Lunar eclipse & Venus Transit

Hola! It's Tuesday and another day to go for the Venus Transit on the Sun. For those of you who is into astronomy, surely you don't want to miss an event like this. Venus will transit again in 105 years later, certainly not in our lifetime to watch anymore! I hope to be able to make it to the Planetarium tomorrow. Or else, I might need to invent my own reflector and see the phenomena somewhere in the office...if there is such a place I can see without being seen....lol!

But before that, there was a partial eclipse of the moon yesterday. We arrived really late at the Planetarium, hence, didn't get to watch the spectacular event. There were many people at the Planetarium both young and old. Few telescopes were being put up to let the public see the moon upclose but because of the still thin clouds, you can't see the craters on the moon very well defined. But that's OK.

I got to seek out information on telescopes with one of the organizer who is working there though. We talked about the various telescopes in the market and what's suitable for my needs. The In-Between. Haha....he used a Meade (can't remember the exact model!) with a built-in GPS system to point to the specific stars or planets if you punch in the codes; based on the Messiers coding ( I think) . Its the M thing that you see if you look into the stars chart. For example; M104 refers to the Sombrero Galaxy and so on. These types of telescopes are motorized and you can tell by the looks that they are HEAVY; even when they are referred to as portable. But it's real canggih! The price is way beyond my budget as well. So let's just forget about it. In the end, he suggested something which is with a built-in GPS thingy and quite light ( wonders what he means by light ) and could probably be suitable for family needs. Well OK. Let see if I can afford that. Haha...

There is an interesting website if you would like to learn more on choosing your own telescope. Here it is www.meade.com ( can't do proper linking at the moment, sorry). Selecting a telescope has always been a daunting task for me and I remember where I left off many years ago. I was schooling, went to check for infinity infocus, a local dealer, and wham! Gosh! The price was one thing, but all the types to choose was quite a feat! Mind boggling! I wasn't sure whether I needed a refractor? Reflector?? or a dobsonian, Newtonian, bla bla bla....I didn't have anyone to help me with except for the salesman who obviously wanted to sell off his products!

After a few years, I almost forgot about it ( not completely ); went to university, came home and all I did was just stare out to the night sky and wonder what's really out there. I guess I'm the pretty weird type. Lol! Why God created this heavenly beautiful galaxies, planets when they are so far far away from our reach. I read somewhere once that human only use a small percentage (10??) of his/her brain. Just imagine if we can use our brain up to the 100th percent? I bet we can portal ourselves to the next galaxies. Lol! Imagination? No it's not. I think we can. The question is How.

Below is an excerpt from Meade's Product Catalogue. I love it. It's all the reason why I love astronomy in the beginning and indeed will be a life-long passion.

Astronomy is for everyone.That’s not to say everyone will become a seriouscomet hunter or astrophotographer. But just likelife would be empty without music, something ismissing if you have yet to discover your place inthe universe. If the starry sky is nothing more

than a ceiling of random twinkling lights to you, you’re missing out on the real thing:a treasure map of stars, clusters, nebulas andgalaxies, some of which you can see with your

naked eye. Through a telescope, these celestialneighbors become awe-inspiring food for thesoul. That’s why astronomy so often becomesa lifelong passion. Whether you choose to jointhose on a journey of discovery that never ends,or just take the occasional “stroll” around ourcosmic neighborhood, the point is, there arewonderful things up there that help you findyourself. And a telescope will help you see them.

I didn't take any photos of the moon last night. This one above is my little astronaut (it was so hard making him stand still for the camera!!), all smiling in front of the dummy robotic vehicle. Faiz made quite an impression with the reporters last night when he was asked to view the moon again through the telescope and they took his photos many times. Wonder in which news will this appear.... Tamil Nesan? Nanyang siang pau? Aiyo....lol!

A bit on my little astronaut. Last week, he had a story-telling session ( holiday programme) at school. Obviously, it should all start with his name, his age, parents name, where he stays and finally what he wants to be when he grow up. lol! So, I told him, " I want to be an astronaut and learn about the moon, planets and stars" . He agreed and I thought that was the deal. When I picked him up from school, I asked him on how did it go? He said it was OK and I asked him to repeat what he talked about in school. Well OK, the first few lines were as planned. Then he said ' I told them I want to be a police' . Gulp! Smiling, I asked him ' why you didn't tell them you want to be an astronaut?' . He looked at me with such boredom on his cute lil' face and said 'I can't wait that long to get to the stars... It's too far away!' . Errr... Now, pray tell me, how would you answer to that?

Anyways, to all the astronomy fans out there, happy viewing for tomorrow! Do share with me your story and photos!

Ciao and thanks for stopping by!