Radio Interview on Stars in Singapore

[chrisyeo]

http://www.rsi.sg/english/youngexpressi ... 82/1/.html

Featuring our Dr Phil Chan and Jin Peng!

Follow link to listen to interview.



"Stars sighted in Singapore?

November 10, 2006


Click to listen to interview




Join me, Loretta Foo in Young Expressions this week.

Ask teenagers about stars and they’d probably babble about Justin Timberlake, Lindsey Lohan or Coldplay. However, there is a small but growing group of young people who might instead tell you about Sirius, Deneb or Vega. What are these names you might ask? They are the self-luminous, heavenly bodies that we see every night.

Dr Phil Chan is a long-time amateur astronomer. He has also advised budding astronomers in Singaporean schools like Nanyang Polytechnic and Bukit Panjang Government High. He offers some reasons for the rise of astronomy’s popularity among young people in Singapore.

PC: There’s an inert desire by most students to know the unknown and the outer space. Lately, in the last few years, this is fuelled by Hollywood productions, asteroids striking the Earth. Nowadays, we also have Discovery Channel, National Geographic and the internet. We are more affluent now and people can afford books that can be bought. In fact I think that Kinokuniya and Borders have a large variety of astronomy books.

Many schools are jumping on the bandwagon with astronomy societies. Phil feels that astronomy appeals to all students whether they are artistically or scientifically inclined.

PC: All they need to do is to look up at the sky to wonder what they are. Perhaps another reason is that optical equipment is getting cheaper and cheaper by the year and they are also available in the web where they can just go on to the web and buy from the web.

With this encouraging increase in interest, Phil foresees only good things for Singapore’s astronomy scene.

PC: Most people lament what is there to see in Singapore especially with the haze and light pollution but I think it’s precisely this point you know, that we cannot see many stars, that young students let’s say in primary school or secondary school can learn it very quickly and I think with this urge of the unknown, probably there will be an upsurge later on. Although we cannot see many stars here, we can always go to Malaysia or Indonesia to pick up more things.

A mentor in the Astronomy Society in Republic Polytechnic or RP, 19 year old Jin Peng’s curiosity was sparked when he was 10 years old. Those old books about planets and stars have held his interest till now.

JP: When I browsed through those astronomy books when I was a beginner, those about stars, galaxies, about how stars evolve to black holes gained my attraction and my curiosity. My first time looking through the telescope was in RP, it’s amazing how there’s this individual star that we know of as the sun so this splendid view captured my heart.

A major misconception that many young people have is that astronomy is boring…

JP: They think that it’s because visually Singapore’s sky most of the time is bad and hazy so of course, they don’t get to view the good skies most of the time. So I believe that they think seeing stars in Singapore is something that is not possible.

Jin Peng’s best memory in his astronomy experiences was a camp he organised in June last year

JP: Back then those members, of course we had the heart to look forward to see as much of the sky as possible. So when we reached there, of course the first day disappointed us with cloudy nights so we were left with the last night over there. So that night was also cloudy but with this telescope through the 2 hours, something that amazed me was that we got to see more than a hundred objects which made most of us think that it was worthwhile going for this camp.

Although it was difficult for Jin Peng to pick a favourite astronomy feature, he decided to go with a special group of stars that form a most unusual shape.

JP: My favourite object is the open cluster at Sagittarius because all the stars cluster and do form a pattern of a butterfly. This particular pattern makes me very interested and very comfortable to look at.

So, kids and teenagers, here’s a rare opportunity for you to stay out a little later than your usual bedtimes. Phil tells you how to get started.

PC: Maybe they could look at the sky and get a binoculars, no need to be too expensive and a small star chart. They can begin with this for about 6 months and if they are more interested, they can go to Kinokuniya and buy your astronomy testbooks.

If you are really keen getting your own telescope, here’s a little expert advice.

PC: For $600, one can buy a quite sophisticated telescope with a mini computer with 10,000 celestial objects and they can slew to any object they like.

That was Dr Phil Chan ending off Young Expressions this week. Join me, Loretta Foo next week for more on the programme all about young people. I leave you with Gustav Holst’s composition for the planet Jupiter from his classical suite, The Planets."

[Airconvent]

wonderful! and what timing especially when the skies are beginning to clear...

wished they had at least mentioned that to get more info or mix with the local astro community, listeners can drop by singastro.org to check it out....sigh..

[zong]

Yea Jin Peng!!! Where was the advertisement for Singastro!!

Nevermind.. at least people are now more and more exposed to the world of the night sky..