2008 is going to pass soon. I shall do a review of the important astronomy research in 2008. However, I’m still busy applying to US universities. My head is going to explode anytime soon.
Wish you a happy new year! 
Monthly Archive for December, 2008
All my fellow friends,
May you all the best in 2009! Thank you for the support since the I started this blog near the end of 2005. I’m appointed by International Sidewalk Astronomy Group as the National Organiser. I feel so proud and definitely will contribute everything I could for the International Year of Astronomy.
If you are a hardcore of AstronomyNotes.net, do you notice that this year I’ve embeded a greeting picture in this post? Well.. obviously my sister isn’t in the mood to draw me one. Anyway, I still like her artwork very much.
2006 Christmas card
2005 Christmas card
I must admit that she has the talent that I’ve lost since I stop drawing. 
Photographed by Bruenjes @ 2007
Oh yeah~ It’s time for Geminids meteor shower. The show peaks on 13-14 Dec 2008. The rate of the meteor, ZHR (Zenithal Hourly Rate) is supposed to be 100 meteors/hour but the biggest moon spoilt the show and reduce the rate to around 20/hour. However, from my experience, last Geminids performed very well with a large number of fireballs which were so bright that the moon and artificial light didn’t affect at all.
How to look? Good question asked! Just make use of your bared eyes will do. Meteor is too fast for telescope to catch. Someone please prove me wrong~
When to look? Basically, you can catch the most meteors just before dusk. This law still applies but you may unexpectedly catch more earlier that time. So, when the sky turns dark, it’s time to look.
Where to look? Excellent question, indeed! This is a tough question for me to answer as I found both ways work for me. One is to look away the radiant and another is to look to the radiant. Radiant is the point where all the meteors “come” from. It’s an artificial point as meteors don’t really come from there. For geminids, the radiant lies very near to Castor, a star belongs to the constellation Gemini. Gemini nears to the constellation Orion. Orion is well known of its belt composed of 3 stars at a line.
Too technically speaking? Okay, find a place without many obstacles that block your view and lay down on a mat or enjoy yourself on a lounge chair. Head up and dressed well!
Local advice: The radiant point is highest around 3 a.m. in Kluang, Johor, Malaysia. It won’t be much different nationwide.
Biggest moon you’ll see until Nov 2016
The moon looks so big during the sunset that I almost crash into it
My buddy, agogo said so to me when he saw the moon while driving to Victor’s house for TOEFL tuition.
Indeed, the moon looked really big today. Well, you guess the reason. Hmm.. Don’t worry that the moon will collide with our earth although it looks like there’s possible to happen. In fact, both the moon and earth are seperating apart by 2cm per earth year.
The moon looks biggest when it’s near the horizon. I believe it’s because of the refraction caused by the particles of the atmosphere. For your information, from our line of sight, atmosphere is the thickest at the horizon and thinnest at the zenith (overhead).
Therefore, if you want to take fantastic photo, I suggest you do it when the moon is near to the horizons, either it’s rising or setting will do.
Let’s go into some facts. The moon is 14% bigger and 30% brighter than the lesser full moon earlier of the year. It looks biggest as it’s now at the perigee. Perigee is a point where the moon is closest to us at its eclipse orbit which is 50,000 km closer to us than the other side. Simply said, when moon is at perigee (perigee moon), it’s closest to the earth. The opposition of perigee is apogee.
Well, enjoy your show. Tomorrow, we will have Geminids meteor shower!!
The Great Conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon at 7:41pm UT+8 on 1 Dec 2008
Taken by Nokia N82
What a coincidence! Look to the southwest before the twilight ended. You would appreciate you walk out for a view.
Venus, Jupiter and Moon will get so close in a part of sky 3º across. A binocular may fit them in the field of view. This event doesn’t require any skill to enjoy, just seize the moment, away from your keyboard now and make your eyes wide open.
Go now! (Now’s it’s the time for people in timezone GMT+8)
