Stargazing for Beginners - SAFRA Jurong- 17 Aug (Sat)

[Gary]

Back by popular demand, there will be a stargazing event at SAFRA Jurong this coming Saturday evening

Topic: Stargazing for Beginners
Date: Saturday, 17 Aug 2013.
From: 7:30pm till late
Location: SAFRA Jurong, Evergreen Room.
Admission is FREE.

Weather permitting, there will be a live stargazing session at SAFRA Jurong's multi-purpose outdoor court.


Source: http://www.safra.sg/Participate/Activit ... gvW09KLBBM

Location of SAFRA Jurong:

- Official website: http://www.safra.sg
- Street Directory
- Google Map
- Google Map Street View

- Near Boon Lay MRT / Bus Interchange. From there, walk towards Jurong Central Park direction.
- Free car-parking right at the observation site and power supply for telescope volunteers. The cash-card deduction at entrance will be reimbursed on that night.
- Telescope volunteers who are keen to participate, please PM or email me at gary[at]astro.sg.
- Carpark is just below the observation spot. Just take a lift up. Easy to transport big telescopes with a trolley.
- Car parking fees for public - $1.66 (SAFRA members), $3.45 (non-members). From 6:00pm onward.
- We can stay there at least up to 3:00am the next morning.

Those who drive and are keen to participate with your telescope(s) can contact me for free car-parking arrangements. Please confirm latest by Wednesday noon (14 Aug).

[Gary]

Updated the original post with more details. This event is also promoted via SAFRA's Hype publication in the latest Aug-Sep issue. You can obtain free copies at any SAFRA clubs. Do check out their other events mentioned there too.



Thanks to all who have expressed interest to participate in this event with or without your telescopes. Looking foward to seeing you guys again and playing with your new shiny toys!

[Mariner]

So show of hands, who'll be there?

[Gary]

Very encouraging response so far base on the sign-ups within SAFRA. Will blog and tweet about this event soon.

For those who are bringing telescopes and driving, you may park your car/van near the lift at the underground carpark just below the basketball court. And then take your astro gear up the lift. No staircase climbing involved to shake your telescope collimation.

[Gary]

Can't wait to see the nice telescopes and astrophotography setups later! See you guys in a few hours!

[Gary]

Big thanks to SAFRA Jurong for organising the event! Big thanks to all participants who attended the event! Every single one of you contributed to its success!

Just a brief report:

- Full house crowd for the talk as per previous SAFRA talk in April. More adults this time so I can go slightly deeper on some topics and crack a little clean mature jokes.
- Requested most telescope volunteers to go ob site to setup early and helped out. So not much photos taken during the talk.
- Skies much better this time after the afternoon rain. Saw Moon, Saturn, M6, M7, Vega, Antares, NGC 6321, Albireo, ... etc.
- Ob site felt slightly darker than before. For most of the pics below, I need to brighten them during image editing. And use of flash photography just before we were about to pack up and leave.
- Had a great time meeting old friends and making new ones and seeing them interact with one another.
- One of the highlights was seeing a family consisting of 3 generations attending the talk and the live stargazing later. They were about to leave and the sky suddenly cleared up even more. Showed them constellations in the sky and Saturn. Fortunately, my hokkien is just good enough to understand the grandmother's questions after she enjoyed looking at Saturn through a 8-inch reflector. Helped them took a group photo.
- The chairs provided by SAFRA made the live stargazing session even more comfortable for everyone.
- Thoroughly enjoyed the great party mood under the stars (the real ones)!
- Special thanks to all the telescope volunteers and helpers. Most of you guys had to take time off your busy schedule, travel far and lug heavy equipment to support this event. Glad we shared another nice star party together and created some wonderful memories to treasure for a long time!

Some poor quality pics taken with my handphone:



Sky higher above this pic turned even clearer shortly after this pic was taken.

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First big event first light for the dob! Saturn!

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Credit: Ava

Credit: Ava

Big crowd will always follow the biggest "gun" no matter where it tries to "hide". Great workout for the scope owner.

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The legendary astronomy promoter entertaining the crowd with science facts and his amazingly clean old optics!

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Portable AP setup! Even some AP pros were impressed!

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Female interested in stargazing? Crowd puller!

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Craftsman being rewarded with his labour of love!

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Moon through premium 9mm eyepiece. WOW!

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Credit: Ava

Everybody wanna shoot the Moon with their handphone! I hold the phone still, you press the shoot button.

A few more telescopes missing from this collection. Sorry! Was too busy!

[bornfree]

Jurong, y u so far away...

great to know such a successful session it was and the crowd had a good time.. wish there will be another session in the near future somewhere closer..

[Gary]

Jurong, y u so far away...

great to know such a successful session it was and the crowd had a good time.. wish there will be another session in the near future somewhere closer..

Be careful what you wished for.

[ggodetucsamoht]

It is quite weird that the first light on saturn doesnt goes to the owner myself but to the public.....told a participant actually that was also my first time to view on the saturn wif my new scope but primere chance just went to the public...haha

[yltansg]

Thanks to Gary and team for the nice evening.

This man and his daughter had a good time observing and imaging Saturn.