It's Showtime!

I have been hearing it for months now, that the old Omni Theater at the Singapore Science Centre was to undergo some renovations to include a planetarium.

Well, the details are out and this blog update provides astronomy enthusiasts with what to expect from the rebirth Omni Theater.

The new theater is now fitted with a full-dome projection system with an 8K digital display to boot! Gone are the times when people just sat in, watched a movie, and left after it has ended. We can now expect a presenter on-site to do a 30-minute real-time presentation for "live shows" to boost the movie experience.

This is a refreshing change and a much welcome addition to the Singapore Science Centre. The revamped Omni Theater will be opened on the 30th of May 2015.

I am eager to catch the full-dome live show "Cosmic Surfing" and the digital full-dome movie "Back To The Moon For Good".

More information here: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/science-centre-s-revamped/1870576.html?cid=TWTCNA

Showtimes, synopsis, and reservations: http://www.omnitheatre.com.sg/

Light Sail

The Planetary Society has called for a kick-starter program that will be funded by citizens around the world to build a solar sail spacecraft. The Planetary Society is an NGO (non-governmental organisation) helm by CEO Bill Nye. Those of you who were born in the 80s or 90s may vividly know him as Bill Nye, The Science Guy. As a kid growing up in the 90s, I used to catch his TV programs here in Singapore. The TV shows did not only serve to inculcate science to kids, but also made them love it! Bill was once a student of a famous astrophysicist, the late Dr. Carl Sagan.

  

Coming back to the topic of solar sails, I am an advocate of space exploration. So-much-so, I have bickered in forums and earned myself a few online "enemies" who were naysayers to huge budget space programs. 

Now, how does all this work? Light is a strange thing. It is a particle and a wave at the same time. The particles of light are called photons and they have no mass. Shiny objects are known to reflect light better than darker objects. When these photons are reflected off a surface, Newton's 3rd law kicks in - whenever there is an action, there will be an equal and opposite reaction. These photons are able to push the light sail that is made of mylar, which is a very shiny and reflective material, thus causing the sail to move in Space.

To know more about how it works and the future goals of solar sails, then check out this link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/theplanetarysociety/lightsail-a-revolutionary-solar-sailing-spacecraft

As for myself, I have already pledged US$5 (~SG$6.50) to the program. They have already achieved 3 out of 5 goals for their budget milestones and they will be launching the sail via the Delta Heavy rocket by SpaceX in 2016.

With relation to the light sail, The Planetary Society has also planned to send selfies of the public into Space using the light sail in an attempt to garner public attention for the program. So, I thought, "Hey, why not?"

This is the link to send your selfie into Space: http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/messages/lightsail/

I uploaded a photo that was taken with Dr. Neil Tyson during the Cosmos promotional event in Singapore. Well, it wasn't a selfie, but it's going to be damn bloody awesome to see this in Space.

Woohoo! We are sailing through space on LightSail! Weee~

Lord Of The Rings

Attended a sidewalk session held by Dave and Ava last weekend at Bishan Park.

John and Uncle Wayne were there as well. Matthew, who is a friend of Valdric's, came to join us. Gary came later. 

Admirers of Saturn.

Dave had just changed views from Venus to Saturn with his 80mm refractor. It has been about a year since I last saw Saturn through a telescope. That's a long time for any stargazer! So, naturally, I was thrilled to meet the second-largest planet in our Solar System again. At about 100x magnification, Saturn's ring was beautifully visible. Pushing the view up to 200x magnification, we were able to spot the Cassini Division in the ring. 

Now, before I carry on with this blog post, I would like to briefly explain to the layperson what Cassini Division is.

There are several segments that form the rings of Saturn - from rings A to G. In between these ring segments are gaps called "Divisions", with Cassini Division being the most prominent one. It lies between the A ring and the B ring. 

The gaps called "Divisions" separate the ring segments.

Saturn's rings with Cassini Division.

Gary took a photo through Dave's telescope and Tweeted it.

Later in the night when they all left. I stayed on with Gary to test his new telescope. It was a Vixen 70mm refractor. Being an f/10 telescope, there was no noticeable chromatic aberration that so often plague fast focal ratio telescopes like mine, an f/5. For people who do not mind the colour fringing, it's okay. It's a trade-off for a wider field of view. 

Looking at the double stars called Albireo, they were pin-point and well-resolved. The flimsy A-Z mount and tripod made viewing a little difficult when strong winds blew. The Moon was perhaps the ultimate object for a CA test that night, I did not see any purple fringes at the outer rim of the Moon. Gary star hopped in the Scorpius constellation, going from M6, M7, to NGC 6231. I am still having trouble learning how to find these objects in the sky. So, Gary took the opportunity to teach me as well. 

The thick clouds started coming in at 3am and we decided to call it a night. I was very happy to have seen so many objects that night, especially Saturn! 

   

 

From The Heavens

I was looking for some books at Kinokuniya when some precious stones in a few display cabinets caught my attention. I was mesmerized by how colourful they looked when something else in another cabinet stopped me dead in my tracks.

Meteorite fragments! They were selling meteorite fragments!

There were many of them on display and all of them are for sale. I saw one the size of my fist going for over $8000!

Not sure of what I was getting or if they were even genuine, I Googled for more information on the different meteorite fragments. The one that I got was an ordinary chondrite, which is a nonmetallic material commonly found in most, if not all meteoroids. The ones containing metals were more expensive because of their rarity.

After that, I went to a meteoritical database and keyed in the name of the fragment to check on its history. It was registered in the database and this fragment was once part of a larger 2-ton meteorite. Impressive!

Next, I checked the company, Tokyo Science, to see what other stuff they were selling. They are a Japanese distributor for these space rocks, precious stones, and animal fossils. Very interesting...

One lady was beside me admiring precious stones and she felt puzzled about why I had bought what looked like an ordinary rock to her. She asked me about the rock and I spent some time explaining to her in mandarin what it actually was. But she was still kind of unimpressed. Haha. I guess everyone sees different values when it comes to certain things in life.

I felt so happy when the counter staff came to unlock the display cabinet and placed the little box containing the meteorite fragment in my hand. It cost me nearly $20. I may consider to buy another one soon. The next one is going to be a fragment that has metallic elements in it. It's slightly more expensive and smaller in size than the ordinary chondrite. I will update this blog once I get it.

*Update

Edit: 11/5/15

Got another meteorite yesterday at Kinokuniya. This one is different though, this is an octahedrite fragment- it is a form of iron meteorite with some element of nickle in it. 

I very much wanted to know the history of this space rock, but unlike the previous meteorite fragment, NWA 869, there was no abbreviation on this meteorite that I could use to find any information in The Meteoritical Society's database, and I can't read the Chinese characters on the display box except for the characters that said "China". 

My cousin helped me to decode the Chinese characters and we did a bit of investigation on the meteorite fragment. What we found was astonishing!

What's interesting about it is not its found year, but rather, its fell year, dated in 1516! The meteor fell in the county of Nantan, state of Guanxi, China, during the Ming Dynasty. Fragments of the meteorite were only found in 1958. I am still wondering how they knew it was from 1516?

Do you know what was going on in the year 1516? Leonardo da Vinci was still around doing his thing! Mary I Tudor a.k.a Bloody Mary was born in that year. Wow!

A quick search online tells me that this was the same meteor. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantan_meteorite

At least there's some details of my purchase now. I went to The Meteoritical Society's website and keyed in "Nantan", the search result told me the type and make of the meteorite but not the history behind it. http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=16906

Nonetheless, I am quite happy with what I have bought. I think this is going to be the last piece that I am collecting - it's an expensive hobby.

Sharing Is Caring

I have been planning to start a telescope loaning program for some time now but have not the slightest clue how I should go about it.

So, I have decided to offer this pilot program to my friends first and if it succeeds, then I will gradually offer it to the public.

The telescope for loan is a Celestron 70mm refractor. The aperture is small but one is still able to see objects like the Moon and star clusters. The loan includes a modified finder, 2 eyepieces (20mm and 10mm), a diagonal, and an aluminum tripod.

I have decided to set the loan period to 2 weeks which starts from the day of handover. On a case-to-case basis, an additional week of extension can be granted upon request.

Before the handover, I will spend some time teaching you how to setup and use a telescope. No fear, it's quite simple and easy to grasp!

Any friends of mine who have read this and are interested, do call me or drop me a private message on Facebook. You can also post your request in my blog's chatbox by identifying who you are along with the request and I shall get back to you ASAP. Cheers!

Memories

Was going through some pictures in my old online album and stumbled upon this photo.

I guess it was about 4 years ago when I have just started out astronomy with Jason. In this picture were our mutual friends, Kat, Chantel, and Paul in the background.

Jason and I were quite eager and thought to share with them the wonders of visual astronomy at Punggol Park. Paul had a somewhat solid foundation in armchair astronomy, so I thought he could appreciate it the most.

I had with me a 70mm Celestron Travelscope and a Celestron Upclose 10×50 binos. If my memory still serves, Jason had with him a Celestron 76mm Firstscope. Both of them relatively cheap setups that are good for beginners.

It was a night to remember and that was arguably our very first star party?

Some Updates

This post entry is all about updating past events that I had done recently. 

I have finally found time to utilize the solar filter that Dave lent to me. For the first time, I held a mini-outreach session for the public to view the Sun beside my apartment block. Well, one of my neighbours bumped into me while I was setting up the scope and I showed her what the Sun looks like. She was excited by what she saw for the very first time! Glad that there were some major sunspots visible as solar activity was rather high that period. Otherwise, the white light filter could offer nothing else to see besides an image of a yellowish-white ball. I left after about half-an-hour because the weather began to become unbearably hot.     

Also, I have been doing private events with the usual suspects at 1 Degree 15, Sentosa. It's an upscale place where the rich hangout. They have houses there that cost an average of $15 million and luxurious private yachts parked nearby. We were invited to do both the Earth Hour and Singapore Yacht Show events. So, I shall split this entry into 2 parts. Photo credits to Gary, James, and whoever I have left out due to poor memory.

Earth Hour 2015

We met up at Gary's place where we had stored our equipment the previous day for ease of movement. We hired a spacious Maxi Cab to fit all five of us; Dave, Ava, Gary, Haz, myself, and all of our equipment. 

It was rather cloudy when we reached our destination in the late afternoon. We were hoping that the sky would eventually clear up a bit in the evening, which it did. We showed the curious crowd the Moon and Jupiter. I have got to say that doing public outreach sessions there was a somewhat different experience for me as compared to doing it in the heartlands. I am not saying that the latter is not good or unsatisfying. It's just a different vibe that people give out. I had to deal with people from 1 Degree 15 who were curious folks and fired many questions at me, whereas in the heartlands, I get a majority of people who were purely awestruck by what they are seeing. Both were pleasant experiences to me nonetheless. I always say that as backyard astronomers, our earnings for the day is never money, it is receiving the "Ohhh" and the "Wows!" from the public - that is the payment we'd love to receive.  

It was a successful event. Unbeknownst to us in the beginning, we even got to meet an ex-Mediacorp actress, Evelyn Tan! She was walking to each of our station and we happily answered her cosmic queries and showed her what the Moon and Jupiter looked like through different telescopes. Personally, I think she is a very smart woman. She gave me the impression that she already have the answers in her head before asking me questions. I guess she was just testing our knowledge or something. A combination of beauty and brains, I should say. Realization that she was an actress only hit me when we introduced ourselves to each other. I went to tell the others who she was and they were like, "Really?!" Ha ha ha. 

That's Evelyn Tan right there!!!

Singapore Yacht Show 2015

I waited for Dave and Ava to come pick me up in a regular cab before we headed over to Sentosa and there we were again at 1 Degree 15 to conduct another event. We got there first, followed by Alfred, James, Siddarth, and finally Gary. We helped Alfred and James to unload the heavy equipment from their cars. 

This time, it was the Singapore Yacht Show 2015. We were supposed to do both day and night sessions for the guests and club members - day for solar observation and night for the Moon and Jupiter. But guess what? It was pouring shortly after we got there in the early afternoon. So, we were left to feast our eyes on the many eye-catching yachts parked in the bay to attract potential buyers. I recall being told that one super luxury yacht called "The Anastasia" was for sale at $110 million! There were also static displays of cool luxury cars and sports cars as well.

The rain started to subside in the late afternoon but the sky was still fully blanketed by dark clouds. That removed the possibility of conducting any solar observation that day. We had lunch at our designated corner and that was when my nasi briyani from 7-11 got even tastier - several gorgeous models clad in designer swimwear started fluttering pass our dining tables like butterflies in a sweet summer garden. It was only then I knew that I could not swallow my food while my eyes were busily trained onto those fair maidens. Ahemm... back to astronomy. 

We were able to see the Eastern side of the sky clearing up and that was certainly good news. We began to setup at the usual spot allocated to us for night-time observations. Lucky enough for me, the zenith, which lies directly overhead, was cleared of most thick clouds. But the entire sky was still very hazy, so much so, that the Moon glowed a yellow hue. The rest of them were either pointing their scopes at Jupiter or like me, at the Moon.

I helped several ladies to take pictures of the Moon with their mobile phones and through my 80mm refractor.

To sum it up, it was the appalling weather that disrupted the day-time event. The night-time session was decent, at least. Well, that's astronomy in the tropics. Better luck next time!