Monthly Archive for January, 2009

CNY Partial Solar Eclipse

Published on January 22, 2009 in Astronomy Malaysia, Eclipse, NASA and Photo Op. View Comments Tags: , , , .

hartwig luethen1 01aug08 280x190 CNY Partial Solar Eclipse

An annular solar eclipse taken by Hartwig Luenthen on 01 August 2008

On 26 January 2009, we celebrate Chinese New Year, the Ox Year. This year, we are “favored” a partial solar eclipse here in Malaysia. I said “favored” as if we were in centuries ago, a solar eclipse meant a terrible nightmare to the Chinese. Not in these days, we are now equipped with scientific minds, a solar eclipse now means a wonder from the sky.

Now, let’s cut straight into the title. Go to this NASA website and look out for your location. You will be given exact time when the solar eclipse will start and reach the maximum and finally end. Check out Solar Eclipse 2009 too. There’s useful information like the coverage of the obscured sun, basic skills to look at the sun, sunglasses making and so on. This booklet is made by Miss Lau at National Planetarium in Malaysia.

Make sure you are well equipped with solar filter before looking at the sun. The damage to the eyes but the strong rays of light from the sun is irreversible!

Wish everybody enjoys the Chinese New Year! This maybe my last year celebrating CNY in Malaysia until another 4 years with my family members if I go to US for tertiary education.

Another Night with LX90

Published on January 21, 2009 in Stargazing Notes. View Comments Tags: .

18 Jan 2009 – The light pollution is getting worse. I have long missed the starry night sky in Pulau Redang.  No, it can’t stop my enthusiasm towards the night sky. The stars are twinkling but not my eyes. I watch a meteor scratch through the southern sky below the Siruis.

Mosquitoes are detering me from continuing my passion. The wonders of the sky tell me not.

M79 is a globular cluster  in Lepus. Although it is at magnitude 8.3, I see it as a patch of light. Further observation will prove if it is the weather that spoilt the view.

M38 is one of the best open clusters in Auriga. It is at mag. 6.4. In Auriga, there are 3 marvelous open clusters.  The members are M36, M37 and M38.

The view of M42 is breathtaking! Albeit the seeing not at the best, I see the nebulosity at the farthest expansion as the first time. I assume it’s the good weather that summons such a mind-blowing scene. I can even see 2 stars through nebulosity.

Eta Carinae Nebula is always one of the mystical objects on the sky. It’s the remnant of the supernova of a star named Eta Carinae. A star is usually dead after going into the supernova but this star is the odd.  This nebula spans around 84′ (arcminutes) and shines at magnitude 5. I’m driven to save for a camera to have a deeper view.

NGC3377 is an ecliptical galaxy in Leo. Magnitude 10.1 is within my lx90 light grasp but somehow I can’t see it. It’s 32 million light year (ly) away which hosts a super black hole equals to 1o0 millions mass of suns.

Caldwell 091 is an open cluster in Carina at magnitude.3. It’s spanning around 54′ and is 1300 ly away and 25ly in diameter. It’s claimed to be the best open cluster by Autostar #497 controller.

Sprindle galaxy also known as NGC3315 and Caldwell 53 is a smudge at  mag.9.1 in Sextans, the constellation. It’s 4′  and it’s the only galaxy observed tonight

M41, another open cluster, in Canis Major, at mag.4.5. Nothing special to my eyes except lots of stars are out there.

M35, the fourth open cluster observed tonight, is in Gemini. I can see chains of light in the cluster which I think make this cluster one of the most special I have ever observed. It’s not easy for me to appreciate at first as I have to strain my eyes to clearly see what is out there.

Okay Mosquitoes, our fight shall end now. Retreat! :D

Please. Please let me know how shall I make this stargazing note more interesting to you. :)

So My Tertiary Study Begins

Published on January 18, 2009 in General. View Comments Tags: .

Most of you must have known what am I going to pursue in my life. I was looking for universities that have great astronomy department, hopefully great natural science departments and aerospace engineering department too. Yup, I’m greedy, I want to indulge myself with many fields that I am curious to learn more.

Initially, I have quite a number of schools in my wishlist and most of them are in US. After looking into the details, I only found out that I had to take SAT Reasoning Test and SAT Subject Test which were compulsory for the schools in my list. Previously, I thought TOEFL + 2 SAT Subject Test would do but that’s just for MIT. I’ve taken my SAT Subject Test: Physics & Math Level 2 on 6 Dec 2008. Next will be the SAT Reasoning Test on 24 Jan 2009. I scored 800 in Physics and 670 in Math Level 2.

Now, let’s go on to the schools in my list.

Continue reading ‘So My Tertiary Study Begins’

Back Into The Hobby

Published on January 9, 2009 in Stargazing Notes. View Comments Tags: .

7 Jan 08 – Yippee! The title is self-explaining enough, I’m back. When I checked the date of my Autostar #497, the last observing date is 29 Nov 2008. Worse, I was not doing any serious observing that night. I just showed some objects to my club members so that they had a clue what does [insert any celestial body] look like. My last serious observing was around July, remember I imaged the Jupiter?

Yesterday was a breezy night. I was getting all my gears ready for the Moon and the cloud slipped in. The good news was that the wind was so fstrong that the large cloud which spanned the north and western sky was not a problem. I just need the patience.

I’ve recorded 4 piles of images in .AVI format at 384MB each. I’ve yet to process them with Registax V4. Right after the imaging session, I did visual observing. The moon glow was still quite strong so the  result was not that good compare to a new moon night.

Thanks to the Autostar #497 excellent Tonight Best guided tour, I observed the celestial bodies below.

  • Great Orion Nebula (as stunning as usual)
  • Saturn (the ring almost disappears!)
  • M35
  • M36-38 (open clusters in Auriga)
  • Beehive Cluster (Praesepe, M44)
  • M79
  • M68
  • Spindle Galaxy (elongated star patch)
  • Eta Carinae (remnant of supernova)
  • Moon (earth’s only sibling)
  • Sirius (the brightest star)
  • Canopus (the old man star)

Did I say I love blogging? I feel so relieved after I made a post.