J&U Opposition and International Observe the Moon Night

[fizzy123]

There are trees within the immediate vicinity, thus the view of jupiter maybe obstructed by the tree. But the plus points are that there are toilets and parking facilities near by.

[rlow]

Why not we just hold the event at our regular spot at Tiong Bahru Park? It is centralised location, adjacent to carpark, MRT and buses are nearby, toilets just a stone throw away, and most of us already know this place. I think this place is good enough for our event.

I am sure acc wouldn't mind the proximity....

[acc]

As Weixing mentioned we are working with NParks this time round and will announce the exact site at Bedok Reservoir once confirmed.

[KKK26]

Hi Bro, may I come to observe without bringing scope? 1st, I would like to taste big scopes view and 2nd, would like to meet up with astro members. Thanks

[Gary]

The clearer the objectives we and/or Nparks want to achieve/focus on can be defined, the easier it is for us to decide what is a good spot to achieve those objectives.

If there are more than objective, then prioritize them accordingly and decide on the ob site based on that listing.

For example, let's say the main objective is for Nparks to find out if astronomy sessions in parks can attract a big crowd.

Why is crowd size important? If stargazing events in the parks cannot attract a good crowd, why would Nparks want to spend money and resources to improve the parks for stargazing if the return on investment is so low?

Then, the ob site selection can be like this:
- Forget about finding the darkest location in the park.
- Find out from Nparks which of their park attracts the most visitors and have a session there.
- Find ob site with shortest journey to a carpark (easy for both scope volunteers to deploy and public who travel in car to participate). This is also very good for visitors who are on wheelchairs or have difficulty in walking.
- Find nearest suitable place to the main entrance of the park where the potential crowd traffic should be the highest and easiest to spot especially for visitors who are not familiar with that park.

On a slightly separate note, just want to suggest an idea here for Nparks to consider.

*IF* the objective to get the most unbiased and widest possible feedback from the public, why not declare a particular hour over a full week for observing Jupiter in *ALL* nparks, ala Earth Hour for Jupiter? Let say 8pm - 9 pm everyday on from 11 - 18 Sep 2010? All lighting in Npark will be switched on 1 hour later than normal. Publicize this event massively at least one week beforehand. Yes, we do not need switch of park lightings to see Jupiter. But the delayed lighting serve 2 purposes. Firstly, to attract telescope owners to deploy their scope there. They may be more interested to make use of the opportunity to observe non-Jupiter stuff. But I doubt most of them will be so unfriendly to turn down a stranger to let them look at Jupiter. Thus, sort of "tricking" these telescope owners to do sidewalk. Secondly, when the public get to realised the parks are darker than usual at that hour, they will be curious to find out why from the media or friends, thereby increasing the viral effect of the Npark publicity.

By attracting telescope owners living around all the parks to bring their own telescope to their nearest park to observe, another important data may be gathered - roughly how many people own telescopes in Singapore. Why is this data important? The more telescope owners there are in Singapore, the better utilized the potential star-gazing friendly amentities will be made use of in the parks.

Then, during that week, just monitor the forum letters, media reports, blogsphere, tweets, ...etc and they can get the answers for themselves. It can also save Npark officers from wasting time "re-proofing" their point as their bosses (and other related agencies) as they can also read these reports for themselves. This may also have other beneficial effects like sparking off a healthy public debate on light pollution overall in Singapore. These debates will also provide opportunity for dark-sky advocates to clear up some stubbon misconceptions about solutions to light pollution.

This one week event can be held together with our 18 Sept event at Bedok. So Singastro telescope volunteers does not have to do anything extra from what is already agreed upon for the bedok event.

[Airconvent]

Just called Sam Lee and he can join in too! BTW, I have added that Venus, Saturn and Mars will be visible too!

[acc]

Thanks rlow, date updated. Its Sat, 18 Sep.

[Gary]

Google streetview of the scope setup area:
http://maps.google.com.sg/maps?f=q&sour ... 3,,0,-2.37

[Zephyrus]

Seems interesting, has been a while since I've brought my scope out. I might come with my 5" SkyWatcher Mak on Manfrotto 055C + 410 head, that's if I can find the ob site or someone is willing to give me a ride! xD

[timatworksg]

Wondering if we should have a mixture of scope sizes? Understand we all want a wonderful view of the planets, but it will be a perfect moment to encourage many beginners to come down and peek thru.
Great time for them to understand scopes, GOTO, different views and what each can and has done do for the astronomer!
Great moment for some education here! I don't mind instead bringing my 80mm, just to show the diff!