Pluto, Charon, and New Horizons

I am sharing this post that was done up by Gary on his blog, so that everyone who sees this can tune in to watch the flyby and closeup of Pluto tonight.

On 14 July 2015, at 7:49:59 PM Singapore time (11:49:59 UTC) NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will make its historic closest approach to the dwarf planet Pluto, the most distant solid object to be visited by a spacecraft.

Here's how to get the latest updates on New Horizons flyby of Pluto:


(1) Official New Horizons website:
http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons


(2) NASA TV live web streaming:
- http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/
- https://www.youtube.com/user/NASAtelevision/
- http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv


(3) New Horizons Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/new.horizons1


(4) New Horizons Twitter:
https://twitter.com/NASANewHorizons   (#PlutoFlyby)


(5) Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory:
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/


(6) Eyes on Pluto software simulation of New Horizons mission:
http://eyes.jpl.nasa.gov/eyes-on-pluto.html


With live streaming on NASA TV, this means you can watch it on your phone on the move if you are not able to sit in front of a big screen and have a Pluto flyby party with your friends! :)

Venus + Jupiter Conjunction

It was an awesome sight to behold! Yesterday evening, I managed to witness the conjunction of Jupiter and Venus at their closest as I met Dave and Ava when they held a sidewalk session at Bishan Park. Sadly, we only caught a glimpse of the pair when thick clouds started to roll in, even the Moon was obscured by the overcast. I could only count myself lucky, other people who came to Bishan Park with the expectation to see the spectacle were sorely disappointed. Well, that's astronomy on the highway of clouds.

Photos credit: Dave Ng

This shot was taken at Bishan Park on the 30th of June 2015. The bigger and brighter dot is Venus, with its companion Jupiter at the top.

The conjunction on the 1st of July 2015 as seen through an 80mm telescope with a 6mm eyepiece. On the right is a crescent-shaped Venus and on the left is Jupiter.