Stargazer Tricks

Here are some neat stargazing tricks that you can try out:

1. Use RED light. -> red light has lesser strain on your eyes so it is the best color of light you can use to preserve your night vision. Also, most sky maps are designed to be easilly viewed under a red light.

2. Know where you are by finding the north star. -> The north star, polaris can tell you how many degrees you are from the equator. How? Look for Polaris (tail of the little dipper), then determine its angular distance (vertical distance from horizon measured in degrees). The angular distance is the same with your distance in the globe.

3. Recycle to make a quadrant. -> To measure angular distance, an easy tool to use and make is a quadrant. if you buy plastic protractors they usually get broken. Take the broken protractor and take a quarter circle. You can attach this to a piece of cardboard also cut to a quarter circle. Punch a hole in the focus and suspend a weight from the hole. When you view the horizon, look along the 90 deg. line, the weight will fall on the 0 deg. mark giving the 0 deg. angular distance. as you look up the weight slides down giving you the rising angular measurement.

4. Reach for the skies. -> astronomers use arc length to estimate the length of a celestial object. Extend your fist to the sky at arms length. At this distance, your fist length is equal to 10 degrees arc.


Want to share your tricks? email or comment in this blog.

International Year of Astronomy

This coming 2009 is the international year of astronomy. It was declared by the IAU (International Astronomical Union) for this year since it marks the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's observation of the sky with a telescope.

If you could recall, the telescope was invented by a dutch lens maker. It was developed by Galileo and used to observe the sky. This is the first time a telescope was used for astronomy; and now is considered one of the most important tools of astronomy.

Official site for the Philippines:
http://www.astronomy2009.ph/
Pandaigdigang Taon ng Astronomiya
Philippine National Node

Astronomy Groups

Here are some astronomy groups in the Philippines recognized by Astronomy magazine:
(click the link to go to astronomy.com for more info on these groups)

Astronomical League of the Philippines
Frequency: Monthly
Categories: Clubs/Astronomical societies
Astronomical Organization of the Philippines, Inc.
Location: Philippines
Categories: Clubs/Astronomical societies, National/International organizations
MSU-IIT Astronomical Society
Frequency: Weekly
Categories: Clubs/Astronomical societies, National/International organizations
Philippine Astronomical Society
Frequency: Monthly
Categories: National/International organizations
Philippine Astronomy
Frequency: Monthly
Categories: National/International organizations
Pyxis Astronomy Educational Services
Frequency: Monthly
Categories: Clubs/Astronomical societies
University of the Philippines Astronomical Society
Frequency: Weekly
Categories: Clubs/Astronomical societies
UP Astronomical Society
Categories: Clubs/Astronomical societies

Black Holes Bring Filipina An Award

"Astronomy and Astrophysics are rich and exciting fields that offer plenty of opportunities for young scientists to contribute. Master the basics, keep up with the latest discoveries, don't stop asking questions and finding the answers,"

-Reinabelle Reyes

Reinabelle Reyes, a 24-year-old astrophysicist, was given the "Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award" at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January. She was given the award in line with her major role in the discovery of the largest number of "super massive" black holes in the center of galaxies, hidden by obscured quasars.

Reyes is a DOST scholar who graduated valedictorian from the Philippine Science High School in 2001, and 4 years later graduated in Ateneo de Manila, as summa cum laude with a Physics degree. She then took her masterals in Particle physics at the International Center for Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy. Reyes is now a candidate for Ph.D in astrophysics, at the Princeton University in New Jersey.

Her 1st task at Princeton was to "figure out" how rare these black holes were. This is quite a difficult task since blackholes are considered invisible. She, in fact, described the project as looking for a needle in a haystack.

She was assigned to a group headed by Nadia Zakamska, a long-term postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, and under the supervision of "quasar hunter" professor Michael Strauss. The group found 900 black holes.

MyNASA

There is a new way to access NASA pages and keep track of what you wish to view. NASA has a personal user account called mynasa. You can access the page by typing mynasa.nasa.gov

MYNASA allows you different features to make your research of space related articles easier. And, the links from the home page are credible, so you don't have to go checking around in all the different sites to check if the posted information is wrong.

Your default account would contain a NASA calendar (with current events), a panel where you can save NASA videos, a panel where you can view bookmarked news, and panels that update you with different news such as the solar system, planet earth, and technology.

The mynasa account is simple and it does not require any personal info since you wouldn't be allowed to post items. I've been using it for researching articles from NASA. Try it. ^_^

Stargazers blog

Greetings.
Welcome to the Stargazers blog. Here we can have more interactive communication and discussions with regards to astronomy. I hope that you would be able to contribute to the blog. Thanks guys and happy star gazing.