Monthly Archive for February, 2009

Comet Lulin – Now or Regret

Published on February 23, 2009 in Comet and Photo Op. View Comments Tags: , .

Comet Lulin is approaching us! It’s approaching us! I’ve never been such excited blogging here!

On 24 Feb 2009, Comet Lulin is going to pass the Earth by just 60.8 million km. Could you imagine that? At apogee (farthest), the Moon is 0.4 million km from us. Check out the sky map below to look out the comet!

Southern Skymap Comet Lulin
Click to enlarge

Many have already been out at the backyard busy imaging the great comet. The gallery at SpaceWeather.com is growing faster and faster when the day comes close to 24 Feb. Comet Lulin is a green tinted comet. You will see it as a greenish patch on the southern sky. The telescope will show you even more. From some degree, the comet even looks like a sword with its tail and anti-tail.

What if you’re going to miss the show due to the weather? No worry, Coca-Cola Space Science Center is going to broadcast the view through their 16″ Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. It starts at 1530 GMT on 23rd Feb 2009 until 1000 GMT on 24th Feb.

Comet Lulin is a great discovery with the collaboration of Chinese and Taiwanese. More story later, the comet is drawing my attention. :D

75 Telescopes Ranked

Published on February 19, 2009 in Telescopes. View Comments Tags: .

If you’re a computer enthusiast, you must be familiar with the benchmark score obtained from 3dMarks, PC Mark, Everest, PCMark, Prime 95 and so on. Is there anything similar to represent the performance of telescope? Well, there’s is and someone did it in the form of scores too.

Credits to Mr.Yoshida Hiroshi, he has done a review on 75 telescopes. He reviewed them visually and scored them. The photographic performance of the telescope is not taken into account. I would say this is just a reference for you but not solely the factor to consider a telescope.

Before buying a telescope, I suggest you read through the reviews posted at forums like cloudynights.com and most importantly, join a stargazing session with someone who already owned a telescope. You will know better what to expect.

Here you read the rankings, cz-telesco.bbs.coocan.jp
The content is in Japanese, you can use Google translator to translate into English or any other language you prefer.

Free Web Hosting For IYA2009

Published on February 14, 2009 in IYA2009. View Comments Tags: .

International Year of Astronomy is getting more and more concern. Volcato Hosting offers free hosting service to people from professional astronomers to amateur astronomer and enthusiasts for one year. The only condition is that your website must be about astronomy.

Thanks to Volcato Hosting for their kindness. For more information, please read Volcato Hosting – International Year of Astronomy 2009

350 Joined Us For Partial Solar Eclipse

Published on February 5, 2009 in Eclipse, Public Outreach and Sidewalk Astronomy. View Comments Tags: , , .

Solar Eclipse Sequence Photo

Click to enlarge

27 Jan 2009 – We reached another 350 people this time.  350 people, actually more than that, joined us for the partial solar eclipse observing event at Kluang Mall, Kluang, Johor, Malaysia.

The partial solar eclipse started at 16:30:55 and ended on 18:58:21 on 26 Jan 2009. I arrived at the mall around 16:10 and when I had the LX90 ready for observing the sun, the elicpse had already begun. However, I was so thrilled as this was the first time I gazed at the “eaten sun”. At the mean time, Shyh Tzer was setting up his photography equipment. Homemade solar filter (floppy disk) attached on the front of the digital camera was used to snap the great moment.

The sunglasses, cool huh?
Front: Cool DIY sunglasses!
Back: The guy in the back is Rui-Yi. He counted the number of visitors

Shyh Tzer also brought along 8 sunglasses made with the floppy disk for the participants. Frankly speaking, looking via the sunglasses and my LX90 were equally fun. Though, a Lunt Solar telescope would double the joy we all had.

3 MusketeersLeft to right: *censored*, Kang Xuan and Shyh Tzer

This time, I was not alone. Well, there are members along with me everytime. :P Shyh Tzer, Kang Xuan (red), Rui-Yi and I handled the event this time. There could be more but most of the members are enjoying themselves with relatives and friends as 26 Jan 2009 was the first day of Chinese New Year.

Few hours before the event, I was actually struggling whether to hold this event or not. It was so rare to have all the relatives gathered at grandfather’s house. Fortunately, I took the right action and went straight to hold this event. What I had at the site was much more than what I could gain. It’s wonderful to share the joy with people rather than keep the joy myself. One’s happiness and 350 happiness, which one would you pick?

Thumbs UpGreat! Thumbs up!