Woes Of A Sidewalk Astronomer

Having done public sidewalk astronomy for about 3 years now, I have encountered many situations along this journey. Some of the experiences are pleasant, while some others are not so.

Speaking of which, I believe that my fellow sidewalkers have their own stories to tell. I thought it would be interesting to share mine since I am healing from a sprained back and a few nasty insect bites from the previous public outreach session.

1) I have been given the dirty look by onlookers because they don't understand what was going on.

2) Shouted at by the mentally unstable.

3) Kids manhandling my telescope while their parents stood by and watched the world burn.

4) Inquisitions by the ultra-religous individuals.

5) Suffered nasty insect bites/stings.

6) Sprained my back doing yoga-like positions to adjust a telescope while objects were at zenith.

7) Queue cutters.

8) Wacky conspiracy theorists.

Yeah, that's about all. That being said, I still love what I do. This blog update isn't about complaints, but rather, to show people that it isn't easy to do these astronomy sidewalks and to let future sidewalk astronomers be prepared for what they are about to face when they embark upon this selfless quest.

Itchy bite marks of an insect from the previous sidewalk session. This isn't the first time I've been bitten by such an insect. The itch typically lasts for 3-4 days before it subsides.

Big Things Come From Small Beginnings

Knock, knock.

Who's there? 

U.P.S.

U.P.S. who?

U.P.S. YOURS!

Joke aside, the courier came on Monday afternoon with a parcel delivered from Germany - I had ordered some telescope accessories from Telescope Express last Friday. I was crossing my fingers hoping that the shipment had gone all right. Thanks to the people handling the logistics, the shipment and delivery time were impeccable.

2.5kg worth of stuff.

Upon inspection of the items in the box, everything was fine. I had bought a 2-inch diagonal with SCT treading, a couple of 2-inch eyepieces, and a huge telrad finder. 

Is it Christmas or what?!

2" toys.

I had wanted to go from 1.25 inch to 2 inch ever since I saw the view on Dave's similar setup. The F.O.V. (field of view) was wider and I was willing to pay more for a nice view.

Eager to test it out in the field the next day, I told the usual suspects that I would do a sidewalk at Bishan Park. I packed up and brought the entire setup to Gary's abbot. He had something fun for me to try out - a quadcopter drone!

After some drone fun, Gary and I left for Bishan Park. 

The Moon and Jupiter were already high up in the sky when we reached. I hastily deployed the 6" SCT. I had to do a little bit of work on the telrad finder by removing both the sticky tapes at the bottom of the plate and replaced them with the blue tack that Gary had brought along. After it was done, I mounted the finder on top of the SCT and went on to slot the new 2" diagonal and Badder click-zoom eyepiece. The slot wasn't exactly smooth, it was a little tight-fitting. I had to force the eyepieces into the diagonal. I guess it needs to be used often.  

Aligning the finder.

"You see at all these places you go, there are so many people terribly interested in these things. And you have to understand that the population of the Earth is several billions, with all those eyes waiting to see, all those ears waiting to hear, all those minds eager to understand. And somebody's got this job to do." - John Dobson  

The rest of the gang; Thejo, Kwan, Dave, and Ava came later in the evening for the sidewalk at Bishan Park. Thejo brought his 8" Meade SCT and the view of Mars and Saturn through it were amazing! It was thanks to him that I managed to tighten the Vixen Porta mount. The gearing that controls the altitude was coming loose and he lent me a no. 2 hex key to fasten it. Thanks to Kwan for getting us the much needed bottles of water from a nearby provision shop. 

Note the dire wolf-looking dog on the right. Yes, another 4 more days to Game Of Thrones Season 6!!!

I also realized something about myself that night - I need to get a new pair of spectacles. I had trouble looking for many deep sky objects through the telrad while Dave and Kwan was telling me it's there. They can see it while I can't.

An astronomer's worse nightmare - deteriorating eyesight.   

  

   

Boothy Call

Wait, what's that sound? Oh no, it's raining!

The heavy downpour started in the early afternoon last Saturday when we were about to leave home to do an event at 1 Degree 15, Sentosa. It was the Singapore Yacht Show 2016. 

It was a rare chance for me to try to setup a proper astronomy booth for the first time and the skies didn't quite take too kindly at first attempts. My decision had begin to waver as to whether I should bring the mobile booth along to the event. Not much time to think, Gary was on his way to pick me up in a cab. I braved the torrential rain and lugged the portable booth along.

Our plan was to reach and setup our telescopes by 3pm. Some of them would do solar astronomy, while others waited for sundown to view Jupiter. No luck to those who brought their solar telescopes - the sky was still bleak with a promise of rain.

Fortunately, the evening sky showed mercy and decided to clear up a bit at the Eastern side. James already had his 6" APM Apochromatic refractor on standby. Gary, too, had his 5" Maksutov Cassegrain at the ready. Then came the funny part. Siddarth had brought along a small, cute-looking refractor that looked like a toy. We tried looking at distant objects with it in the afternoon and strangely enough, the optics was okay-ish for a $30 telescope. It had a zoom eyepiece and the main objective lens even had anti-reflective coating on it! I stole a peek at Jupiter through it and the planet had a funky greenish hue, ha-ha-ha!     

Oh the monstrosity.

Jupiter is up!

Gary's 5" MCT and Siddarth's cute refractor.

Looking at Jupiter with the cute refractor. LOL!

Then came the time for me to shift the astro booth from the indoors to the outdoors. 

Here comes the crowd.

I tried to keep the booth as simple as possible, but not to the point of being disengaging. I had two cork boards - one with a short introduction of our Solar System, topped with a lego astronomer with her telescope, the other with pin-made constellations that I could tell a story with. Next, was the orrery board showing the phases of the Moon. It also doubles up as a board to explain the difference between astrology and astronomy. Also, I brought along two samples of meteorite fragments for the public to admire. A kid even wanted to buy one off me! Flanking to my left and to my right were an Ipad showcasing the different sizes of celestial bodies in our Solar System and a poster of Space exploration respectively.

Cork board with a depiction of the constellations.

Orrery to explain the phases of the Moon. Above, an introduction to the Solar System with the lego astronomer in the middle.

It was thanks to Ava and Gary that the booth became more interesting. Ava had offered her free astro bookmarks of Jupiter and Saturn. She had also conjured up some last minute cartoon drawings of the planets to give away. Gary brought along two puzzles for anyone who had the time and gusto to fix them. I especially love the one with the 3D effect and boy, was it trippy to look at. I felt bad when I learned that one of the puzzle pieces is now lost. Gary suspects that it went missing in the cab while we were going back home.    

Ava's bookmarks and drawings.

A very special thanks to Ava for manning the booth while I was away. Also, I would like to thank the rest of the crew; Dave, Thejo, Kwan, and Siddarth for helping me with the assembly and dis-assembly of the booth which can be quite a tedious chore.   

Lastly, thanks to Gary and Dave for the awesome pictures taken that day. 

When the crowd at James' station started to dwindle, I made my way over to take a look at Jupiter through his 6" refractor before we packed up and left. As usual, it was stunning!

Using the Ipad to make visualization of the sizes of celestial objects easier. 

Engaging the public with the astro booth!

Look son, it's Jupiter up there!

Asking a little girl to guess how many Earths could fit into the Sun's volume. I guess she was mind blown at the end. 

Telling an ancient Greek story of the constellations.

Puzzles, adults and kids were welcome to try!

The astro booth at night. I made sure that the lighting was sufficient.

International Space Station Flyby

The International Space Station (ISS) flew pass Singapore this morning at 6.24am. Its brightness was about mag -3.3 and it lasted quite a long while before it was out of sight. The ISS flew between the Moon and Mars, with Saturn in the middle. I managed to take a video of it! This video was taken at Commonwealth Close, Singapore. Best viewed in full screen. Note the bight moving object relative to the Moon.

Some fun facts about the ISS:
1) It's about 400km above sea level.
2) It cost about $100 billion to build.
3) There are 6 astronauts and cosmonauts living in the ISS.
4) It takes just 90 minutes to complete an orbit around Earth.
5) The ISS is about 6 football fields wide.

Poison

A couple of days ago, we held an observation session at Bishan Park for the public to come view the first-quarter Moon, Jupiter, and M42. It was a good time to put my newly acquired C6 SCT to the test. The collimation held even though it suffered a considerable bump on the door just as I was leaving home for Bishan Park.

I was foolish enough to think that I was satisfied by the views that the C6 SCT has offered. Boy, was I wrong.

Gary came over silently like a cat and deftly mounted his binoviewer onto the C6 when I was enjoying my dinner. I was just beside my telescope when both Dave and Gary turned and gave me a sheepish smile. My eyes widen upon seeing the binoviewer! I knew the view had to be awesome with it!

Not disappointed, I got the same feeling as I did when I first saw Saturn through a huge telescope about three years ago. I was awestruck, breathless, and dumbfounded all at once. The Moon looked supremely amazing through a binoviewer with a twin 20mm eyepiece. It really feels surreal to look at celestial objects up close with both your eyes. Dave and Gary left me for a brief time to entertain the crowd at their stations. I gave myself the pleasure of switching celestial objects - from the Moon to Jupiter.

Oh my goodness.......................................

At this point in time, no words can convey how I felt when I saw Jupiter with both my eyes at 75x magnification. It's totally different. The Great Red Spot was present and that was a huge bonus that only made the viewing experience wayyyyyy sweeter!

I think I am hooked by this binoviewer. In our group, when we are addicted to something, we term it as "poison". I think I have been poisoned by binoviewers.

Just when I thought that nothing else can poison me, here comes Dave 2" click-zoom eyepiece from Baader. Having used the regular 1.25" eyepiece, I personally know how tough it is to view at objects, especially when you have no tracking mount to work with. Due to Earth's rotation, I have got to constantly shift the manual mount to place the object into view again. I have to do this often as the magnification goes higher and higher. With a good quality 2" zoom eyepiece that offers a wide field of view (FOV), I figured that I wouldn't need to do the adjustments that often. It can be very tiring to amateur astronomers.

However, there is another equipment that I have got to get before getting the eyepiece. I have got to switch to the 2" diagonal with SCT treading in order to fit the 2" eyepiece.

Also, I thought of getting myself a better finderscope, the Rigel Quikfinder. I am now stuck with a 6x30 finder that requires me to set myself in yoga positions to find object in the sky.

Got to save money to get all these stuff, man. It ain't cheap.

A New Breath Of Life

Bought a used Celestron C6 telescope yesterday! It's in quite a good condition, at a very reasonable price. Thanks to my astronomy buddies Gary and Dave for helping me vet the sale and teaching me how to collimate an SCT. Also, thanks to the seller who was gracious enough to let me try out the telescope for a few nights before fully committing to it.

Solar Eclipse 9 March 2016

Now that I have cooled down from the long exposure of the Sun, I would like to share my thoughts on the solar eclipse that happened yesterday.

We got quite a scare yesterday morning when we first reached Bishan Park at 6.15am. The pre-dawn sky was still heavily blanketed by clouds. I thought to myself, "Uh-oh... let's hope for the best and be prepared for the worse." We continued setting up our telescopes with a heavy heart.

Lo and behold, the clouds started to leave at about 6.45am and there stood Venus in the sky, shining brightly above, as if it was a promise by the Morning Star, that the day will not be in vain.

True enough, the eastern view was clear throughout the day!

Throngs of people started streaming in and made a beeline towards our telescopes. Some of us were busy giving out free solar glasses to the public for safe viewing, while some of us were busy explaining to the crowd about what to expect soon.

My very first solar eclipse! Woohoo! Gosh I could not contain my excitement when I spotted the Sun slowly getting devoured by the Moon until it became a crescent. I thought to myself, "Not bad for a first timer."

The whole sky turned slightly dark at the maximum point (87%) of the eclipse at 8.23am. The whole experience was eeriely surreal to me - seeing a brightly lit place turned ghostly pale for a brief time.

I only had a few moments to fully admire the eclipse as my station was jam packed by curious folks from all walks of life. Nonetheless, we had great fun bringing the experience to the general public. Many of them left with pictures of the eclipse taken with their camera phone on our telescopes. Oh, and it was also a first time for many of us amateur astronomers to witness this beautiful and stunning partial solar eclipse.

This will always be an awesome day that I will remember in many years to come.

Thanks to my astro buddies for making this event happen, you know who you are *wink*.

Thanks to Channel News Asia, Asian Scientist Publishing, and Power 98 for covering the news of the solar eclipse at Bishan Park.

I have attach a video of the coverage of the event. Credits to Alice Chia, Channel New Asia.

Next #SolarEclipse visible from Singapore will b on 26 December 2019: Sg Sidewalk Astronomy pic.twitter.com/4DjzsKJ3Ga

— Alice Chia (@AliceChiaCNA) March 9, 2016

Here's the news link from Channel News Asia. www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/singapore-captivated-by/2585324.html

Here are some pictures of the event. Photo credits to Dave Ng and Avarielle.

Just arrived.

Setting up.

Waiting.

Some photographers came as well.

Some people started coming in.

Solar eclipse!

Hot, hot, hot!!!

How the solar eclipse looked like at its maximum.

How it looked like through my ST-80 telescope.

Enthusiastic people trying to take a picture of the solar eclipse.

Crowded!

A zoom-in version of the above picture.

Light Sail Part 2

Received a package from The Planetary Society today via DHL. It contained a Light Sail mission patch for contribution in funding for the mission. I am very enthusiastic about Light Sail as I think that it will be a revolutionary way to propel small satellites and probes using photons from our Sun. They have done a successful test launch last year and will be conducting an official launch this year. If successful, the Light Sail would orbit Earth. It can be seen on Earth at night if it passes by our location. Its brightness rivals that of the ISS during flybys.

The Light Sail mission patch.