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!

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

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.

People were highly attracted by this photo projected on the panel.

As a member of NASA Saturn Observation Campaign, I held my first event on 6 March 2008 at our school basketball field at 7.30pm.

Things were not very smooth at first as we plan this event urgently within 2 days. As I foresaw that the weather might be fooling us so we borrowed a projector and panel. I saluted my club president (I’m currently a consultant) as she could borrow them in such a short period.

On that night, we had little guests when the event started as the clouds were still hovering around us. Luckily, the wind blew them away in 45 minutes. Within this period, we setup the projector and the panel. It was a shame that we only got the projector ready when the clouds were dissipated. The presentation telescope, 8″ LX90 was also ready by that time.

Since Saturn was blocked by the building at that time, we observed the M42, Great Orion Nebula first. Public were amazed by the nebulosity of M42. At the same time, we showed them the view they could get with camera by using projector. The image below amazed them the most.

Finally, I announced that the Saturn was finally available. They were so excited that they rushed to line up behind the telescope. Although the tilt of the Saturnian rings was getting lesser, they were still satisfied with the result. Most of the people had their first time view of Saturn. We also showed them not less than 10 photos taken by Cassini. Again, the photo posted at the most top highly attracted public’s eyeballs just as what happened here.

On 19 Dec 2007, 7:45 UT+8, Mars was at the closest approach to us until 2016. I was having my birthday party on the 18 Dec night. Sadly, the clouds were jealous that the Goddess of the Wars, Mars was going to celebrate my birthday with my fellow friends.

This color image was assembled from a series of exposures taken within 36 hours of the Mars closest approach with Hubble’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. More about the info of the image is below.

Mars and Earth have a “close encounter” about every 26 months. These periodic encounters are due to the differences in the two planets’ orbits. Earth goes around the Sun twice as fast as Mars, lapping the Red Planet about every two years. Both planets have elliptical orbits, so their close encounters are not always at the same distance. In its close encounter with Earth in 2003, for example, Mars was about 20 million miles closer than it is in the 2007 closest approach, resulting in a much larger image of Mars as viewed from Earth in 2003.

The two dominant dark swatches seen just south of the equator on this part of the planet are well observed regions that were originally labeled by early Mars observers. The large triangular shape to the right is Syrtis Major. The horizontal lane to the left is Sinus Meridani. One of NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, named “Opportunity,” landed at the western end of this region in January 2004. At the intersection of these two features is the prominent Huygens crater with a diameter of 270 miles (450 kilometers). South of Huygens is the Hellas impact basin, with a diameter of 1,100 miles (1,760 km) and a depth of nearly 5 miles (8 km). Hellas was formed billions of years ago when an asteroid collided into the Mars surface.

Copied from HubbleSite.org

I was watching the meteor shower with 4 CHHS Astronomy Club members. It’s very nice to enjoy the show with friends. My sisters joined us very shortly after they heard us screaming. Haha.. it’s really a cool show. Meteor shower is definitely one of the best phenomena that everyone on the earth can enjoy without any expense.

I just find out that my record doesn’t have any scientific value so I decided not to expose my Geminids observation report on the 15 Dec night. Look at International Meteor Organisation Visual Report Page. It drove me away from reporting… You might say that I’m not suitable for science. However, I prefer a report that the public can make, not just amateur astronomer and even the professionals.

14 Dec 2007

Whoa! It was really fantastic this midnight. I started my observing since 1:40am UT+8 14 Dec. The cloud rolled in since 2.00am and was carried away by the wind soon. Another huge cloud rolled in just after several minutes but the strong wind blew it away again.

2:00am, I saw my first Geminids. It’s the brightest one throughout the whole session. It travelled from Orion to Taurus
2:08am, second Geminids, from Gemini to Orion
2:14am, *forgot to note the direction…
2:15am, third, between Canis Major and Canis Minor
2:17am, Canis Major to Canopus
2:23am, Canis Minor to Saturn
2:27am, X to Canis Major (I didn’t catch this meteor quite well)
2:40am, Between Mars and Orion

One funny thing was that I saw a cloud looked like the God of Gods, the Zeus.