We Are Featured on Newspaper!

The MCKL Stargazer Society is featured in Sin Chew Paper last Sunday! On Page 21 of the Metro Section! (大都会)
That’s us on the right! The telescope is our beloved Astroview 100 ‘Steve’! From the left, that’s Moi Kok Ming, (Chrono) Fong Kee Onn, Victor Tan Yi Quan (face covered), Adrian Chong (he hogs the limelight every time!) and Nixon Kan! The caption reads “ MCKL Stargazer Society’s members using an astronomical telescope to gaze upon Jupiter”. Although they actually called us ‘astronomy club of MCKL’ =.=…. but we’re the astronomy club of MCKL right! Haha!
Here is a brief translation of the article:

Stargazers congregate to view Jupiter when it is closest to Earth
Tonight is the best chance to view Jupiter in Opposition. Opposition is when the Sun, Earth and Jupiter are in a straight line, and Jupiter is in its brightest, largest and nearest approach to Earth. This occurs once every 13 months in average.
To celebrate this occasion, the National Space Agency has organised a “Sidewalk Astronomy Night”, inviting astronomy enthusiasts and the public to gather at Titiwangsa Park to gaze upon Jupiter and the Moon.
The parties invited includes 7 astronomy groups, namely Starfield Instruments Supply, the Mufti Office of the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, the Space Science Laboratory, StarHunters Astronomical Society, StarFinders Astronomical Society, and MCKL Stargazer Society! The participants set up about 20 telescopes on the jetty to allow the public to gaze upon Jupiter.
“The aim of this program is to allow the public to have a chance to experience and know more about astronomy, “says Lau Chen Chen, Research Officer of the National Space Agency. “Telescopes are a considerable investment to have, therefore we provided these telescopes free of charge for those who are interested to try out any one of them to observe Jupiter and the Moon’.
She also added that the Agency has organised several similar activities last year, and successfully attracted about 1000 members of the public to view Jupiter and the Moon. She predicted that the numbers will be largely similar too for this year.
Apart from viewing Jupiter, the public can also participate in the lucky draw and a pop quiz organised by the Agency.

Sidewalk Astronomy Night @Titiwangsa 29102011

It's been a long time since our last outing... and yesterday(just now?) we just had our second sidewalk at Tasik Titiwangsa!
It's a huge event as this is organized by Planetarium Negara, so there were more clubs joining the sidewalk astronomy event today! The participants includes :

• ANGKASA (National Space Agency)
• Starhunter Astronomical Society feat. William Chin
• Starfinder Astronomical Society feat. 14 inch bazooka
• Starfield Instruments Supply
• Choon Kiat from Perseids Telescopes Penang
• Mr Shahrin Ahmad from FalakOnline
• and MCKL Stargazer Society!

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We arrived at 7pm for preparation etc. Thanks to Nixon and Adrian for fetching members who got no transportation to there!
Sky was still bright at 7... but when Kee Onn started to set up the telescope it was already dark =P
You know...
He can set it up in the dark! wow~!
No need light! (if we on the light then will become the light pollution lol)
Our nice president also helped all of us to register~ so all of us got a nice goodies bag from the Planetarium Negara and also our dinner...www (stands for ‘haha’ in Japanese 2ch language)

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The event started at 8pm sharp! (SO PUNCTUAL AH MALAYSIAN)
There were Emcee who introduced to the public about the sidewalk, and also announcing who participated in this sidewalk.
The Emcee kept on asking people to register and for those who registered will get a number and can join the lucky draw session!
However, all of us did not get the any number for the lucky draw Orz except Joy! =)
If i not mistaken there were total 5 session of lucky draw!
Besides, there were quizzes for the public too! It's in Malay language... ^^
I think they can get a prize if they answered it correctly!

As usual, VP Adrian takes all the spotlights! This beautiful board about light pollution is made by Apple Ying Yi, our talented handicraft member! Too bad our place was not strategic, there were no light sources to read the board (epic fail).

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It's the first time in my life to see so many telescope at the same time actually haha.
The biggest one is 14inch! According to Mr president it costs the same price as a car!

Here are some of the many telescopes that were featured that night.

This red thingy looks funny. Its an Astroscan Plus, a no frills ideal beginner telescope (http://www.scientificsonline.com/astroscan-plus-telescope.html). The tripod stand must be homemade though. It looks like a Doodle heheh

This long white telescope is of the Starhunters. Pic features from left, Chrono Fong, ???, William Chin and Simpson. Notice the blue box down there? It’s a treasure, the Sky and Telescope Seven Decade Collection DVD!

William’s scope.

A few Meade LX800’s I think from the National Planetarium. “Musytari” is Malay for Jupiter and Bulan for Moon. It has AutoStar features, no less you expect from the agency! With these scopes sidewalk should be done every Saturday!

Some other scopes. This might be Starfield’s if not mistaken.

Kok Ming skodeng from a random scope lol!

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At first we tried to focus on the Moon! Last quarter?
Well the image in the telescope is upside down lah....
After that we changed our "stalking" target to Jupiter!
The largest planet in our solar system!
Using the telescope we can even see the 4 largest moon of the Jupiter which is Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto!

This is what Nixon managed at the eyepiece. Saw Jupiter and his moons?

Besides these two main attractions there was another one!
It's the Summer Triangle!
By joining the Altair, Vega and Deneb you can form a huge triangle in the sky =D
The dimmest one is Deneb but it's still bright enough for us to recognize the triangle!

Towards the end of the event Simpson introduced us some of the famous astronomy players in the Klang Valley!
I realized we're the youngest among the crowd  LOL
Well the weather was a but cloudy... so both the Moon and Jupiter was not always available...XD
Overall it was a very nice experience for amateur like me!
Thanks for everyone who came and made the outing so fantastic!

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As usual, Japanese time! (actually u guys got remember or not!?)
天の川（あまのがわ）：ama no gawa
Meaning: Milky way
Example: 晴れた夜には天の川が見えるよ。 You can see the milky way if the night sky is clear.

Do you want to be a Rocketeer?

Kick-start your adventure, your dreams to be a rocket scientist, your ambition to land another Man on the Moon! It all starts here at Stargazer Society MCKL’s Rocketeer Module for November 2011!

After the MCKL trials, the Rocketeer module is launching (no pun intended!) Programs included :

- How to make a water rocket launcher (online)

- How to make a water rocket

- Launching of rockets!

We are Stargazer Society, a club dedicated to madness and spreading the virus of astronomy!

The Space Shuttle

The space shuttle has been a fantastic vehicle. It is unlike any other thing that we've ever built. Its capabilities have carried several hundred people into space.
Robert Crippen

The Space Shuttle Program by NASA, held from 1981 to 2011, was a defining programme that shaped human space endeavours for the last 30 years. Everyone, every kid is fascinated by the sight of the space shuttle that has dutifully brought humans up to the Mir Space Station, and subsequently the International Space Station to conduct scientific research, experiment long term living in space and providing the groundwork for future, deeper explorations.

On Thursday, our beloved club treasurer Yeang Ching, under her own initiative, offered to share with the club about the story of the space shuttle.

 

Pic shown is the orbiter #0 Enterprise, named after the legendary Star Wars spaceship. It is #0 because it is a prototype and it was never used for real space exploration. The first one to do so is Columbia instead.

Yeang Ching’s main topic is the materials used to build the space shuttle, which is very interesting on its own. Do you know which part of the Space Shuttle gets the hottest during atmospheric re-entry? And what are the few substances that are able to stand such crazy temperatures and are used to line the Space Shuttle’s Exterior? Do you know what are the names of the booster rockets attached to the Space Shuttle? Do you even know how many orbiters were there? She knew it all! :P

Ok well, first off here’s a chronology of what happens during each flight :

When people have asked if I'd like to go in the Shuttle, I said you don't get to fly it, except for landing, which I'd love to do. I wouldn't go unless I could command it.
Wally Schirra

The most dangerous part of the flight, other than liftoff, is the re-entry part where the orbiter can face temperatures of up to 3000 degrees! This is due to friction with the Earth’s atmosphere. Sorta like having your own mother killing you.

As you can see the whitest and hottest part is the edge of the wings. Special protections are applied to these areas so that the orbiter would not melt. There you go!

click for larger image

One of the more famous tiles are the High Temperature-Reusable Surface Insulation (HRSI) tiles which are black in colour and lines the bottom of the orbiter. In this pic a spot check is done on Discovery’s heat tiles while it was docked to the ISS. The tiles are not all black, the one with faded colours are the old tiles. 

Enclosed is a diagram of the materials for the HRSI tiles. Someone commented that it was oddly similar to mahjong tiles lol.

I think the Space Shuttle is worth one billion dollars a launch. I think that it is worth two billion dollars for what it does. I think the Shuttle is worth it for the work it does.
Pete Conrad

Other than that, Yeang Ching has also presented on the launch system of the Space Shuttle!

In the pic, the orange big rockets is known as the External Fuel Tank, and the twin small rockets beside are the Solid Booster Rockets! The club members remembers this well as it cost them a free ice-cream, except for Daisuke! :D

Lastly, a talk on the thermal protection system of the Space Shuttle is not complete with the tragedy of the Columbia Orbiter in 2003. This was due to a heat tile that happened to dislodge during reentry and hit the shuttle’s left wing, causing a puncture and allowed hot gases from the reentry to enter the wing and disintegrate the wing from within, leading to eventual loss of control and breakup of the shuttle. Due to this incident, space shuttle was put on hold for two years, similar to the Challenger incident and improvements were made on the three remaining orbiters, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour.

That is all for Yeang Ching’s sharing session! Clap clap clap! And congrats to the winners of the quiz session, Priscilla, Daisuke, Yee Lin, Yi Kun and Chee Meng who won a free ice cream to be redeemed on the Oct 29th Sidewalk Astronomy Night!

Well then, see ya next meeting!

The Twilight Zone' wasn't around with the kids. They think going up in space is neat. Within their lifetime, there will be paying passengers on the shuttle.
Christa McAuliffe (teacher astronaut who perished on the Challenger incident)