It’s meteor shower month now!
In November we have the famous Leonids and December we have the Geminids.
This year Stargazer Scientific is organising a 2 days 1 night outing (11 – 12 Dec) to watch the Geminids at Penang National Park. Visit Stargazer site for more info.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) planned to launch a spacecraft to Venus sometime next year. This Venus Climate Orbiter “AKATSUKI” (or Planet-C), as its name implies, will explore the climate of Venus such as unveil the mysteries of wind on Venus and observe the atmospheric movement and cloud formation process. Ultimately, this mission aims to deepen our understanding of the formation process of the Earth’s environment and its future by comparing Venus and the Earth.
JAXA would like to enhance people’s interest in space by holding a message campaign in which they invite the public to send messages that will be printed in fine letters on an aluminum plate and placed aboard AKATSUKI.
Click here to send your name and message to Venus. The deadline is on Christmas Day December 25, 2009. You have plenty of time to think what to say to Venus…
I’m lucky to be living at the equator because the northern and southern stars will be mostly visible in my night sky (I can’t see Polaris though…). Every time when I saw the Big Dipper, my first reaction is to turn 180 degrees around and look for Crux – I always enjoy doing that.
I once had an experience on a night plane where my friend woke me up and ask me to look out. After sticking my face to the window and hanging my jacket over my head for some time, I got to see the Big Dipper. Cool… Then I turned and looked at the opposite window, will I see Crux if I looked out there? Fortunately for me there were some empty seats over that side, so I moved over and glued my face to the window again… and WOW… Crux was there! The experience was unforgettable…
I think Crux is the most seen constellation to me. My house is facing south, so every time I go out, I’ll see it* rising above my neighbour rooftop. When I come back, I may see it again setting below the rooftop. My bedroom window is also facing south, so again, every time I look out of my window, I’ll see a cross* hanging in the sky. (*provided the weather is OK and the month is right).
There is a Jewel Box in Crux. This beautiful open cluster is also known as Kappa Crucis Cluster or NGC4755. It got its Jewel Box nickname from an English astronomer John Herschel in the 1830s because the striking colour contrasts of its pale blue and orange stars seen through a telescope reminded Herschel of a piece of exotic jewellery.
The Jewel Box is located near the “left edge” of the cross, near the star Mimosa (beta Crucis). Through a telescope, the brightest stars can be seen forming an “A” lying down on its side.
Let us now take a journey into the cluster through the eye of the great telescopes…
This picture was taken with a 35-mm camera. Here we can clearly see Crux embedded in the Southern Milky Way Band.
Zoom in the region around Mimosa with the Digitized Sky Survey 2. Here we can see the cluster amongst the rich star fields and dust clouds of the Milky Way.
Taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory, this image highlights the Jewel Box cluster and its rich surroundings. Here you can see the “A” lying down on its side.
This was taken by the ESO 8.2-metre Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory. Since we are using such a large telescope (remember, this is called the Very Large Telescope) for such a bright object, few seconds of exposure will be suffice – in this case, it only took about 5 seconds to get the image above.
The final zoom was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope with its old Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. It was created from far ultraviolet to near-infrared images. Here we can see bright blue supergiants, red supergiants as well as many fainter stars.
The Jewel Box is indeed a beautiful cluster and you don’t need world-class telescopes to enjoy it though. Shining at magnitude 4.2, it’s easily visible with just the naked eye. It’s always my first few objects to target if I’m out observing.
Carnival of Space #126 is at The Gish Bar Times.
Carnival of Space #125 is at Orbiting Frog.
Galilean Nights is an International Year of Astronomy 2009 Cornerstone Project, globally celebrated from Oct 22 to 24. The purpose? To re-experience the wonders that Galileo Galilei observed 400 years ago.
When Galileo first turned his telescope to Moon, he saw that the Moon is not smooth; it’s full of craters. Later, when he turned his little scope to the Jupiter, he discovered the four biggest moons of the giant planet – now known as the Galilean Moons.
Thus, these two objects will be the focus for Galilean Nights, which will be well-positioned in the evening night sky for observing. Through just a small telescope, the craters on the Moon, the Galilean moons and cloud bands of Jupiter are easily visible.
In conjunction with this celebration, Stargazer Scientific will be organising a star party at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.
Date: 24 October 2009 (Sat)
Time: 7.30 pm – 10.00 pm
Venue: Carpark of Taman Rekreasi Bukit Jalil (next to Greenfields Condominium). Click here for map.
Contact: Sufen Cho. Tel: 03-8996 3378. Email: sufen.cho@stargazer.com.my
Admission: It’s Free!
Everyone is welcome to join the star party. It’s even better if you can bring your whole family especially your kids and your gang of friends along. We want to share the night sky to as much people as possible. Telescopes will be provided, so it’s OK if you don’t have one. If you have one and would like to bring along, you are most welcome!
I’ll be there, and hope to see you there too!
Yesterday night I saw a beautiful crescent Moon after having my dinner. This crescent Moon reminded me that a month had passed since I last saw it… and reminded me that I had an unfinished business…
Last month I was holidaying on an island called Pulau Tioman located at the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This is a beautiful island with clear blue-green water and lots of corals. (Click here to see some of my photos.) It’s a good place to relax and enjoy.
But what I most looking forward to is the night sky; far away from city light, how will the night sky be? It turned out to be good, but unfortunately, the weather didn’t cooperate. I was clouded out the first night and only a patch of sky was clear on the second night.
I didn’t come back empty handed though… at least I got to see and capture the Moon, which was really very beautiful…
I actually plan to post the photos here when I came back, but I keep procrastinating. If not for the crescent Moon yesterday, I won’t realise that I had been putting this off for so long.
Thanks to this Crescent Moon for reminding me of my unfinished job…
This is Mars. (by HiRISE, again…)
I know it don’t look like it.
But really, this is Mars.
Click the image to see more clearly.
It looks like someone or something has been drawing on Mars. No, not alien UFO. That something is called dust devils.
Bad Astronomer will explain to you how this landscape was done.
My Dark Sky
My Dark Sky 
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