight between a cock and a wild boar and a few visitors to our campsite trying to ask if there is any path further. The state land sign has been useful in these regards as most of the visitors turn around and go back despite the supposed path drawn on the map.

Another thing to note is that a cat has been wandering around the campsite, which proves to be the best mate I had in this period of total isolation. The guard duty is actually fun with all the experiments that I can do with fire. The chunky meal I had later in the day was great and the night is actually comforting to sleep in.

Later that night, although I could not remember much, Harry arrived and bought us some meal. The rest is just a blur, but only remembering vaguely that Harry and myself slept in the same tent the next morning, with Jinpeng’s scope full of dew.

The third day is just packing up while going to the Changi jetty to meet Mooey again, in which we went all the way back to Admiralty Gardens Community Center and did all sort of off the record activity. Well, I think that’s all for the report, happy to write another one next time.

2008-11-04T00:25:00.004+08:00

AstrOrdinary Camp @ Pulau Ubin
31st October to 2nd November 2008
by Ka Foo

PART 1

In Singapore, we struggle to count stars; In Ubin, we counted meteor like nobodies’ else’s business. Such were the conditions in our beloved observation site in Pulau Ubin. In order to have undisturbed observation sessions, experienced astronomers would normally opt for a night stay in a discreet location in Pulau Ubin, far from any activity that is considered human.

In order to save valuable time, we waited until late in order to go into action as soon as we hit the beautiful little island located in the North-East of Singapore. The boat ride towards the Island has been uneventful, with a Earth-shined crescent moon hanging lazily over the horizon. With little clouds, we expected a night without worry despite the weather forecast, which hinted that we are in for a night.

Cramming our chartered van full of necessary and vital equipment, we began our long and dark journey towards our campsite. The two girls, Maziyah and Elaine were eager to reach their campsite as the scenery has proved to be unsettling. It was eerily dark out there, with ebony silhouette outlining the featureless vegetation. Their first time in Ubin is to experience the shadow of the night, which many will turn in the face of it. We felt a sudden chill as we pass by the cemetery on the slope towards our campsite, maybe perhaps it is due to the turbo-charged air-conditioned unit or maybe it is just us, alone in no man’s land.

Our campsite is surprisingly peaceful compared to the rough dirt path we are force to go through. Everything was the same when we last leave Ubin. The canal, the tree we hang our trash bag, and most importantly, the sign which the meaning that we choose not to comprehend and even to the point of oblivion when other stop at such atrocity. With the tent up in no time, we quickly settle our equipment where a Ka Foo started the campfire. Thanks to the dry wood and the relative abundance of kindling, the fire was up with a gentle glow of embers when it relaxed.

Andromeda galaxy is clear without obstruction that day and the sheer beauty of such wonder that exist marvelled us outside our milky ways. Pleiades and Hades appeared like a pair of giant clusters appearing to be clouds at first glance. The double cluster between Cassiopeia and Perseus is also a delight to see. We waited for the Great Orion to wake up to reveal his full might and glory, with his shield and his club. The Shepherd of Anu, The Great Destroyer, such names do not matter when we are in awe by such a sight. One could not loosen Orion’s belt but one can have a better view using a relatively small scope.

Meteors are frequent that night, with a record number of nine spotted by one of the girls. We lay on the ground mat that we brought with and enjoyed the night sky, counting meteors. We lost track of time and space but I think I retired early with one of the girls that night. I was in a complete oblivion until the storm comes.

The storm has been harsh and fast. The roar of the thunder is loud as it is deafening. We cower in our little tent with nearly everything waterproofed. I slept through, not knowing what is it to feel.

To be continued...

See Camp photos @ 2008 Gallery under Photo section.

2008-09-05T04:02:00.002+08:00

GET-TOGETHER STAR PARTY – SENTOSA 29-30 AUGUST 2008
Report From Anne!

Whenever one thinks of southern sky in Singapore, the first thing that comes to mind would be the oh-so-familiar East Coast Park. Yes, it is accessible, and countless star parties have been done there, but this time, we opted for Palawan beach, Sentosa for a refreshing south western sky.
Despite the pain of lugging all the equipments to the ob site (surely, it wasn’t ECP after all), we arrived there safe and sound at 7pm, in time to set up all the equipments and tents and pick up whoever that came their on their own and couldn’t find the way. Unique an ob site indeed, because there were these two tall towers by the beach, and a wooden platform in between. Saved us the hassle of setting up tents on the sand, and were it to rain we would have been considerably drier. Not that any of us wished for that to happen. That the sky wasn’t clear at all when we finished setting up stuff wasn’t quite pleasant, and people started going off to random places, cluttering in groups playing cards and boardgames and random chattings.
The totally covered from horizon to zenith sky miraculously cleared up at around 10pm, revealing the most sought after patch of sky – the celestial beacons in Scorpius and Sagittarius. Scope after scope made quick visits to the familiar yet no less stunning Lagoon nebula, Butterfly cluster M6, Ptolemy’s cluster M7, Baby Scorpius NGC 6231, M16 or M17, and so on. Globular fanatics were equally ecstatic with Ophiuchus’ M10 and M12, or Scorpius’ M4, Sagittarius’ M22, M28 and M54, or elusive ones like NGC 6541 and 6441.
After the hype with Sagittarius, southern sky didn’t have much to offer though, as all the constellations harbor mostly galaxies. Interestingly, we managed to catch the second brightest globular cluster on the sky, 47 Tucanae (aka NGC 104) and another VERY tiny one nearby, NGC 362, both in the Small Magellanic Cloud. It’s worth noting their close distance to the horizon, and them being globulars certainly made the observation more worthwhile.
Getting to the overhead bridge connecting the two towers’ 3rd stories, we turned our lenses and mirrors towards Andromeda galaxies M31, the brightest galaxy in the Northern hemisphere. Double cluster and M76 in Perseus also came to mind, but it deemed impossible with the passing clouds and light pollution towards the North. Same ol’ Pleiades was also revisited, posing as lovely as usual!
A quick spin at the end of the night before the sun rose revealed some not so frequently visited objects in the Milky Way region around Argo Navis. Just wander around the Milky Way band and the sky always had something stunning to offer! We chanced upon lovely open clusters: Carina’s NGC 2516, Puppis’ NGC 2451, and Vela’s IC 2391, among many others.
The night was rewarding indeed, with countless celestial objects and more lessons learnt. As monsoon season is coming, we hope that our next overnight ob will be as pleasant as this (:

2008-09-05T00:21:00.003+08:00

Get Together Star Party on 29 Aug @ Palawan Beach, Sentosa!
Report from Jin Peng - an informal post, typing with a sleepy mood...
Finally after so long, we get together again to star gaze! This time, I choose a totally different place to star gaze - Sentosa! Is good to see many new faces and get to see my friends again to stay up whole night and see the stars, interact and catch up with one another...

So the journey start from Admiral garden cc, i order the bus and suppose to meet at 6pm... But ended up the bus leave at 6:30pm lar... cos of some people missing, especially the bus driver! And to be even more kiasu in case all got no drinks for the night, i carry 2 carton of mineral waters on board!
Then we stop by at harbour front bus stop to fetch my juniors from republic poly astro club plus some bukit panjang govt. high astro people. And the first complain i want to make... is at the entrance of Sentosa there is ALOT of mosquitoes! The moment i step out of the bus and help purchase tickets for everyone, i kena attack already~ More delays - the bus uncle actually dont know how to drive to palawan beach, so i got to guide him... and finally reach the destination - off by 1 hour!We reach at 8pm.

Then we head straight to the twin tower in palawan beach, and we got to cross the bridge! The girls like making the woo-ha la... woo! our first adventure! Many people actually find it cool lar... lucky no one drop eyepieces of telescope into the sea :x

So we conquer one of the tower! The sky is very cloudy, so we decided to pitch our tents and have some indoor games...

so we start off with the Twister! (and this round i win the game...woohoo~

**(some pictures are censor due to the nature of the game)**

...this is the only decent photo >.<

Then some of the guys want to play RISK. and other group went to play beach ball, own group poker cards games and stuff... while the sky still cloudy!

At about 1am, finally the sky started clearing and more stars appear... so our search for deep skies object begins here... At the bottom of the tower, you have this balcony where u can lie down and gaze the stars... and the telescope can be set up behind on the concrete platform.

And I manage to see catch sagittarius before it set... and many other nice autumn constellations and star clusters, M31 galaxy in andromeda, hx clusters in cassiopeia and more... then at around 4am, Orion is high enough, and we get to see other winter constellations like canis major... Then at around 5am, the clouds came in again without mercy, soon all stars are hidden beneath the clouds...

So we went back to the tower, most of us are asleep, cannot tahan already, but a few of us and my juniors still awake! So we play poker cards to keep us awake till sun rise!

So at 730am, we started to wake everyone up for morning group photo-taking. It is very draggy to wake some piggy people, need to kick them then wake up lah! Got one even drool... I wonder what he is dreaming la - .-

So Here I am, trying to gather people... many of them are sleeping walking beings...

And need to get them position~

And finally... all smile on camera! The 2008 new generation of astronomers!

next, we head to the nearby food court... and we reach too early, 8am - the foodcourt open at 830am. So we stone outside... and doing alot of crazy stuff...

1. First crazy act spotted - taking photos of people sleeping... professionally~

2. Crazy act by Chris - May I know what is HE doing in the photo?? - weird post...

3. Crazy Anne - folding paper crane and put on the pond - like the feeling of the crane being drown into the water.... - sadist -. -

4. The photographer spotted man in green snapping... LOOK, i'm not the only one... the girl behind also snapping photos lor...

Finally, the food court open and we are the first few customers! All flood in and enjoy the air con,feel like sleeping lah... So after walking around enjoy the air con, then we buy the breakfast set! Yump!

This guy eat TOO FAST, eat the whole bread at one bite - .-

Our dear kafoo... put too much dark sauce on the egg... it look so black and sweet?

This is my breakfast set, as you can see I eat up all the eggs and bread, BUT never drink the coffee... how come ar? Because the Coffee too black le... I give the wrong order...- "Kopi O dont so black" - in the end Aunty give super concentrated, is undrinkable lah! waste my drink... Can die from caffeine if I drink few more slips..

So after the breakfast, we all went back to the tower, pack up and board the bus... not to mention, we have too many left over mineral water, next time I shall not be too kiasu sia... end up i need to bring everything back - cant bare to waste them. So thats all! Look forward for the next gathering!

We will be back to Sentosa next year!

2008-05-01T13:47:00.001+08:00

Marine Parade CC Astronomy Exhibition - SM Goh Visit on 26th April 2008

The exhibition, with the purpose of giving the audience a brief look on the different enriching astronomy – related topics, was the largest exhibition we’ve held so far with over 20 posters that we worked days and nights on. Apart from the exhibition, a solar observation station was also set up on the rooftop with 2 refractors all ready for the public to view through. It is unfortunately the beginning of a new solar cycle, thus not much feature can be seen on the sun’s surface. However, looking at the sun through the scope and catching a glimpse of the prominences once in a while were more than mere fascination!

The highlight of the day was when SM Goh Chok Tong paid a visit to our booth. He was given a tour around the astronomy posters, and even went to the rooftop for solar observation.

We were sure that SM Goh, just as anyone else would, enjoyed the experience thoroughly. With this, we’ve taken another step forward, getting nearer to our goal of popularising astronomy to the whole Singapore community!

2008-04-23T21:43:00.015+08:00

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!

2008-04-22T22:06:00.003+08:00

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.

Earth Hour Star Party

2008-04-03T00:02:00.009+08:00

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!

2008-02-27T22:03:00.005+08:00

23/2/2008 Public Star gazing report - Let the picture do the talking! All pictures are not in chronological order...

Special thanks to Marine Parade CC YEC for their support and Singastro people who came with their telescopes!

AND all MPASTRO ppl who came and help =D

2008-01-26T02:17:00.000+08:00

ASTROGAZER NIGHT Event Report by Jin Peng
Organized by Woodlands Zone 11 Resident Committee

Report from the yesterday gathering on the 25th January 2008. An event organized by Woodlands Zone 11 Resident Committee, Ridhwan. Few of us came to help out... Ngee Ann Astro peeps(yubin, nick and 2 guys), Ah heng from Republic Poly, me… ,Carole and a young boy with its own scope =x

Picture below: Clear Sky during evening 6pm outside my window!

Meet ah heng at my house bus stop at around 645pm to help me with my laptop and some stuff to carry, while bagging the 5inch refractor. We slowly make our way there, my block is like a few blocks away from the RCs. So when we reach, is still very early, 7pm. So we meet Ridhwan and have a chit chat. He show us the fitness corner which he intend to hold the telescope viewing. But it was brightly lited with the street lamp….

So decided to cross the road and go to my usual observation place, a big piece of field with totally no obstruction in the east, u can get around 160 degree view of the sky. The west is block with HDB. It is directly opposite of the fitness corner...

Carole came around 740pm with a boy with its own Celestron Newtonian…

Picture Below: Interaction with the residents, There are 3 scope for viewing!

Around 8pm, public started to come and ngee ann astro peeps arrived. The mingle session with the public is good and many children are excited about peeping through the telescope. The objects that the public look through the scope – Pleiades, Mars, Orion Nebula, Hyades, M41 and the children love looking at Sirius. It look like a diamond to them… Ridhwan also provide us with food and drinks, thanks a lot Ridhwan! Yummy Chicken burger and cooling syrup drinks.

By the time around 930pm, most of the public went home. Left with a few youths mingle around and chit chat. It was already close to 1030pm, the ngee ann peeps and carole and the boy pack up and head home… I, ah heng and Ridhwan thinking to stay longer to ob abit more… So we see the moon, and we were like busy taking pictures of it using the scope. Before the moon rise higher, I clear NGC 2362 and M35.

Since there was nothing much for us to do, we settle down and chit chat. It was roughly 1plus before we pack and go, we clear the southern Pleiades and Jewel Box. The only time u get to see 3 cross, the false cross, the southern cross and in between, and imaginary cross that the southern Pleiades is located. So 3 “cross” , not bad! And we also spotted a fireball in the south, across the crux. “The sky is falling!” Overall the skies is clear, other then a little light pollution from the street lights and the moon…

Is a successful event, thanks to Ridhwan for organising it. Enjoy alot =D

2008-01-20T23:24:00.000+08:00

To all astronomers, wish you a...

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

2007-12-21T22:14:00.000+08:00

Geminids Immersion Camp 2007 Observation Report
Report by Mooey~
Photographer: Jin Peng

(Photo below: On the boat ride to ubin)
Came back from ubin 2 days ago. Barely had time to write an observation report for the trip. Seem like a bad period to go ubin, considering it’s monsoon and weather refuse to clear up prior to the trip. Many have backed out from the trip due to fears of bad weather. Nothing venture, nothing gain, we went against all odds and made our way to ubin. 5 of us went, jin peng, teck lim, ah heng and ming wei. (photo below: all happy playing Risk while waiting for high clouds to pass)

We met up at RP at around 1500, bus left RP at 1600. reached change beach and had our dinner and did a little bit of last minute shopping. Took the ferry service(more like sampan ) and managed to reach ubin around 1800.

Had a hard time getting our transport to the ob site. Seems like our usual driver, uncle moh, wasn’t available. However he directed us to uncle chu. We went back to our usual spot, the quarry just after the thai temple. For those who did not know, the thai temple has been torn down, some works are going on outside the quarry. A new drain was being built, prolly used to drain water out from the quarry. As there is construction work going on, the road to the quarry was in a pretty bad shape. Our driver did not like the idea of going in as there’s a good chance he might get stuck in the mud.

Finally reached the ob site at close to 1700. quickly got our tent set up. Had dinner at change, so no issue with cooking on the first day. Skies turn dark quickly, but the clouds did not clear up yet. We went into the tent and played some board games.

Soon, at around 2100, skies cleared up quite nicely. We went out and start to set up our scopes. Teck lim and ah heng managed to get the r200ss set up. Jin peng pulled out his 120 f/5 refractor. I only brought along a pair of 12x50 binos and a nice chair as mention by jin peng in the previous post. As usual, the chair is one of the best made choice, allowing me to observe comfortably. I also brought along a tripod adapter for the bino, but observing from a tripod was pretty awkward and I gave up on the bino adapter. Pls tell me if u ever have luck with those bino adapter.

Initially the area towards the north was a little clouded, but the part of skies towards the east was pretty good. First object was pretty obvious, m45. had to work on the easier stuff to get accustomed to the bino first. Pan my bino over to m45 and I was little surprised by the views. M45 is a big cluster. Stars are well resolved in the puny bino. Using 2 eyes seem to give a 3d like effect. I could count maybe 6 brighter stars, and 2 slightly dimmer but still very bright stars in the cluster. Makes me wonder who came up with the idea of “7” sisters. Y not 6 sisters or 8 sisters?

Moving on, I took down hyades, which is just above aldebaran. Quite large open cluster, somewhat in a Y shape.

Moving downwards was m35, seems like mars is in a gd position, just slightly top right of mars would be our pretty m35 cluster. Took a quick peep and m35 and it’s nearby companion, ngc 2158. as usual, m35 look gd with all the fine little stars.

Next target was another nearby object, m42. quite a lot of nebulosity was being seen, but the trapezium was just too close together to be resolved. 12x is not a lot of power, so can’t expect too much.

It seems that observing with a bino is a pretty fast thing, all u have to do is to roughly point towards the area, pan around a little, pick up ur object and move on to the next. However the main problem is that the views tend to be at very low magnification, and not much details can be seen.

Took down m41 next, m41 was still large enough to resolve with the 12x50 binos. At this point, someone suggested looking for the comet. Did not have any updated charts with me, so could not find it. However panning around persus region I managed to pick up m34. this time round, m34 was a little too small to be resolved. Only managed to make out a round shape, like wat u see in those gobular cluster. However looking thru the 120 f/5, it is pretty much an open cluster. With brighter stars towards the center of the cluster.

Moving a little up, took down m79 in lepus. I was blessed with gd skies, or else this would be a near impossible task. Tiny weenie little gob, even tinier in the bino. Barely a small smudge. Btw, for those with a pair of bino, do remember to peep around the star at the center of persus, algebia or something. There’s a large open cluster there. By now north have pretty cleared up and clouds moved towards east. Tried to look for m31 but somehow failed. Only later on I realised andro is no longer standing up, but more of lying on it’s sides. After figuring out the constellation, I managed to pick out the very bright galaxy thru my binos.

Cassiopeia was quite near, I moved towards the double cluster. Another nice object to be seen with binos. 2 tight patches side by side. Went for a tour in auriga, easily pick up the 3 smaller clusters, m36/m38 and m37. Skies started to cloud up again, we retreat back to our tent and had a few more games of risk.

Somewhere in the night, maybe 2am or so, skies started to clear up again. We went out for another round of obbing. By now sirrus is pretty high up, the area around puppies, vela and carina is available for viewing. Moving towards the bottom of the triangle in canes major, 2 bright stars left and hit m93 in puppies. Did not spend much time there since I have the entire region to play with in carina. Panning around the vela/carina region was pretty fun. Everywhere u go u see background stars, finding cluster is not hard, anything that looks more than background stars is prolly a cluster. Took down a few other clusters that I do not know wat number or wat name(sadly my book is written by those ang mohs who live too north and can’t see carina).

Somehow I remember that I have missed m50, 46 and 47 earlier. Looking up was sirrius and proycon, somewhere in between the 2 of the was m50. moving a little up(or was it down? Maybe left?) was m46 and 47 and one more ngc, can’t remember wat number. Looking somewhere north, a little downwards from castor and pollux was a bright patch glowing away. Point my bino over and found a large cluster. Took down m44. Almost 4am, clouds started to pour in again. We went back to the tent and had our rest. Managed to wake up the next day to cook our breakfast. Noticed that one bicycle and one guy is missing. Oh well.

Skies did not look gd, no sun to see. Went back tent to play more dai dee and risk. Skies started to look gloomy. Started to pour in the afternoon. We survived the first wave, or should I say the tent managed to survive the first wave. Subsequent waves of rain weren’t that nice to us. The tent started to leak from both top and bottom. Spades from the nearby construction came in useful. But still it didn’t really help with the flooding situation in the tent. Rain stopped in the evening, cooked dinner and went back to rest. Skies refuse to clear up. The floor of the tent was wet making it hard for us to lie down and sleep. Once again, my chair came in useful. At least didn’t have to get wet. Somewhere in the middle of the night the tent kind of dried up, but the skies still refuse to clear up. Oh well, back to wonderland.

Morning was a little bit better, this time round blue skies was seen. I took out the pst(on loan from lee, have not returned to him yet). found one prominence at maybe 5 o’clock. Later on as the clouds started to clear up more, we managed to find many other prominence, there was actually 1 more prominence beside the one we saw earlier, and one more at maybe 7 o’clock. Soon we saw our van, quickly packed up our stuff and went back home. ~MooEy~

2007-12-20T23:48:00.000+08:00

Geminids Watch on 14th December Observation Report by Jin Peng

Hm…Anyone miss the Geminids on the 14th Dec? Skies seem super clear at certain point of time in the night and good weather. Just recall I kena own in Ubin last year – with the record high in amount of rainfall last dec. So I take my 5inch refractor with the potra mount and went CCK mrt station meet up mooey. We are like carrying so many bags and people started to look at our stuff on the train. So we alight at Tenah Merah station and transfer to bus 2 to Changi Village.

Had dinner at Changi Market, Chicken rice for only $2 and can eat till so full, not a bad deal. Then moved over to Changi beach to meet up RJC, RGS, BPGH people. At around 9plus, the sky was good, clear! So I start to setup my 5inch with the potra mount, While mooey happily unpack a foldable chair (which he enjoy alot) and take out a binoculars and start sweeping the sky. (Below picture: The 120f/5 refractor)

Spotted Cassiopeia, and quickly find the double cluster. M31 was hinder by the tree, damn! Then see a bright patch at Taurus, M45, the seven sisters, look nice with 40mm eyepiece.Quite a magnificent sight. (Below picture: TeckLim looking at M45)

I tried to find NGC 457, also know as the dragonfly cluster and some Ang Mo call it owl cluster. Spend some time finding it, and realise high clouds are coming in… give up! (Below picture: RGS girls posting...)

Next challenge was find M34 as Perseus is nearly cover by trees (maybe I setup too inside). Nevertheless we managed to find it. Thourgh 7x50 finder, you can see a grainy patch, very fade. At 40mm you can see stars very spread out, quite even and there is one very distinct orange colour star. Many times got fool by the rich star field in the area, thought is M34 but is was not. (Below picture: RJ people lying down)

Soon all people get so engross with the meteors and all start lay down viewing, so while entertain them, we find M42 - Great orion neb. a fuzzy patch was seen, M78, M37 and M38 at Auriga, that day left out M36, ops! M37 look like got a lot of loose stars, fairly bright and the centre are much brighter, abit hazy look. Some people ask me find M1, I just show them my hp M1 plan can already. Ultimate sia, ask me find M1 in Singapore! (Below picture: Jin Peng doing some decent observation)

Then I start to spilt a multiple star system in Sigma Orionis, just bottom of the belt of Orion. Very bright stars, can see at least, A,B, C, D and my eye just cant find the E. Some can tell me see F, that answer make the area so smoky… Then some finally tecklim and ah heng from RP came. So I take a break, while mooey start setup its new toy, is pink in colour! 4 inch china made scope! And while he fitting the finder, it drop on the sandy ground. OWNAGE! Finder have not yet had its first star light, but first fall. (Below Picture: Mooey and his pink scope)

Soon I entertain myself and find M35, as Gemini is rising… more meteors and fireball seen… All the woo…ahhh… At a glance I thought M35 are large, rich in stars, while eyepiece is stars…

M41 was next. Located in canis major, this is one of the easier to find open cluster for the winter skies. In the finder you can see the obvious lumpy patch. There is a reddish-orange star in it.

Mars was in the area too. I took a look at the disk. Getting brighter since last week, i guess opposition would make a very nice view.

I noticed lepus was pretty obvious, So I try find m79. M79 is one of the very few gobular cluster available in this season. I have no idea why but I say I cant find it, then mooey say “I saw it in the binoculars.” Kena own… Took me quite a while to find it as it's pretty small. A 12.5mm was used. It appears very round with a core bright enough to notice it. Very fuzzy small ball.

Then wanted to find NGC 2362 but lazy, see mooey got chair to sit, tempting sia… I want to own one chair too! So then spotted PJC peeps, so go around entertain them, and another side there is a group of people, thought is astro peeps too, so when there and discover is a group of students not from any astro clubs, youths from the public came in a group of 7-8, came and enjoy the meteors. So invite them to join us and have a mini interaction, mingle with them and show them mars, Saturn was up too, nice disk. (Below picture: Venus shine brightly before sunrise)

Somehow, not much has been seen and lots of time had passed. Before the sunrise, we see the bright Venus, and mooey ask me to take a look at a galaxy, seriously forget the name but amazing.

Then tata, photo taking time and all dismiss by around seven plus. Then mooey, tecklim and ah heng and I waited… the PST! Yes, solar ob time… and the sun finally rise after some waiting. See the sun sprew out something at 5o’clock of the view of the sun… not bad, but getting very tired, we decided to leave. (Below picture: Yew Tee from NP viewing the sun through the PST)

Below are the group photos. Thanks to RJ ppl taking the group pics.

2007-12-04T00:03:00.000+08:00

3 December 2007! What a great day with good weather the whole day!

We have nice sunny day and is windy, great! And a clear night sky, COOL!

Tonight I harvest M31, 35, 41, 42, 45, 37, 38, 39, Mars, NGC 2362. What a great time viewing telescope tonight...

Yawn... So for those of you who are at home. Try every night peep out of the windows and try to identify the constellations, it can be outside your kitchen window! Grab a star chart or a stellarium in your laptop and start training!

Get prepare for the Geminids Immersion Camp 2007!

2007-11-22T23:00:00.000+08:00

PUBLIC lecture on 16th November 2007

The Berkeley Club of Singapore will be hosting a public lecture event, featuring the University of California, Berkeley's esteemed Nobel Laureate, Dr George Smoot III... Lynn, our logistic for practical astronomy went and here is her report...

Mooey: Are we lost?
(wandering aimlessly outside Oriental Hotel)
Lynn: …
Mooey: Wo you yi dian bei pian de gan jue... (I feel like I have been cheated a little…)
Lynn: This is where the fun begins…

Both Mooey and I started scrambling high and low for Ritz Carlton Hotel to attend the much anticipated seminar held by guest speaker Dr. George Smoot, invited by the Berkeley Club of Singapore. A Nobel Laureate in Physics and an active researcher in Astrophysics and Cosmology, Dr. Smoot is no doubt one of the elites in his field. Don’t play play.

After getting directions to the exact location from Oriental, we went back to Marina Square shopping mall and Mooey soon vanished into thin air. Strange. He re-emerged again, looking dazed this time. Giddy? Can’t be. Apparently, he was looking for Henry (an ex-NP astro guy) who was also joining us for the seminar.

Henry soon caught up with us when we were about to leave, so three of us set off for the crazy hunt of Ritz. And it’s already 6.05 pm (the seminar begins at 6pm)!! Mooey was complaining that by the time we reach, we will only get to hear the ending speech. Touchwood!

It was total madness and a real roller coaster ride all the way to Ritz. And did I mention about having a map with me? Well…now you do. Geographical maps are plain useless when you are lost in an underground shopping centre, trust me. Been there, experienced it. After following more directions and keeping towards the right, much to our relief we finally found Ritz Carlton! Woohoooo! Ok, I should hold back my excitement.

Thinking our ordeal is over, we headed straight for Ballroom 1 and took a lift to Level 1. There, the place looked rather obscured, and there was no ‘Dr. George Smoot’ signboard or any signs of an ongoing astronomy talk there.

Mooey: Are we at the right place? Doesn’t look right to me.
Lynn: …
Henry: Huh? Don’t tell me we came to the wrong place again?

Caught in the middle of two evils, I approached the lady receptionist there to clarify.

Lynn: D&^%! The seminar is at Level 2?? Then why the h**k is the venue listed as Ballroom 1? And why are there no ballrooms listed on Level 2 in the lift? #@%$@!*^%#*@!%
(grumbles to self)

Mooey: Yeah, why is the Ballroom at Level 2?
Lynn: I know why… Maybe…The first programme of the evening is to have dinner here before moving up.
(turns away from the receptionist and walks towards the lift grumbling)
Henry: LOL!
Mooey: Lynn gou4 le3 gou4 le3...! (Enough is enough!) You are making me hungry!
(raises voice a little)

With precious minutes ticking by, we finally found the venue! It was about 6.15pm when we reached.

Part 2: The Seminar

To begin with, here’s a short summary of the seminar in 3 words: Insightful, Complex, Oversimplified.

Basically, the seminar covered topics ranging from the Big Bang theory, Fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation, Temperature anisotropy, the COBE DMR project, D2F project, large scale structure of the universe, Dark energy, scientific progression of Cosmology through various extensive projects which include upcoming Planck project, and various programme simulations of determining the structure of the universe. Simply put, it’s almost a freaking whole complete PhD course in Cosmology squashed into a minuscule version of a one-hour seminar. Twice, Dr. George Smoot was told to conclude his talk as he had exceeded an hour.

Scratching only the surface of the deepest topics in Cosmology, you will be left dumbfounded if you aren’t an avid follower of the subject. His strong American accent doesn’t help much either. With some bit of luck, I was able to recover some minute cosmology relics stored away in my puny mind and fit the bits and pieces together to arrive at some decent understanding of what the speaker is trying to bring across.

With only compliments for his talk, it was definitely an enriching and stimulating experience. During the seminar, Dr. Smoot also showed us a presentation slide with a photo of him and his team members all spread out on a snow field posing the letters “M-e-r-r-y C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s ♥”. It was meant to be a Christmas card for their families back home as they had to be away in Antarctica assembling their radio telescope dish to precisely map the microwave radiation from our Milky Way galaxy. I still remembered that the letter ‘Y’ in ‘Merry’ was posed by a person with his legs split opened. Very creative indeed.

In fact, throughout the whole seminar (ok, maybe not the whole thing as we were initially somewhere at Oriental) not one bit of mathematical formula was being discussed. It wasn’t even about the theoretical calculations or hardcore Cosmology in its finer details. Rather, Dr. Smoot was more into what he has accomplished from his COBE project and his findings which eventually led him into discovering the anisotropy in background radiation temperature that later provided as a strong observation support for the Big Bang theory. And that’s the tricky part. If we don’t know s*** about cosmology or even about the COBE project itself, we would perceive him to be speaking in Greek!

Making up most of the audience were working adults in their tuxedos and night gowns (ok, maybe not tuxedos but dark suits. J ). Of course, there were students too in their uniforms, but that’s only a small minority.

Surprisingly, only two questions were asked during the Q&A session as it took Dr. Smoot approximately 5 mins to answer each one before we had to be dismissed. It was very clear from the way he tackled the ‘profound questions’ that he had a whole mass of knowledge locked in up there, and from just these two questions alone, I got to learn a lot more about how the large scale galactic structures form, the reason behind their formations, and about how dark matter, dark energy might relate to these formations. Somehow, it feels like a whole new level of being ‘Einsteinian’, having a bigger head, and attaining Nirvana.

On the whole, I think it’s a seminar well-worth the rush-in. Every minute of it counts, right to the very last.

Reported by Lynn Koh
*clap*clap*

Orionids Star Party

2007-10-23T00:01:00.000+08:00

The Orionids Star Party was a big success!

A BIG THANK YOU to Kafoo for helping me thoughout the whole event =D

And also thanks to Mingwei who was there to support us as well.... not to forget yamhuo, esther, meiling, diana for their moral support too!

Orionids Star Party 2007 on 20th October comes to a close...

Our first successful event which attracted schools like:
NYP
RGS
ACJC
NJC
VJC
PJC

Also special thanks to republic polytechnic for partnering with us to make this event possible and TASOS for their kind support in providing talk and astroscientific for sponsoring gifts.

Get them oriented...

Hannah from BPGGH... The participants playing 'Draw and Guess' game.

NYP gang...

BPGH and NJC gang...

Albert Ho from TASOS giving a talk in Introductory Astronomy, very interesting, not so boring...

However, after 45mins, most NJC ppl cannot tahan liao... LOL

Participants going for dinner...

Please queue for FOOD.... all free!

Happily distributing the rice packet...

this guy came for lyrids star party before!! haha... all say rice is good =)

pack up, is time to head for ECP

They walk very slowly...

and here are the 2 bus.... both not enough seat for over 90 people!

Kafoo amd mingwei got to stand all the way... Me sit at the stairs... haha...

RGS girls posting at ECP while settle down for games...

NJC and their stinking tents at the back... lol

Bonding activity... got abit of hiccup...

Samson from PJC,viewing through our telescope!

At the next morning, only NYP ppl survive the night! The jokers ferderation!

Hope you enjoy the pictures.... look forward for the next event!