Cloudy night on 14 Sept 2008
Well, it’s really a very belated Happy belated Mid-Autumn Festival（中秋节）! Another unofficial name is Mooncake Festival. Chinese celebrates this festival by eating mooncake and enjoy watching the moon. Some even lift off the “Kong Ming” Lantern with their wishes on the lantern to the sky.
It’s on 15 August every lunar year. (14 September in 2008). On this day, the moon is usually the biggest througout the year. The moon is called as Harvest Moon in western countries.
However, the largest moon (Harvest Moon) didn’t fall on 14 September but instead the next day. So, we don’t have the largest moon during this year Mooncake Festival due to the moon was still between the perigee and apogee.
At the end, please, enjoy my artwork of moon. The silhoutte was a tree not less than 50m from me.
Diamond ring on the sky
Another big celestial event this year is going to happen in 2 days’ time. The solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and the earth. This time, sun, moon and earth will be aligned at the same plane that the sun will be totally covered. Thus, total solar eclipse (TSE) occurs.
Continue reading ‘Solar Eclipse on 1 August 08′
Join NASA’s return to the Moon by sending yourself to the Moon!
Alright, it’s just your name. 
Just sumbit your name to the website below, you’ll be given a certificate to show your support of the mission. The names will be collected and placed onboard the LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) spacecraft.
LRO’s objectives are to find safe landing sites, locate potential resources, characterize the radiation environment, and demonstrate new technology. This will be a historic mission.
The deadline of submission of names is 28 June 2008.
http://lro.jhuapl.edu/NameToMoon/
From 3 May to 7 May, we’re gifted one of the year best meteor shower - Eta Aquarid meteor shower. Aquarids are the debris left by Halley’s Comet of which last closest approach was in 1986. For this year, the moon is new and the Aquarids stay at full strength over the 5 days. This time, Aquarids favor us and the southern region. Expect a spectacular meteor shower! 
Continue reading ‘Eta Aquarid Meteor Shower 2008′
22nd April, a day to be remembered, today is Earth Day.
The mother earth is undergoing disastrous changing. It’s obvious enough that everyone of us can feel it. For instance, the climate warming strongly affected the crops, which in return we have to pay for 20% more. Now, we pay back for what we had done to the earth.
My hosting service provider - Exabytes emailed me some interesting way to keep the earth green. Read them here.
The earth scientists at JPL, NASA also have some words.
Continue reading ‘Earth Day - Every Day Is Earth Day’
After watching Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot, we’re sure to feel how small we are. Think wider, not to quarrel over a small matter, be wiser and live harmoniously on our only dot.
Continue reading ‘We’re dots on a dot’
Sequence photo I made for the 4 March 2007 total lunar eclipse
The lunar eclipse starts at 0100 until 0152 UT on 21 Feb 2008 (2200 EST or 1900 PST on 20 Feb 2008). The totality will last for 52 minutes. We’ll have partial lunar eclipse this coming 16 August and 31 December 2009. Americans will have a total eclipse again on 20-21 December 2010. Yet to check for us.
*Americans have 3 total eclipses in less than a year and we had 2 as we’re not favoured this time.
Continue reading ‘Total Lunar Eclipse on 20-21 Feb 2008′
STS-122 Crew Ready To Launch
STS-122 mission is to deliever the Columbus, the European Space Agency’s new laboratory. Columbus will be installed on Harmony Node 2 which was delivered by the STS-120 mission. Harmony allows the addition of European laboratory (Columbus) and Japanese laboratory (Kibo) which will be transfered during STS-123.
The weather is not that great as forecasted so their chance to lift off is 30%. They’re going to launch on 8 Feb 2007 at 7:45pm UT. Good luck to them!
Did I mention that the every crew’s badge is so nicely designed?
More mission information at NASA
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
Latest Comments
RSS