Happy Halloween everybody! Here are my younger sister, Dion Lee’s artworks! Enjoy~
Monthly Archive for October, 2007
Comet Holmes 17P is getting bigger and bigger. At the same distance as of Jupiter, it’s now bigger than it. Imagine! It was at magnitude 2.3th measured by Dr.Clay on 28 Oct 2007. It was 255 arc seconds across on the same time. If you are interested in the photometry result, you may refer to COMET OUTBURST: Comet 17P Holmes More facts below…
Continue reading ‘Comet Bigger Than Our King Planet - 17P/Holmes’
As you know, the China moon orbiter, Chang’e 1 has been launched at the same day of NASA’s Discovery. One’s destination is the 200 km orbit above the moon and another is ISS. More information will come after I finished my paper tomorrow. 
The annual meteor shower Orionid is coming again. The meteors are the debris of the extremely famous Halley’s Comet. The peak rate this year is around 20-50 per hour. Observers last year spotted the same figure and I guess we will get roughly the same again.
Where to look?
Continue reading ‘Orionid Peaks on 21st Oct’
Congratulations to the crew for successfully entering the orbit! It’s so excited to see the live transmission, the blast of the rocket is so powerful. Now, they will stay in the orbit for 2 days until they dock with the ISS. From the live transmission, I saw that the driving capsule is really small. I would be very uncomfortable if I were them but no choice, we have to adapt.
Yes, adapt is one of the key to choose an astronaut because you have to withstand the recoil force of the rocket when it’s accelerating and able to work under microgravity environment. If you fail this, sorry, you are limited to the ground.
I will update with you what will they do in the lounge. I can’t wait to see Sheikh eating the Malaysian’s food.
From left: Sheikh Muszaphar Shukur (Malaysia), Yuri Malanchenko (Russia) and Peggy Whitson (U.S.)
T minus 22 hours (2120 UT8, 10 Oct), Malaysia first astronaut will blast off to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz TMA-11. Dr.Sheik Muszaphar Shukur (35) is the final candidate since the open selection process for “Angkasawan” (Malaysian language for astronaut) started from October 2003 to September 2006. Dr.Faiz (another angkasawan) is in the backup crew. There are 3 members in the main crew, including Dr.Sheik, Yuri Malanchenko and Peggy Whitson.
When do we have the technology to send astronauts to space? Russia offered a deal to send an angkasawan to the ISS as we bought Sukhoi-30MKM fighter jets from them. So, what will Dr.Sheik do in the ISS?
He will do scientific experiments of cancer cells, bacterias, protein crystallization and a few more collaborating with the European Space Agency. They will install 4 modules to the ISS, which are Node 2, Columbus, ATV and the Japanese Laboratory Module. Since it is now “puasa” (fasten), he will fast in the space and pray to Allah. I hope he will have enough energy. He will also use his Nikon D2X (hmm.. expensive camera) to image the Petronas Twin Tower (landmark of Malaysia) from the ISS.
His other “mission” is to share the Malaysian’s food and spread the Malaysia culture to the other cosmonauts on board. He will bring Biryani Chicken, Satay Ayam, Rendang Tok, Sliced dried Mango, Banana rolls, Tempe, Ginger Jelly, Roselle Granola Bar and Kuih Raya Bangkit. Hopefully they will enjoy!
Tony Silva, the president of Sao Paula Astronomy Club, Brazil, member of Sidewalk Astronomers (I’m one of them) invites you to join the Sidewalk Astronomy Handbook Project. It’s devised by CASP and the Los Angeles Sidewalk Astronomers. They had the idea for this as they believe that sidewalk astronomy should play a big role in International Year of Astronomy in 2009. There will be a series of events to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei’s first telescope observation.
Continue reading ‘Let’s Be The Editor of “Sidewalk Astronomy Handbook”’
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