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)
Venus and Jupiter are at their closest angular distance early this year. On 1,2 Feb 2008 dawn, we will get a spectacular view of both the brightest planets on the eastern sky, so close that they’re just 0.6° apart.
Check out your starchart, Stellarium, Starry Night, The Sky or S&T online starchart to check the rise time of both the planets. You don’t need any equipment to join, just a pair of eyes will do. However, a digital camera can photograph this wonder.
That’s totally sad as the chance that 2007 WD5 will hit Mars is dropped to 0.01%. Let’s hope the 1 in 10,000 odd will come true. Anyway, I will still setup my planetary setup (LX90 + QHY5) to monitor the Mars. Please hit.
More info at NEO, JPL, NASA
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Wish everybody has a wonderful 2008. At least, there are few great astronomical events waiting for us. At least, January is favoured with 3 fantastic events.
Continue reading ‘Happy New Year 2008 – Amazing Events Are Waiting For Us’
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.
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!
It looks like a toy in this photo…
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…
This event is held by the biggest telescope manufacturer, Meade and the astronomical magazine Astronomy on 21 April 2007. Other than sharing the passion, I think the main objective of joinning this event is to win a Meade 10″ LX200R! 
You are not going to be disappointed this month. There are 4 comets and 1 asteroid as well as 1 meteor shower visible!
Let’s talk about comet first. There are Lovejoy (C2007/E2), 2P/Encke, 4P/Faye and 96P/Machholz. Lovejoy is the comet discovered by Terry Lovejoy in March. It’s moving from Sagittarius to Lyra. At the beginning of April, its magnitude is 8.6 and is expected to brighten about 0.7 magnitude. Encke begins the month in Aries at magnitude 7.6 and moving into Cetus by month’s end.
For more information regarding the comet, please visit Comet Chasing.
The meteor shower, Lyrids is predicted to peak at 2230UT on 22 April 2007. The peak rate is about 25/hour. The radiant of Lyrids is the central of Hercules, four degrees southeast of the third magnitude star Pi Herculis. For more, please read The American Meteor Society.
The asteroid 2007 HA is 300m in diameter and 6.5 LD away from Earth. Its magnitude is 13th currently so you need a pretty big backyard scope to see it visually or you can image it with smaller scope. This movie shows the travelling 2007 HA. This asteroid is discovered by MIT’s Linear Project.
