The Sweaty Stargazer: 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!