Lunatic

Last Thursday, April 22, me and some of my friends in the church gathered to witness the Lyrids meteor shower. While waiting for the peak time, we set our eyes on the moon. Luckily we had a decent camera with us. I tinkered about with the settings until I was able to get a clear image of the moon and its craters. :)

here is a picture of my first successful astrophotography shot. I used a Canon Powershot S3 IS.

A Night at the Mountain Tops of Valencia

Last night, Mar 29, me and some friends of kuya Moe went up to the mountaintops of Valencia to have a stargazing session. They've been doing it for quite some time, but never really knew how to maximize their stargazing - that's why they hauled me in.

The place had a perfect view of the eastern horizon, overlooking Dumaguete city and the sea. The skies were cloudy though for that night, but that didn't stop us. They had two refracting telescopes that haven't been used effectively. Some of the adjustment screws were missing and the tripod wasn't stable. I brought my binoculars along only to find out it was damaged and my eyepiece fell off.

Anyways, I managed to set up both scopes and targeted the most visible object at that time - the moon. The moon was almost full so the brightness was kinda a pain in the eye. We were able to view the craters of the moon and observe the mares. I also showed them Sirius, Procyon and Mars in the sky, forming like a giant Orion's belt. Later, Saturn came to view and I worked on getting the telescope to focus on it. When I was able to focus on Saturn using a 10mm eyepiece, we were able to see Saturn and its bright rings, as well as two of its moons.

The event would have been better with clear skies, but I'm happy to have pleased and amazed others with the Wonders of the Night Sky! :)

Armed and Ready :)

Last Thursday, me and my 1st year research assistants were preparing for doing my thesis. We had nothing to do for the mean time so we sat down and ate Mr.Chips. Suddenly, we saw Jupiter clear out from the clouds, so we immediately rushed to assemble the department's Celestron 8 (which we call Big Bertha).

When we focused on Jupiter, we were able to notice the Great Red Spot (Whoa!). After Jupiter, we looked around and trailed on to the Orion nebula. I recalled the view of the Trapezium from UP, and wanted to share it to them. Our telescope wasn't able to resolve the image well enough, but still we could distinguish the four baby stars surrounded by a cloud of interstellar gas.

Later that evening, Saturn came out and we all enjoyed looking at its rings (We even forgot about the thesis). Unfortunately, clouds began to cover up our view. So we began doing nothing.

I decided to check on the old telescopes that were in the cabinet (talk about dusty). I looked around for their mounts and found three equatorial mounts, I don't know which mount was for which telescope. Later, I was able to figure out which telescope belonged to which mount. Unfortunately, they were quite rusty and dusty. We set up one of the old telescopes and I thought my assistants how to do tracking.

We were all excited about having all 5 department telescopes functional that my assistants gave the old ones names after big bertha. One was given Berting, the other was called Bertot (i actually called it Milk shake).

Now that all 5 telescopes are ready, we are excited for our next stargazing session! :)

IYA 2009 National Astronomy Olympiad

Last February 18-20, I traveled to Manila to participate in IYA 2009 National Astronomy Olympiad, held at UP NISMED. I represented region seven in the nationals, since I was blessed to win the Regional level in Cebu, last Feb 21. I was blessed further by becoming champion of the olympiad in the national level.

The IYA 2009 National Astronomy Olympiad  was held at the UP NISMED auditorium in UP Diliman, last Feb 19. The categories for the competition were: multiple choice, open ended1 and open ended 2 , and practical/hands-on.

Here are some pics I took from my cellphone since I wasn't able to bring a camera with me:

 

UP observatory at UP NISMED which housed a 16inch  reflector given by the Japanese.

A picture of me receiving the first-prize.

UP NISMED Auditorium

IYA 2009 National Olympiad banner

Sir Jun giving a lecture on the equatorial mount

sir Bamm and sir Jun

How Did You Know?

The other night we had a stargazing session where the highlights of the night was the Moon, Jupiter and Mars. When pointing out the planets, a common question that arises from the students is "How did you know?"

Fair enough, there have been those who make wild guesses as to what planet they are actually looking at, so it is just right that a critical thinker might be skeptical.

So how do we KNOW?

It is part of the astronomer's (or amateur astronomer's) job to be familiar with the night sky. Knowing where the planets are during a night comes with the territory. While explaining to the Physics 25 students, I pointed out the line in which the Sun, the Moon and the planets pass. This line is the ecliptic. Along these line extends a band we commonly know as the zodiac.

Now, the stars and the constellations in the zodiac have already been identified, along with their magnitudes. Now if a star is found in this path that doesn't belong to the constellation - that is usually a planet. When the planets are closest to the Earth, they usually shine with bright magnitudes (such as Mars and Jupiter on that night). When this happens, they become easy to identify.

Now, a little something on the planets: You can never see Mercury and Venus during midnight. You usually see Mercury in transit with the Sun, and Venus usually appears as a morning or evening star (during sunrise or during sunset). Now, only three more planets are visible with the naked eye, those are: Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The unique red-orange glow of Mars can distinguish it from the other two. Saturn on the other hand, due to distance, does not shine as bright as Jupiter and Mars. The remaining planets, Uranus and Neptune, are telescope object. It means they can only be observed via telescopes.

Astro Olympiad Experience

Last Thursday was the schedule for the regional eliminations of region 7 for the IYA 2009 Astronomy Olympiad. I was really excited to join, it was a test of my knowledge.
I left Dumaguete at 3:49 am and got the boaat in Sibulan. UP NISMED announced that I have to be there by 8 for the registration. It was 9 plus already and I'm still stuck in Cebu's traffic. I texted Ms. Jocelyn Canto, the DepEd rep, and she said it's ok, we will wait. I was worried since I didn't know where to find the venue. I arrived and lo and behold, only high-school contestants were there. I was the only college participant.

Anyways, we waited until 10:30 but still no college participants arrived, just the HS. I still took the written exam though.

The funny thing is, there was no categories given, so I ended up jumping from one astronomy textbook to another. I focused on things I didn't know much about, like eclipsing binaries, variable stars, theories of formation of the universe, gravitational micro-lensing an all that just to find out one thing - FOCUS ON THE BASICS.

It's funny because I'm supposed to know these things but because I was too focused on other astronomy topics, I failed to study them. Maybe I was too confident. Anyways, I didn't do too good, learned my lesson. I'm just lucky I'm blessed by God with an opportunity to do better. This time I'll do better!

AstroArt by Norman

Two of my passions are Astronomy and Art. Here are some of my paintings where I merged both astronomy and art: