Photographic Records

Keeping records is something essential during in each night sky observation. I usually usually store my records in a notebook. But this time I have decided do something challenging by photographing images viewed from my eye piece. I had to do it as I do not own a CCD and special camera which connects to the eye piece. Written Observations are not appealing as I do not have enough evidence. Photographing through an eye piece may be impossible but I tried my best to capture some pictures of the moon. The pictures are fuzzy and less detailed due to the high brightness of the moon. It was not an easy task as it involved a lot of trail and error. It took 3 hours to produce a few better images of the moon.

Instead of using normal photographing techniques, I used a unique technique which seems rather unusual. I let the beam of light emitted from the lens to hit into the lens of the camera. In split seconds I have to capture the image once the light hits the camera lens or else the image will lose focus. Some of the images captured were abrupt and partial while most were unwanted glares. Only a few images had some clarity with less details. I could not capture more details due to the extreme brightness of the moon.

As shown in the right, this is one of the partial
image of the full moon taken on 10th May 2009
around 9pm to 12am. The image has hardly any details.
The picture on the bottom right
is the elevated image of that same moon.
The darker regions shows the lower depths of the moon.

The picture of the left was the best image taken as it captured more than 90% of the full moon. The image on the right is the elevated image of the one on the left. However, this image only showed details of the large craters.

The picture on the right shows an
unwanted glare on bottom right.
This is the best image taken
with glare.

The images are only magnified 35x as it is possible to capture the whole moon with higher magnification. The actual size of the moon taken by the same camera is shown below.




In future I hope to take pictures of bright planets like Jupiter. This will be much difficult as the image is smaller and the glaring effect is higher. I will also capture a few details of the Sun using a sun box provided the sky is clear with less cloud cover.

The Hidden Companions

Recently, I have been studying about double stars and their movements. Double stars either orbit each other or one orbit the other which is stationary with respect to it. I finding more about the companions of Sirius, Rigel and Albireo. I find Sirius B more interesting as it has an unusual orbiting system. The companion of Sirius known as the "pup" is a white dwarf.

The pup was first discovered in 1862 by an 18-inch telescope. It was later found out that Sirius B has a high temperature and density and is small in size. Hence, it was concluded that it is a white dwarf. For many years astronomers tried to get a magnified view of Sirius B. Even the largest Telescope could only produce a white dot. This is due to its small size and the extreme brightness of Sirius. X-ray telescopes are able to capture a bright image of Sirius B as it stores large amount of energy. Even Hubble telescope is only able to capture a dot of Sirius B.

Is it possible to find the pup through an amateur telescope? It is not totally impossible as research has shown that the separation between Sirius and its companion is increasing. The separation will be maximum by 2022. Secondly, it shines at 8th magnitude which is within the limit of an amateur telescope. If an amateur astronomer is skillful enough in using a telescope with a wide aperture, clean lenses and no glare, it would possible to spot it. However, it is not that easy as we think. By 2022, there may be someone who will spot Sirius B through a amateur telescope.

Currently Sirius is the brightest star viewed from our solar system. Sirius could have appeared even brighter 125 million years ago before Sirius B had turned into a white dwarf. It would be similar to that of alpha centauri. The two stars, Alpha Centaurus A and Alpha Centaurus B being close together makes it the single star which is the 3rd brightest form Earth. Probably Sirius would have appeared brighter than Jupiter 125 million years back.

For now, I will be trying to spot the Companions of Rigel and Albireo. It will be difficult due to the several factors (eg:limiting magnitude) in my country. Nevertheless, I will give it a try and take some photographs.

EARTH HOUR

Today is an important day as tonight, we are fighting climate change by switching off the lights for an hour. By switching off the lights, we can make a big difference. Do you know how much carbon-dioxide emissions can be reduced in that 1 hour. The current rate of which glaciers are melting, and the sea levels are rising is severe. If this goes on the Artic may disappear by the end of this century and flooding will be too common. Play a part by switching off the lights.

Today I am going to stargaze and see the true night sky. Thankfully, the sky is clear with less cloud cover. I hope to see more stars. Our team will take an exposed photograph of Orion nebula. For the first time, I will be enjoying the beauty of night sky.

VOTE EARTH!!!

"OWLESTIAL" logo is finally out!

For the past few days, I was been working on my logo. At first I thought of drawing the logo by myself instead of depending on logo designing tools/software. However, it failed as I was not able to produce an attractive logo. So I decided to use programmes which enable me to create logos. I used three programmes in which I could only make good use of one of them. After few hours of work, I finally came up with my logo. I will soon come up with the mascot

Most people are asking me when I will start my show. Actually, it will take a long time as I would need to plan on what I would present and the number of episodes. However, the show won't have background graphics as what the Irate Gamer does. This is because, making such shows would waste a lot of time and money. But don't lose hope as we will do our best in making our shows interesting. As I told previously, it may take a year or so. This is because this is my busy year and I do not have much free time. I will try to update this site more often.

Secondly, most people are asking me why I do not update the "Fact OF The Day" everyday. This is because I tend to run out of facts. Some even tell me to change it to "Fact OF The Month". With all that, I have decided to change it to something else. I promise I will try updating my fact section as often as I can.

28th of March will be my big day as it is Earth Hour in Singapore. With all the lights off, I will be on the darkest spot stargazing with my team. I hope to see a crystal clear sky with more twinkling stars. I pray that there will be no cloud cover on that day. I was waiting for such time to come.

First Post For This Year

It has been a while since I have updated. I have returned from my trip 2 months ago. However I was busy for these two months, so I was unable do some Astronomy. During my trip I spotted Andromeda galaxy (M31), with my binoculars. I was excited as it was the first time spotting it after four years of hard work. It appeared as a fuzzy patch. It was a great difficulty as I had to carefully outline the constellation Andromeda. I tried making shapes with some of its stars in order to target M31. I was only able to spot this galaxy during one of the two nights of my trip. I also took an exposed photograph of the Pleiades (M45) which did not appear as quell as the ones taken by better amateur astronomers.

Instead of being like other amateur astronomers, I have decided to do something innovative. I hardly used my telescope these days due to bad weather and cloud cover. Instead, I was browsing through some of the Astronomy websites. After some research, I realised there was something known as the online telescope which allows you to control few of the worlds powerful telescopes. I have added a new website called Slooh which is an online telescope. Unfortunately, you would need to subscribe and get a telescope card. This telescope card allows you to view the deep space lively for a certain period of time. Being a fan of The Irate Gamer, I thought of starting a new show called "OWLESTIAL". Just like how Irate Gamer does review on games, I thought of doing review on Astronomy. However, I will not use offensive language nor insult a content. I will do review on some of the Astronomical books and programmes. At the same time, I will show some of my future night sky explorations and how to make your own Astronomical gadgets. In future I hope to do some marketing like The Irate Gamer.

Before, I take my next step I would need to prioritise my time. It will take some time before I start my first show. I may even take a year or so. I am currently working on the "Owlestial" logo. It will come out soon. I will try my best keep updating this site. I may post some interesting images of my findings.

Going Beyound Stargazing

I have thought of doing something beyond stargazing. Though stargazing is my hobby, it does not seem as exciting in my place. For years I have dreamt of seeing celestial objects which are very which brings wonders. However I am unable to spot 98% of these. I nearly sprained my neck after spotting Omega Centauri through my telescope. I had performed stargazing in other countries, but without the telescope. My binoculars were handy as spotted constellations which I could not spot in Singapore. For the past four years, I was hunting the great Andromeda galaxy but was a failure.


What about the place I choose to stargaze in Singapore? Unfortunately it was worse than I thought. For the past few days there was thunderstorms and I had to wait for a the night which was clear and non-cloudy. When I went into the dense forest, I got into sticky situation. It was too marshy and I was bitten by some insects. I was warned about snakes, scorpions and even tarantulas. Luckily I was not bitten by them. But I gave up, because the place was uncomfortable for me. I thought of performing this in the country I going to travel. It would be much better there and I have read books on successful stargazing. For instance, amateur astronomer Levy, had conducted successful stargazing throughout the years. She has tracked a lot of deep sky objects and labeled them Levy 1 to Levy xx. Her efforts resulted in publishing a book called Deep Sky Objects.


A best way to enjoy Astronomy is not just stargazing, but reading more about them. Our telescopes have limited view of the Universe. As I told before, Hubble keeps coming with new discoveries. There are a lot of theories behind the Universe. So I have decided to research on the relativity theory. It is the one of the most interesting theories about time travel. I am also researching about other theories like Black Holes and Wormholes. There are a lot of mysteries behind space and time.


I am going on a vacation, so I won't be updating until January. I am also learning the greatest mysteries that has been unleashed. Do use some of the Astronomy gadgets at the right hand corner of the page. The starry night gadget will help you in stargazing. The Fact Of The Day will be disabled until I return.

Astronomy At The Edge

Now and then we hear about new astronomical discoveries by Hubble Space Telescope or by probes monitoring different planets. The existence of water in Titan is still a great mystery. Hubble keeps coming up with new stellar bodies which are impossible to view even with the largest grounded telescope. These images only provide less information on the size of the Universe but does not tell us whether it is expanding or not. Quasars provide some evidence on the expansion from the Doppler effect of light waves. In this case distant galaxies tend to move away from the observer causing the wavelength to increase. Hence, Quasars appear red from the Hubble Telescope.

There are other Astronomical Paradoxes which are difficult to solve. My favorite ones are the Black holes, Wormholes, relativity and Big bang. If wormholes provide a bridge between two parts of the Universe, it would be possible to conquer time. If nothing can go faster than the speed of light it would take several generations to reach alpha centauri. But our Universe is so gigantic that our it would become the year infinite if a fast space ship reaches Andromeda Galaxy. Our Solar System is like one atom in a cell where the planets are like electrons orbiting round the nucleus. There are endless possibilities in space.

Another mystery is about the age of our Universe. At first our Universe was thought to be old and going to dye soon. However, according to further research the age of our Universe is compared to a one day old infant. Thanks, to WMAP which took detailed studies about the remains of gas clouds after the Big Bang. There were a lot of contradictions on the age of the Universe. At past our Universe was thought to be 1-2 billion years old which contradicted the age of our Earth (4.6 billion years) and the age of the oldest stars (12 billion years.) According to WMAP, our Universe is actually 13.6 billion years old and it is continuing to expand. As a matter of fact our Universe can continue to exist till the next 150 billion years. Hence contradictions are resolved.

Most of us wish to time travel to undo the past or to foresee the future. We may think it is impossible but it is possible only if we could travel faster than light. According to relativity theory, anything that approaches the speed of light will appear to be short to the observer. If a person is in a space ship travelling close to the speed of light he would see that the processes outside the space ship would appear very slow. At the speed of light, everything outside the space ship would appear to be at a stop, just like pausing the Media Player. If the space ship travels grater than that speed, the processes outside the space ship would reverse and that person would go into the future. In order to make this possible, the equation E=mc^2 needs to be obeyed.

Space has a lot of mysteries behind. Even the Extra Terrestrial written by science fiction writers may be true. Some claims that life may exist in Europa and Titan. We may not know that one day Sojourner rover might step onto worms, making big history. Dendritic patterns on Mars show evidence about ancient river flows. From all these remarkable discoveries and more to come, we would soon open the unravel the hidden mystery behind space and time.