Bloopers

Yesterday, I came across an online picture of a news article that apologized for an error made by an editor with regards to the first man who walked on the Moon. I didn't know which date it was published, so I tried my luck with yesterday's paper and true enough, it was on page A4 of the Singapore Straits Times, dated 27/02/15. Ha ha ha. That's what happens when you have no basic astronomy studies taught in classrooms.

Kampung Bekok

A group of stargazing friends and I are planning for yet another trip to Kampung Bekok, Malaysia. It is going to be my second time there. I didn't get to see the Milky Way the first time I was there. In fact, we didn't see any stars at all. It was the monsoon season, we tried our luck and went up to Kampung Bekok anyway but all we saw for two nights were rain, rain, and more rain. I really hope I can get to see the Milky Way this time.

Here are some pictures that we took the first time I was there. Prior to my virgin trip, Gary, Dave and Ava have been visiting Kampung Bekok for quite some time and they were kind enough to show me around and introduced the local delicacies to me, which were absolutely tasty by the way. Kampung Bekok is a small Chinese village in the state of Johor, Malaysia. It takes about 3 hours to get there by train from Singapore. It has a laid-back sort of lifestyle. The air is clean and the night sky is not polluted by city lights. That was why we choose to go there.

From Singapore to Kampung Bekok.

Map layout of Kampung Bekok.

It was also my first time taking a train to Malaysia.

Dave and Ava.

Shot of the Bekok train station.

Another shot of the train station taken from the bridge.

Overview of our hostel.

The front entrance of the hostel.

The room. It's quite clean.

The bathroom. It's clean, too!

A shop house.

An abandoned and dilapidated house. 

Dave, myself, and Thomas.

Looking for food.

Beaten eggs with onions.

Fried lemon chicken.

Ramly burger! My personal favourite.

Sambal stingray.

Stir-fried wild bore meat. Another personal favourite! 

Mixed dishes.

That's Gary on the right and the owner of the hostel, Peter, on the left.

Fried rice and a plate of kangkong.

What do stargazers do on a stormy night? We play poker cards, mahjong, tell jokes, and perform magic tricks! We really had a fun time eventhough we couldn't complete the main objective, which was to see stars. Here is a picture of the mahjong game. I was quite a noob at it, so Gary taught me the basics.

Stop mind reading my mind! >.<

The boss of the hostel, Peter, was also friendly and kind enough to show us his personal collection of toys and antiques in his huge, decorated storeroom.

Anyway, I will be trying my hands on astrophotography for the first time when we go to Bekok. My cousin has decided to lend me her Cannon EOS 550D DSLR for the coming trip. I still know nuts about the manual controls of the camera.

Mars One Candidates

I came across a video which I found to be a little morbid but encouraging at the same time as I know our species is always fighting to explore new frontiers. The Mars One mission has selected 3 potential candidates to be sent on a one-way trip to Mars and this short video is an interview of their outlook of life, what they expect from the coming Mars mission and the things they care about here on Earth.

I have also attached a link below to the Mars One website. Check it out if you want to know more about it.

http://www.mars-one.com/

Edited: Shortly after I have posted this, IFLS updated its Facebook page with a writeup advising people not to get their hopes up high for the mission. Check the link out to learn why.

http://www.iflscience.com/space/should-we-get-our-hopes-about-mars-one

Of Gas And Dust

I had a question on my mind a couple of days ago - why do gas giants have shorter days as compared to the terrestrial planets?

Note: Pluto is no longer a planet.

It's perfectly understandable that the outer-most planet has the longest year. We can totally relate to that. Just imagine 8 children are taking part in a running competition and are placed on 8 lanes abreast of each other at the same starting line. Let's also assume that all 8 children run at the same speed. Of course, the child at the inner-most lane is going to finish first as he has the shortest distance to cover.

However, I found it most counter-intuitive that the biggest planet, Jupiter, a gas giant, has the shortest day among the rest. I mean, there's more surface area to contend with, take for example, if you spin both a basketball and a small marble at the same time and with the same strength, then by logic and science, the small marble is going to complete a full rotation first, right? That's also how the gear ratio in our vehicle transmission system works. 

That is true for the basketball and marble and gears. So, I was confused about why Jupiter rotates the fastest in our Solar System. Hence, I went to look for some answers on Google.

Bear in mind that I am still not quite sure of what I have read. It's just a basic understanding that I have formed. If you are reading this, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong or add on to the knowledge pool if you have something to share. At the meantime, take what I am about to write with a pinch of salt.

I think the keyword here is: Gas giant.

We can't use the same measurement on the gas planets like we do on the terrestrial planets. While the rocky planets rotate on their solid mass, gas planets rotate atmospherically and are very turbulent. Jupiter's atmosphere rotates at about 45,000km/h and its day lasting only 9.9 hours. The absence of landmass also contributes to the wind's breakneck speed as there is no friction to slow it down like how Earth's landmass saps the energy of a hurricane and slows it down once it comes ashore from the ocean,

All this business about solid and gas has led me to reminiscence the times at school when we had to learn about the different states of matter and their properties. I guess basing on the states of matter, that is how the planets work as well. In a sense, solids are packed tightly together and do not have much freedom to roam about, hence it has to rotate as one solid mass, taking more time. Gas molecules are far apart and are free to move about. When more mass comes into play, gravity causes it to be more turbulent and to rotate at a great speed, like the massive Jupiter.

  

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Just saw a Facebook update from the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) page. NASA has attached a link to show you the current position of the LRO and what it is doing around the Moon in real-time. Sweet! All you need to have are a smart phone/tablet/laptop/desktop and an internet connection and you are good to go! I will share the link below.

http://lrostk.gsfc.nasa.gov/preview.cgi

Also, do 'Like' the LRO's Facebook page if you want to receive latest updates of its missions.

https://www.facebook.com/LunarReconnaissanceOrbiter

A Better Meteorological Service

A few days ago, I was lamenting to Gary about NEA's (National Environment Agency) satellite imagery of cloud fomations around the region of Singapore. It was really difficult to predict in real-time using images from two hours ago and I was often let down shortly after I have deployed my telescope for viewing. The tropical weather here can turn crazy really fast.

So, Gary introduced to me a meteorological service from Japan. It shows a satellite image of cloud formations around the South-East Asia region from an hour ago. I find it easier to manage my expectations of the sky that way. I have shared the link at the bottom, feel free to use it and share it around.

Http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/mscweb/data/sat_dat/img/reg/sat_img_sea3.html

Tilt Shift Photography

Saw some awesome images online. It's a photographic technique called tilt shift that renders the pictures to make them look 3D-ish. It's quite neat, I would say. Hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Crab Nebula

Horsehead Nebula

Centaurs A Galaxy

Meathood Galaxy

Thor's Helmet Nebula

Pencil Nebula

Tadpole Galaxy

Andromeda Galaxy

Space Shuttle Launch

The Spaceflight Vault

Guess what I stumbled across when I was at Tiong Bahru Plaza yesterday? There was a book sale on level one and I thought many books belonged to the kids category. I continued sauntering until something stopped me in my tracks. Being a stargazer, you can't help but have a keen eye for anything that is space-related. I saw this majestic book standing in an ocean of children's books, as if awaiting my purchase. It was a copy of The Spaceflight Vault which tells the history of NASA's humble years of space exploration. From the ancient Chinese rocket invention to Wernher von Braun's Saturn V rocket, and the STS (Space Transfer System) missions, this book thoroughly keeps you entertained!

It's a fairly large coffee table book and it is also known as a "museum in a book" because it contains replicas and facsimiles inside. I was enticed in no time and bought it at $39.90 (Singapore dollars) and there were only two copies left. I'm very happy with the sale.

It's screaming, "BUY ME!!!"

  

Solar Observation

Went to Toa Payoh to do solar sidewalk for the public. Dave, Gary, Ava, and I were there at about 1pm. Ivan and Uncle Wayne came later.

The Sun seemed to be playing peek-a-boo with us. Huge patch of clouds swooped in from the Western sector and then there were several intermittent breaks for clear viewing amongst the fluffy clouds.

Strangely, there were no sunspots today.

Gary brought his Orion ST-80 along. Attached to the front of the tube, was Dave's white light solar filter from Thousand Oaks.

Dave brought along his Lunt 50mm hydrogen alpha scope from yesterday at Bishan Park. We set up near Mac's for all passers-by to view.

When the massive clouds came in, all we could do was explain to the public what the scopes were meant to do and what they could expect to see when the sky cleared up. Some stayed until they could see the Sun during intermittent breaks in the cloud cover, some left in a hurry.

Spoke to Ivan for awhile to catch up with him. It's been some time since I last saw that chap.

Uncle Wayne was a considerate man. He brought along with him several umbrellas for us. We used them to shelter the public when they were looking through the telescopes and when there was no one, we sheltered ourselves from the blazing heat.

Overall, still a satisfying sidewalk today!

Gary's ST-80 with white light solar filter.

Dave's 50mm Lunt HA solar scope.

The busy crew of Singapore Sidewalk Astronomy.