Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy- Tonight (1/9/2014)

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.
Post Reply
User avatar
Gary
Posts: 3790
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:06 am
Location: Toa Payoh
Contact:

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (28/05/2012)

Post by Gary »

Clifford60 wrote: @Gary, if that happen, you should become the roaming inspector going around all "base camp" for audit. :mryellow: Frankly, hope that one day there will be a lot of "base camp" in operation in any night.
Roaming inspector sounds too uncool. Like carrying a big calculator and walking along a row of cars in a carpark. :)

I imagine myself wearing an eyepatch, making a few phone calls and super astronomers from various parts of Singapore will drive their supercars and gather in a high rooftop garden to discuss about fighting against injustice done to local astronomy. "I will beam my megawatt green laser off your reflective dewshield to take out that big bright street lightbulb ok?". LOL :)

But jokes aside, all these new sidewalkers need is just some guidance and support for the first few sessions (especially from the veterans in this forum staying near their area) and they should be able to handle it from that point onwards. The very fact they are even willing to bring out their precious new first telescope and give it a first try already shows a certain level of courage, passion and commitment to serve on their side.
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.
Davegn
Posts: 290
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:12 pm
Favourite scope: 94" Ritchey Chrétien reflector telescope
Location: Ang Mo Kio, Bishan Park
Contact:

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (28/05/2012)

Post by Davegn »

James, Airconvent, rcj and clifford:
Hi guys, thanks for your words of encouagement.
Even when you are unable to make it here,
You words of support and encouagement posted here has gone a long way in helping me!
Once again thanks guys. Hope that I would be able to get to know you guys better! :D

Avarielle:
Thanks for coming down for my sidewalk sessions. Enjoined your company for my sidewalk session! And I m glad you might be deciding to have a have a session at your area. And hopefully I would be able to support you when I have a chance. :mryellow:

Gary:
Very big thanks to you! I don't think my sidewalk session would be this successful without you!
Thanks for the lesson on astronomy that you have taught me and all the advice that you had given me.
I enjoyed every bit of a sidewalk session I even had and i made very nice and wonderful friends along the way. Glad to have met people like you and Avarielle! hopefully I would be able to make more friend in time to come. :mryellow:
Dave Ng
Bishan Park SideWalk Astronomy
http://www.facebook.com/SingaporeSidewalkAstronomy
User avatar
Avarielle
Posts: 52
Joined: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:22 pm
Favourite scope: 255" Three-mirror anastigmat telescope
Location: behind you. boo!
Contact:

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (28/05/2012)

Post by Avarielle »

Gary wrote: Do enjoy the friendly company of Avarielle while you still can because soon she may "abandon" us to set up her "base camp" near her area. :P
LOL. That makes it sound like once I set up my "base camp", I'll never turn up at the other sidewalk events.

Probably, we can all have our own "base camp" where we do our sidewalk sessions. But we can also go to each other's sessions to support, and for company, and fun.

Anyway, I'm very glad to attend Dave and Gary's sidewalk sessions. I learnt so much and met so many people.

(so to all newbies/anyone thinking of going to a sidewalk session, JUST GO. It's very fun. You won't regret it.)
Bishan Park Sidewalk Astronomy Facebook: Singapore SideWalk Astronomy Twitter:@BishanParkAstro
Davegn
Posts: 290
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:12 pm
Favourite scope: 94" Ritchey Chrétien reflector telescope
Location: Ang Mo Kio, Bishan Park
Contact:

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (30/05/2012)

Post by Davegn »

Weather permitting, I will be conducting a sidewalk astronomy session at Bishan Park.

Date: 30/05/2012
Time: From 8 PM onwards
Venue: Bishan Park's McDonald's (viewtopic.php?f=5&t=10766&)

Primary focus: Saturn, Mars and moon

Would bringing my 4" refractor for the session.

Feel free to join me.
All are welcome to join in the fun with or without telescope.
Dave Ng
Bishan Park SideWalk Astronomy
http://www.facebook.com/SingaporeSidewalkAstronomy
Davegn
Posts: 290
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:12 pm
Favourite scope: 94" Ritchey Chrétien reflector telescope
Location: Ang Mo Kio, Bishan Park
Contact:

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (30/05/2012)

Post by Davegn »

30/5/2012 sidewalk session. 

The cloud cover is nearly 90% when I came back home from work! Decided to make a post to call out the session as I do not want people coming down from other places with such a disappointing sky. 

Since Gary was at the at the area with a celestron 80mm, I decided to try my luck and join him with my 102mm refractor. Hoping for a miracle to happen.  Upon reaching, the cloud cover got even worst. Nearly  99%. Well at least i took a chance to chill out after a stressful day at work. Had a nice chat with Gary on sidewalks and scope and a lot of tips from him. 

After 30-ish mins. The sky started to clear up. And it gotten very clear! Only very light hazing! 

First look saturn. With a zoom eps. Wooo! Nice. Borrowed a 2x barlow with which Gary brought along. Push the power up to 200ish X. Image was started to break down a little. But still seeing was good. A singaporean-japanese married couple took a look. His wife got really surprised with what she was and i believed she when "oh my god" in japanese. She was so surprise when looking at Saturn until she started speaking to me in japanese. Was lost with what she was saying. 

Next, i aim at the mars. Still  at 200 ish X. Seeing was really good. Good enough to see the it's polar caps! Many of the people who join us and took a look, they did not know that the ice caps was visible until we told them to take another look and you can see a white faint glow. 

Next stop, Moon! Used my 6mm ep. Really good seeing. With Gary's help, managed to test another setup. Woo!!! Had an "oh my god" moment. Poison again! Gary show me some tips and advice on ep and barlow. I should invest in them soon!

After the crowd as slowly cooled down. We started to see other objects. M6, M7 and NGC 6231. Lovely seeing on NGC 6231 as it was high enough. 

Big thanks to Gary, for coming down and showing and advising me on sidewalks. 
Dave Ng
Bishan Park SideWalk Astronomy
http://www.facebook.com/SingaporeSidewalkAstronomy
User avatar
Gary
Posts: 3790
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:06 am
Location: Toa Payoh
Contact:

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (30/05/2012)

Post by Gary »

A photo from last night's session.

Image

Long story short, forgot to bring some mount screws but only realised that after I started to set up for solar ob. Anyway was cloudy when I reach there in the late afternoon. Need to go home and come back to Bishan Park anyway and so brought my Celestron 80WA, camera tripod and vixen slo-mo adapter for an evening of sidewalk astronomy. But was glad I manage to shoot some video to show how the Bishan Park ob spot look like for those who still have not been there. Also glad to meet another McDonald's Assistant Manager who was very helpful even though they seemed a little short-handed at that period.

Thanks to Dave for coming along to keep me company despite the initial bad weather. I was glad to meet the Japanese family again and showed them the Moon after they have looked at Saturn at Dave's scope. Adorable kids they have. Glad their son was able to see it this time as it was too late for him previously. Of the whole long string of Japanese uttered in amazement by the mother when she saw Saturn in Dave's scope, I can only understand the word "Honto!!!!????" LOL. :) The family was also amazed by the zoomed in views of Moon. Later a couple of students from RJC also dropped by and took a quick look.

A group of young adults was also hanging around and get to see nice views and have their questions answered. The guys among them was obviously amazed by my green laser pointer. A young lady was requesting me to show her friend the "A" shape stars (Jewel Box) she saw right there at Bishan Park before. I was extremely happy to hear that as it means Dave and others have done a terrific job in previous sessions impressing the public that they are starting to bring their other friends to come and take a look.

I showed them a 12.5x wide view with a 32mm plossl on my F/5 80mm. And they were excited to spot the "A" shape again together with the bright star at Crux. This young lady also actually bother to ask me what is the name of the star cluster and recorded it down in her phone so she could google it later. The guys were also keen to ask Dave for his FaceBook page url so they can look at it on their phones immediately.

Dave played around with the Meade 5x Tele-extender and got poisoned as usual but too bad I am at the top of the reserve list. :P Was glad to share with him the some basic knowledge about eye relief, exit pupil, floaters and CA on fast refractors.

I have mentioned this many times and last night was yet another example -- do not be afraid of doing sidewalk just only because you think the views through your basic scope will not impress anyone. Last night one lady mentioned that one gentleman showed her a very nice view of the Moon at the same park but somewhere opposite of us. Dave and I found out shortly it must be a 50mm long refractor and who this person is. So if you are the one reading this right now, THANK YOU for impressing yet another person and helping to increase astronomy awareness in Singapore!

By the time I was free enough to look at Mars through the 4" OMNI XLT, it was still sharp and the ice cap obvious. Those who have seen it when it was even clearer and higher up in the sky were very fortunate indeed! Saturn look really bright and crispy at the suitable magnification. The 7mm-21mm budget variable zoom eyepiece together with a 2x barlow worked really well for lunar planetary observing and makes finding the right magnification a piece of cake without the constant need to change eyepieces back and forth.

The 4" splitted Alpha Centauri cleanly. And it is important to immediately show viewers how our naked eyes can only discern one star. Their "wows" usually come at the very moment they look away from the eyepiece and at with star with their naked eyes. Else, it is just 2 dots very close to each other in the telescope view. No big deal. They also had fun trying to figure out the colours of Mizar and Alcor.

The sidewalk momentum at Bishan Park is really building up. Can't wait to see Dave realise his sidewalk plans there in the years to come!
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
Clifford60
Posts: 1289
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:41 pm
Location: Central

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (30/05/2012)

Post by Clifford60 »

Gary wrote:Dave played around with the Meade 5x Tele-extender and got poisoned as usual but too bad I am at the top of the reserve list. :P
SORRY not for sales, :mrgreen: you can use but can't hibernate in bekok. :twisted: must come back and be in Sg at all time.
User avatar
Gary
Posts: 3790
Joined: Tue Sep 30, 2003 7:06 am
Location: Toa Payoh
Contact:

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (30/05/2012)

Post by Gary »

Clifford60 wrote:
Gary wrote:Dave played around with the Meade 5x Tele-extender and got poisoned as usual but too bad I am at the top of the reserve list. :P
SORRY not for sales, :mrgreen: you can use but can't hibernate in bekok. :twisted: must come back and be in Sg at all time.
Please obtain a search warrant and come with a police officer with a monkey ram. But my lawyers will be standing by. :P LOLOL
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.
Davegn
Posts: 290
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:12 pm
Favourite scope: 94" Ritchey Chrétien reflector telescope
Location: Ang Mo Kio, Bishan Park
Contact:

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (30/05/2012)

Post by Davegn »

1/6/2012 sidewalk session

Had given up hope and praying for a clear night after I ended work at 6pm. Sky was way too cloudy that the time.  Had a nice dinner and almost fell asleep after that. 9pm, By some dumb luck I peeked out a window in my house, WOW! The moon! It was not as clear as the past few sidewalk session I had but it was still worth have a sidewalk session since the Venus transit is is next week. 

Sorry friends for not posting up in singastro since it was getting quite late,  I intend only to have a short sidewalk session and wanted talk to the public more about the upcoming Venus transit. I had only tweeted and post a short message on on Facebook saying that I would be going to have a short session. 

Upon reaching the ob site at 9.30-ish pm, the weather was holding up. Clear but hazy. Nevertheless, the moon and planets was still clearly visible in the sky. The best few objects to show during a sidewalk session. 

Just with 3 objects in the sky, was able to impress the public  who attended the session. Saturn, Mars and the moon.  

Spoke to few groups people during the session. Had inform them that there is something special happening on the 6th of June. With an aid of an iPad, showed them a short video put together by Gary on what is going to happen on the day. Inform them the details of where they could go to enjoy this wonder! the Venus transit 2012! 

After viewing saturn, one group of people was surprise that I don't do this for a living instead I do this only as a hobby and as a passion. They were more shocked to realize that astronomy is not even my field of study. I told them that I am just doing this out of passion and the love of astronomy which I would like to share with others. I shared with them what's sidewalk astronomy is all about. 

As they had the interest in astronomy once but do not know a thing about it. A question came from them,  "how long and often would you be doing this?"  The answer I give them was honest and from my heart. I told them that I have no idea. But as we grow older, so does our commitments in life. Since I do not have much commitments in life yet, I will use my time on a clear nights doing what I love to do and sharing with the people I meet. Even if I do have commitment. Once in a while I would still find the time to do a sidewalk. A hobby is there to help you to relax and enjoy! So enjoy with people and with our loved ones when possible! And meet new astro-buddies who can have a lifelong friendship!

Clouds decided to drop by my session at 11-30 ish pm. Slowly started packing up at 11.45pm and caught the last bus back home at 12.22pm. 

I finally understand the true power of light a grab and go setup. Started to miss my 80mm F/6.5 refractor which is currently on lone to a good friend. 

I realize that the more I conduct sidewalk sessions and sharing with people, the more I enjoy astronomy and the passion of astronomy glows even more! Really happy to see the faces of people and with their kids light up when they see objects like Mars, Saturn and the Moon!

Big thanks to Hazrie the owner on the 50mm refractor for dropping by despite when your busy in the day and tired in the night. Thanks bro for your company and the drinks. 

Thanks to all those I have meet during the session tonight! Hope you enjoined the views of Saturn, Mars and the moon!
Dave Ng
Bishan Park SideWalk Astronomy
http://www.facebook.com/SingaporeSidewalkAstronomy
User avatar
Clifford60
Posts: 1289
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2006 8:41 pm
Location: Central

Re: Bishan Park sidewalk astronomy - tonight (30/05/2012)

Post by Clifford60 »

Hi Dave, Thank you for the write out and [smilie=good-job.gif] for the passion in the hobby and to share with others.

Haha, sidewalk astronomy is a new way to make friends, something not in the standard social circle activities.
Post Reply