Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight outside Courts - 18 Jun

Alright, this is for sharing of your observation experience. Or, if you are arranging gatherings, star-gazing expeditions or just want some company to go observing together, you can shout it out here.
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Gary
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - 10 July 2013

Post by Gary »

Relative positioning of Saturn with some of its moons @ 8pm tonite SG time. Have fun identifying them thru telescope!

Image
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
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Gary
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - 10 July 2013

Post by Gary »

Thanks to all who came & enjoyed the views! Never get tired of seeing Saturn at 500x magnification. :) On my way to the observation spot pushing the dob on a trolley, saw the beautiful thin crescent Moon beside the super bright Venus just above a tall building. Too lazy to take out the prosumer camera from the bag. Just took a quick photo using my phone and then stand there for a few more moments to enjoy the live scene. :)

The crowd was not as massive as our previous sidewalk there mainly due to the renovation happening now along the food and beverage stretch and lack of a "billboard" object in the sky like a bright Moon. So once again, more time to interact with the crowd, demonstrating of using planetarium apps and explaining to the public why we do what we do. And also more more time for the telescope volunteers and helpers to sit down, have a drink and catch up with one another.

Some pics from last night's session:

Image

Image
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
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Gary
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - 16 July 2013

Post by Gary »

Weather permitting, we will be conducting a sidewalk astronomy session at Toa Payoh Central tonight.

Date: Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Time: From 8:30 pm onwards till late
Venue: Open space in front of Toa Payoh Public Library [Google Map] [Street View]

Primary focus: Moon and Saturn!

Secondary focus: Star clusters and nebulae at Saggitarius and Scorpius area.

We will be deploying our telescopes for free public viewing.

So come join in the fun with or without telescope! Feel free to chat with us about Astronomy!
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
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Gary
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - 16 July 2013

Post by Gary »

Thanks to all who came for the sidewalk. Skies were clear around 8pm+, became cloudy a couple of hours later, and then much clearer again near midnight. The sky above Singapore just opened up as seen in this satellite image: http://app2.nea.gov.sg/data/dt/xml/Weat ... 071616.jpg. The nearest 6 streetlamps were not in operation too. Lucky!

This is a photo of Moon (quality and size compressed by WhatsApp) through the dob when the collimation was way off (crowd too excited to see Moon, so decided to do proper collimation later).

Image

Apparently not easy to tell that the collimation is way off from a high contrast object like Moon. Saturn did not manage to focus and shows a double image. Thanks to the rescue of the other 2 goto telescopes to show Saturn, I can focus on showing Moon for the time being. Later in the evening, manage to do a proper collimation and Moon looked great at high magnfications and Saturn's moons popped out again.

Glad to share some of my collimation methods with the participants. First encounter with 2 police officer in patrol there makes it an even memorable night. They enjoyed looking at the Moon and M7. Gave them a piece of paper with links to singastro and other useful astro resources.

Managed to get good views of M6, M7, NGC6231, Albireo, M22, M57, M8, M20, M4, Moon and Saturn with its beautiful rings and moons of course! Highlight was seeing at least 20 stars resolved in M22 through the dob and a tinge of green (colour!) in the Ring Nebula! Happy!

Some pics from the sidewalk:

Image

Image
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
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Gary
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - 15 Aug 2013

Post by Gary »

Weather permitting, we will be conducting a sidewalk astronomy session at Toa Payoh Central tonight.

Date: Thursday, 15 Aug 2013
Time: From 8:30 PM onwards till late
Venue: Open space in front of Toa Payoh Public Library [Google Map] [Street View]

Primary focus: Moon and Saturn!

Secondary focus: Star clusters and nebulae at Saggitarius and Scorpius area.

We will be deploying our telescopes for free public viewing.

So come join in the fun with or without telescope! Feel free to chat with us about Astronomy!
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
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Gary
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Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:06 am
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - Fri 23 Aug 2013

Post by Gary »

Weather permitting, we will be conducting a sidewalk astronomy session at Toa Payoh Central tonight.

Date: Friday, 23 Aug 2013
Time: From 7:45 PM onwards till late
Venue: Open space in front of Toa Payoh Public Library [Google Map] [Street View]

Primary focus: Moon and Saturn.

Secondary focus: Star clusters and nebulae at Saggitarius and Scorpius area.

We will be deploying our telescopes for free public viewing, including the 10-inch dobsonian telescope.

So come join in the fun with or without telescope! Feel free to chat with us about Astronomy!
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
User avatar
Gary
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Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:06 am
Location: Toa Payoh
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - Thu 12 Sep 2013

Post by Gary »

Weather permitting, we will be conducting a sidewalk astronomy session at Toa Payoh Central tonight.

Date: Thursday, 12 Sept 2013
Time: From 8:00 PM onwards till late
Venue: Open space in front of Toa Payoh Public Library [Google Map] [Street View]

Primary focus: Mid-Autumn yummy Moon!

Secondary focus: Star clusters and nebulae at Saggitarius and Scorpius area.

We will be deploying our telescopes for free public viewing.

So come join in the fun with or without telescope! Feel free to chat with us about Astronomy!
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
User avatar
Gary
Posts: 3790
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:06 am
Location: Toa Payoh
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - Thu 7 Nov 2013

Post by Gary »

Weather permitting, we will be conducting a sidewalk astronomy session at Toa Payoh Central tonight.

Date: Thursday, 7 Nov 2013
Time: From 8:00 PM onwards till late
Venue: Open space in front of Toa Payoh Public Library [Google Map] [Street View]

Primary focus: Moon and Venus!

We will be deploying our telescopes for free public viewing.

So come join in the fun with or without telescope! Feel free to chat with us about Astronomy!
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
User avatar
Gary
Posts: 3790
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:06 am
Location: Toa Payoh
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - Thu 7 Nov 2013

Post by Gary »

Thanks to all who came and had a good look at Venus and Moon last night!

Highlight of the event for me was a mother who was so excited to see us there and asked if we are going to be around for a while. She wanted to bring her son who is into astronomy to take a look through the telescope. Fortunately, the sky was clear enough for him when he arrived.

As usual, had great fun interacting with the young and the young at heart. Majority of them didn't know the bright "star" was Venus and have never looked at it through a telescope before.

Kids are adorable. One little girl pointed at the eyepieces and barlows on the mount tray and asked me "Uncle, why you have so many things?". I know the speed of light but I have no answer for this little girl's question. :)

Special thanks to Ivan for dropping by and helping me out. This is a photo taken by him:

Image

Moon through the 80mm achro with phone after applying the black & white filter by the phone camera app:

Image
http://www.astro.sg
email: gary[at]astro.sg
twitter: @astrosg


"The importance of a telescope is not how big it is, how well made it is.
It is how many people, less fortunate than you, got to look through it."
-- John Dobson.
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bornfree
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Re: Toa Payoh Sidewalk Astronomy tonight - Thu 7 Nov 2013

Post by bornfree »

"just like u need alot of dresses to make your barbie look pretty, uncle needs alot of this things to let me see stars n planets prettier~"
Born to be Free
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