A Thousand Suns

Gary held an impromptu sidewalk session outside of Toa Payoh Library yesterday evening. I came down from work empty-handed and tried my best to help out here and there.

Gary brought along his Mak, Haz was there with his 80mm triplet refractor, and Dave, together with Ava, came with his 80mm ED refractor later in the evening. Uncle Wayne was there as well with his Nikon binos.

Dave, Ava, Uncle Wayne, and I went for dinner at a newly opened Indian food stall nearby. The food was only so-so and it took a long time for our food to be served. The prata was cold, the curry wasn't to my liking as it was diluted and the texture of the curry just wasn't right.

I met an amazing Indian couple shortly after dinner. They were really inquisitive and they were asking me many questions about the recent happenings in the field of astronomy - from the thirty-meter telescope to putting people on Mars. Of course, I was very happy to tell them what I knew. I truly find pleasure in communicating this sort of things to the public and I try to explain it as simply as I could. You can actually reach out to the public without a telescope!

Later on, Ava told us that she was giving out solar filters to the people in our group for free. At first, I was hesitant about taking one as I already have a pair at home. Seeing what she was trying to give was a more compact, card version that I could keep in my phone cover's pocket, I offered to pay her for one.

Just last week after the Lunar Eclipse had ended, Dave lent to me his Thousand Oak white light solar filter which could fit an 80mm telescope but I have yet to try it as the weather was very cloudy during my off day from work last Monday. I shall try it again next Monday if the weather is reasonably good.

Mustafa Revisited

Went to Mustafa Centre after work to get something to complement the scrapbook. I thought that since the book is going to be used at night for most of the time, it was only right for me to get a clip-on torch to shade some light on it, no pun intended.

As I was about to cash out at a counter, I saw this quiz game sitting a few meters away from where I was. Curiousity got the better of me and I went over to investigate. It was an astronomy quiz game that came with question cards with different levels of difficulty. Included in the box was a small globe featuring constellations of the night sky, though I am not sure what it is for as I don't think it has anything to do with the quiz game. The globe is a nice addition for display purpose, I guess.

Let there be light!

That Book Thing

So, I have completed the scrapbook that I have been rambling about since last month. You can take a look at March's blog post entitled "Scrapbook" for a heads up.

I took my thumb drive down to Queensway Shopping Centre and have the PowerPoint slides printed and binded into a book. It was expensive. There were 110 slides and each cost fifty-cents to print. The binding was $2. Throw in tax and the total came up to $61.

This is sort of a prototype copy and I have already started scribbling down additional stuff on back pages. Those are to be included in the next printout which I am going to do it myself for economical reasons.

I have yet to explain anything to anyone using this book. Fingers crossed, I hope to bring it along with me to every sidewalk session and utilize it as often as possible.

The book contains things that the public frequently ask about and bite-size explanations of why certain things happen the way they do. It is flooded with many pictures for visual learning and with me as an audio guide when I communicate astronomy to the public.

Total Lunar Eclipse

Last Saturday, I caught my very first Lunar eclipse at Bishan Park with the usual suspects. The sidewalk started at 2pm when the guys were doing solar sidewalk for the public. I wasn't there at that time due to work commitment. I took a cab there after work and reached at about 5.30pm. As I was walking to the park, I saw both Gary and James unloading equipment from James' car. I rushed over to help.

Hazrie, Ava, Dave, John and Alfred were already at the park's Macdonald's. The guys who were doing solar astronomy earlier have kept their solar observing equipment and were ready to setup for the Lunar eclipse viewing.

Ava and I went for our dinner nearby and we volunteered to get bottles of water for the rest of us for the event. As we were about to finish dinner, it started to pour heavily. We thought it was a good thing that it started raining now rather than later when the even starts. We waited for the rain to subside before returning to the park with bottles of water.

When the drizzling stopped at about 7.30pm, I started to deploy my Skymaster 15x70 binoculars. Alas, the rain clouds lingered when the maximum eclipse occured at 8pm. We only caught the first glimpse of the Moon at 8.30pm and the maximum eclipse was already over. Nonetheless, it was still a beautiful sight watching the Moon coming out of Earth's shadow. There were many people queuing up to take a look through our telescopes and binoculars. The Moon moved out of Earth's shadow completely at 9.45pm and a gorgeous full Moon was in view.

What truly made my night was when a kind lady got me some light bites from Macdonald's as a gesture of thanks. After the event ended, I told Dave and Haz about the lady and they were like, "Why didn't you get her number?!" Hahaha.

Common question that most of us got from the public all night was, "Why is the Moon red?"

I call that a very successful event with a massive turnout. Our Facebook page, Singapore Sidewalk Astronomy, hit a new milestone of over 1000 Likes!

Just as I was packing up, Jason called and told me that he and Junwei saw the maximum Lunar eclipse earlier at 8pm. His location at Katong wasn't blocked by clouds. Good for them!

The next total Lunar eclipse that's visible in Singapore will take place in 2018.

Photo credits to Hazrie, Dave, and Foo Chuan Wei.

Announcement

Sharing this info from Gary's blog.

There's a Total Lunar Eclipse happening on Saturday, 4th April 2015.

WEATHER PERMITTING, this eclipse is visible from Singapore on that evening from 7:07pm facing East.

Watch the following 1-minute video explanation in full-screen HD for best experience:

Here are the important timings to take note of:

Penumbral Eclipse Begins  (P1)    =   5:01 pm (not visible)
Partial Eclipse Begins         (U1)   =   6:15 pm (not visible)
Moon Rise                                     =   7:07 pm
Total Eclipse Begins          (U2)  =   7:57 pm 
Greatest Eclipse                          =   8:00 pm
Total Eclipse Ends             (U3)  =   8:02 pm
Partial Eclipse Ends             (U4)  =   9:44 pm
Penumbral Eclipse Ends      (P4)   = 10:58 pm

Source: Eclipse Predictions by Fred Espenak, NASA/GSFC


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WEATHER PERMITTING, We will be conducting Lunar Eclipse viewing + stargazing through telescopes at Bishan Park (near McDonald's) on that day:

(1) Solar Astronomy from 3:30pm.

Look at the Sun very safely with 100% certified filters and solar telescopes managed by experienced solar astronomers! WARNING: DO NOT look at the Sun directly, it will damage your eyesight!

You may also observe the Sun very safely through solar paper viewers.

Have a greater visual appreciation of this gigantic source of heat and light without which we will never see any eclipse on Earth or anywhere else in our Solar System!

(2) Lunar Eclipse viewing from 7:00pm. 

The main event!

Try to catch the Moon as early as possible when it rises at 7:07pm from the East (azimuth 95° to be precise).

Missed it and you will have to wait until 2018 to see another Total Lunar Eclipse from Singapore.

Take as many photos and videos of this eclipse as you can. Or just admire it with your eyes only, through telescopes or a pair of binoculars. Especially during the visually most exciting total eclipse phase from 7:57pm - 8:02pm (shortest in this 21st century).

(3) Stargazing through telescopes from 7:45pm.

We have been conducting free public stargazing sessions at this location since 2012.

Come look through our telescopes and marvel at the amazing views of Moon, Jupiter, Stars Clusters, Star Cloud (nebulae) and my personal favourite - Saturn! (Yeah, the one with the rings!)

All events are free of charge and open to members of the public.

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As you can see from the above YouTube video, this location in Bishan Park has a good view of the Eastern horizon where the Moon rises.

Should you find that location too crowded, you may also observe in other areas inside this big public park (which recently hosted a SG50 Concert attended by more than 8000 people).

You may also watch the live streaming of this lunar eclipse from Slooh.com, with excellent narration by astronomy experts like Will Gater and Bob Berman:

http://main.slooh.com/event/total-lunar-eclipse-on-april-4-2015/?event_date=2015-04-04


If you have any queries about this Total Lunar Eclipse and our events at Bishan Park on that day, please feel free to contact us via:

Facebook: Singapore Sidewalk Astronomy
Twitter: @AstroSG
Email: gary@astro.sg

Good luck & hope to see plenty of your lunar eclipse photos and videos online on 4th April!