As they say, good things comes to those who wait. Especially applicable in astronomy!
This is the annual Perseids Meteor Shower which regularly is a strong show provided by the Comet Swift-Tuttle. The comet leaves a trail of space debris over its course in the Solar System and when Earth passes by this trail the meteorites strike the Earth, burning up in the atmosphere and forms the dazzling meteor shower that we see. However this year the blinding Full Moon greatly reduces our chances to see meteors, however we still have observed about 43 meteors the whole night!
The Full Moon under 24x magnification ( I think)
An example of the Perseids taken at the Very Large Array telescopes in the USA at 2010.
We all gathered by the roadside in a desolate road without streetlights, however there are still some light pollution at the horizon. With nothing else but sleeping bags and some snacks, everyone just lie down and started to hunt for meteors!
Pic above is our dear vice president Adrian keen on the hunt for meteors (or fast asleep?)
If there weren’t telescopes to show our identity as stargazers, we really look just like a bunch of refugees, or backpackers in the middle of nowhere lol.
The Stargazers also experienced stargazing first-hand under the starry sky! From midnight to dawn everyone located constellations such as Cassiopeia, Aries, Taurus, Orion, Pegasus and Andromeda. Using telescopes we also experienced Jupiter, the Moon, Andromeda Galaxy (a bloody fuzzy patch of light only), the double cluster near Cassiopeia, M45 the Pleiades cluster and the magnificient M42 Orion Nebula!
M45 – Pleaides Cluster
Position of M42 – the Great nebula in Orion
M42 – the Great nebula in Orion
Using Jupiter, some of the members including Arvin, Hyun Woo and others tried their hands on telescope navigation under guidance of Chrono and Simpson.
<--- This is what Jupiter looked like on the morning of 13th August. Now you know what were the bright lights beside Jupiter with 3 on one side and 1 on the other!
The two telescopes that joined us that night! From left : Orion Astroview 100mm EQ a.k.a Steve, Orion Spaceprobe 130mm STEQ a.k.a Stephanie.
Thanks to everyone that came for the event!
