An amateur astronomer blogger highly interested in aerospace, astronomy, astro equipments and other astro related fields. Robin shares the astronomy enthusiasm with people from kids to seniors.
The view is going to be really stunning! On 30 June 2007 (TODAY), Venus and Saturn are going to be only 2/3º apart. With a wide FOV eyepiece, you are really going to see super duper scene.
In addition, for Asians and other continents (not America for sure, they had it last month), the residents will have a BLUE MOON. You may read “Blue Moon Isn’t Blue” for more information.
I have no idea why but I am so tired lately. I have no enough time to do stargazing, reading of CloudyNights.com, LX90 Yahoo Groups and gaming (World of Warcraft). I have been busy trainning as the school sport’s day is drawing near. I take part in 200m, 4X100m and the long relay. Ok guys, please forgive me for taking a few holidays. 
I will still notify you guys regarding the latest (going to happen) celestial events though.
Please check Heavens Above regarding the passing of ISS and STS-117. The STS-117 has undocked from ISS and prepared to return to earth on Thursday. This will be a very great chance to photo the flyby of them. Most of the America has the sight of them. I don’t have the chance to take the photo as the nearest flyby is only going to happen on 29 June. The STS-117 has backed to earth by that time.
Ok guys, gear up!
Do you see that Venus is so close to the crescent moon? Will they be very close until they “collide”? Yes, they definitely will but just not colliding. It’s occultation. It happened on 1448 UT at 18 June 2007. The moon occulted Venus for not less than 4 hours (roughly figure). Have you seen it?
Image shift and mirror flop are the common phenomena seen on mirror type telescope, especially SCT. When either of them happens, you can see the image through the eyepiece shifting. The reason for these phenomena is the not-so-perfect movement (slightly to left or right) of the mirror. What’s the difference between them?
While focusing, “Image Shift”.
While slewing, “Mirror Flop”.
Both are actually the same thing. When focusing, you are doing the shift of the mirror back and forth, thus you made the imperfect movement and the movement caused the image shift; when slewing, gravity is doing it and it causes the mirror flop.
We always hear that people are sorted into types and groups automatically at a gathering or any similar activity. Hubble Space Telescope (HST) found a direct proof of this behavior having by globular cluster. Heavier stars are sinking into the cluster’s core and the ligher stars accelerate to the boundary of the cluster.
The STS-117 crew is going to leave the launch pad in 4 hours’ time. The good news is the weather forecast shows that there is only 20% chance that the weather will affect the launch. So, they’ll most probably leave on 8 June 07 at 2338 UT.
I was informed yesterday that the spacecraft exhibition - MIA2007 is finally confirmed postponed to 28 July until 30 September. The delay is made due to the transportation of the Buran spacecraft. The exhibition hall is located at Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (normally known as Subang Airport), Selangor, Malaysia.
My astronomy club chooses to join this event on 18 August, the first day of our 3rd term holidays. However, our slot is not confirmed yet. The entrance fee is RM25 for every student (only eligible on weekdays). An adult has to pay RM48 (USD14) while a child has to pay RM30 (USD8).
I am really eager to see how does a spacecraft look like in real. 
If any of you is interested, welcome to enquiry me about this event as I have some offers for you guys. 
That’s awesome. There were 152 people observed the moon through my telescope during the International Sidewalk Astronomy Night held at Kluang Parade (Kluang, Johor, Malaysia) on 26 May 2007. 4 of my astronomy club members showed up to help answering the public’s question. The event started from 1945 to 2200.
Why was the moon the only object observed? The sidewalk was actually cancelled due to the bad weather but it turned out to be just okay around 1930. So, it’s the below average atmospheric condition. Second, it’s the Kluang Parade and other tall buildings around that blocked the spectacular Jupiter and Saturn. The public were quite unfortunate.
It’s really fun to hold public outreach as it’s really rewarding when you are able to satisfy the hunger of people to know more about astronomy. It’s even more fun that you are able to hook people to be an amateur astronomer.
Hey wait, where is the photo? I am so sorry that I was too busy explaning to the public and forgot to take out my camera from my pocket…
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