Sungazing preview

It was a cloudy evening, just managed to get decent observations and a few pics using my telescope Astroview 100mm and a homemade solar filter.




Notice the dark spot on the lower left part of the Sun…. it is a sunspot!

What are sunspots? Sunspots are regions on the Sun that are cooler than the other parts of the sun. It is a temporary phenomena that occurs on the photosphere! The reason behind it are intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection (transfer of heat) and hence forming areas of reduced surface temperature. It serves as an indication of intense solar activities, like solar flares and CME’s.



What is a photosphere? What are solar flares? What are CME’s? Don’t worry, we’ll be dealing with heliophysics (Studies of the sun) soon, and I do hope that we can also observe sunspots at college too! .



Based on the sizes I think it’s most probably sunspot no. 1263. Yes its length is about 10 Earths! Why the orientation is different? It is caused by the telescope no less… refractors generally have horizontally flipped and upside down images, due to the laws of optics no less! I think there’s also one more sunspot below there, Mr. 1261.... or just a shadow of a cloud. Hmm.

Stay tuned to Stargazer Society MCKL to learn more about the glorious Sun!


Image credits : NASA SDO observatory, astronomynotes.com

Our solar system!

So we met again just now, at room 1.9 ♥
As usual, it was AWESOME =D
Why?
Because I learned something new again of course haha
It's interesting lah~(serious) =w=

Before anything started, Chrono gave a short briefing about the Meteor Shower on 12-13 August. Anyone interested please let me(daisuke / She Chee) know ya. =D Thanks.

Today Adrian gave us a presentation about our solar system! *claps*
supported by Victor and Chrono *claps again*


Firstly of course was Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun.
It is the God of Travel, and its orbit is unpredictable. Mercury has no protective atmosphere, the temperature on the surface ranges from extremely hot on the side facing the Sun to extremely cold on the side that faces away from the Sun. :(；ﾞﾟ'ωﾟ'):

Then was Venus... (for personal reason i love this name XD)
Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty simply because it is very bright and beautiful. It is the brightest among the planets! This is one of those cases where beauty is only skin deep, though, as the surface of Venus is a very unpleasant place featuring very high temperatures, winds that blow hundreds of miles per hour and an atmosphere of sulfuric acid. It mostly consists of carbon dioxide and dust, and it is the hottest planet in the solar system!　ι(´Д｀υ)

Third was Earth! (but i think he skipped =P)

Just for an introduction(by me LOL),
Earth is where we standing /siting now XD It's ours home! and it's the most beautiful planet in solar system!　Σ(ﾟ∀ﾟﾉ)ﾉ
So please take good care of it and... (gonna get kicked because starting to promote environmental friendly issues instead of talking about planets...)

Okay... the next is Mars! which is named after the Roman god of war(Ares).
The surface of Mars features many mountains, canyons and even polar ice caps that look a lot like those here on Earth. In ancient times, Mars may have harbored some kind of life, and there is a lot of research going on now trying to get a definitive answer as to whether we are the only life forms in the solar system.
(reminds me about a song named "Life On Mars" )(゜レ゜)

Here was a interesting part of our activity today, (*´ω｀*)
3 of our presenter is trying so hard to make us to understand how the Mars look like when we see it from earth! (should be, the route of Mars)

they drew and talked and explained...and i think they almost get irritated because we didn't really understand what they are trying to explain!　Σ(´∀｀；)

Finally thanks to this animation... we all understand...

sob it's too small u can hardly see the slide..... please observe the slide!
i should have make it better next time sorry 　(._.)

Here comes the biggest guy, Jupiter!
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It has at least 61 moons and features the Great Red Spot, which is a huge "storm" that has been observed from here on Earth for over three hundred years. ( ﾟдﾟ )
It has 4 largest moon: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callista.
Its size is around 318 times the mass of Earth...━ヽ(ﾟДﾟ)ﾉ━━!!!!
Apart from these facts, Adrian told us a story...

According to the mythology, the god of Olympus, Gaia is the mother of the Earth and also mother for Uranus... but then Uranus is also the Husband for Gaia!(what a complicated relationship Orz) Gaia got a few sons lah... but then Uranus is afraid that he would be overthrown by his sons, so he torture them! >< For example, throwing the son into hell.... o.O
So Gaia shaped a great flint-bladed sickle and asked her sons to castrate Uranus. Only Cronus, youngest of the Titans, was willing: he ambushed his father and castrated him.... @@

The story continued and Cronus also afraid of being overthrown by his sons... and he ATE his son (＠_＠;) The the son of Cronus, Zeus eventually overthrown him.... and Zeus is the king of the Gods, Jupiter.

Okay it seems confusing as I don't really understand it....(*RUN before someone scold me*)


After Jupiter here comes the Saturn!＼(^o^)／
Saturn is the God of Harvest and also the son of Uranus o.O
Surprisingly its density is smaller than water and it is full of ice, dust and water... it got about 60 moons and the largest is Titan!（ ﾟÅﾟ）
Saturn has nine rings, consisting mostly of ice particles with a smaller amount of rocky debris and dust. A very beautiful planet.　（＾ω＾）

The seventh is Uranus.

Uranus is one of the giant gas planets in the solar system. It's mysterious blue-green color provides very few clues as to what is going on underneath the surface clouds. Uranus also has a very faint ring system. There are two explanation about why its orbit is different from others, one is because there's comet hitting on Uranus. But this is not accepted... another one is maybe because its moon affecting itself to have a different orbit...(￣д￣)ｴｰ
About the story of Uranus, we had a lot of it just now... yup the one who being castrated Orz.

And the last one is Neptune!
Neptune is the brother of Zeus, and the God who controls the sea.（ ・∀・）
Although slightly smaller than Uranus, is more massive (equivalent to 17 Earths) and therefore more dense. Blue in colour, Neptune has winds that blow hundreds of miles per hour and a big big spot on the planet - the Great Dark Spot.ヽ(・∀・ )ﾉ



But this is not the end of our session.... heheh~
After the solar system we had a presentation about eclipse and season =D
About the Japanese for eclipse today, it should be 日食（にっしょく）: nisshoku.
食is shoku...

In the Greek word the eclipse means abandonment!!! WOW
There are 3 types of eclipse:

The total eclipse is very rare compare to the annular eclipse...

and also 3 types of shadow:

Chrono demonstrated the eclipse using his hand and the light of the proejctor (*´ω｀*)

Furthermore they explained why during the eclipse the moon will be red colour! ヽ(^。^)ノ
(refer to the photo) XP


Finally we had our geography class...(the security people wanted to kick us out already LOL)

it's about season!
Although in Malaysia there is no significant changes in between the season...
we got only two, hot and hotter! 囧
should be spring, summer, autumn and winter lah~ but here we don't have snow... *sob*
So this was our meeting today!
In one hour we can talked so much! '`,､('∀`) '`,､

Last but not least, Japanese time~!
星空（ほしぞら）: hoshizora
meaning : starry sky
combining the two words in my last 2 posts, they became "starry sky"!
Be careful that it's not hoshi"sora" but hoshi"zora"... yup their reading changed when they combine with another words... confusing Japanese @@
Example: 今夜の星空は綺麗です。(Konya no hoshizora wa kirei desu.) The starry sky is beautiful tonight.

This semester’s goals

These are the goals that this semester's Stargazer Society must accomplish! 

Projects : 

• Water rocket competition
• Cardboard planetarium
• T-shirts
• Spectrometer
• 3D STEREO project + sun gazing
• Blitzkrieg Astronomy
• Mooncake Festival MCKL

Outings : 

• Meteor shower Public Meet
• Stargazer's retreat
• University of Nottingham Malaysia (again)
• Space Science Lab Universiti Malaya

To accomplish all these goals, support from members are very crucial and important! Do give in your efforts for an astronomy-fuelled memorable college life! :D

Clear Skies!

Rocket Man by Elton John

She packed my bags last night pre-flight
Zero hour nine a.m.
And I’m gonna be high as a kite by then
I miss the earth so much I miss my wife
It’s lonely out in space
On such a timeless flight
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
Till touch down brings me round again to find
I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man
Rocket man burning out his fuse up here alone
Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids
In fact it’s cold as hell
And there’s no one there to raise them if you did
And all this science I don’t understand
It’s just my job five days a week
A rocket man, a rocket man
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time...

Smiles

With all my heart, I swear

To the ends of the earth and time

I’ll gladly stand in the frontline

No matter what comes may

I’ll vanquish them, or die trying

Because your smiles are worth my life.

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyone's shadows
If I fail, if I succeed
At least I live as I believe
No matter what they take from me
They can't take away my dignity
Because the greatest love of all
Is happening to me
I found the greatest love of all
Inside of me
The greatest love of all
Is easy to achieve
Learning to love yourself
It is the greatest love of all

Whitney Houston, The Greatest Love of All