Night Sky Observation for Sasi's Family at Sungai Petani

Venue: Residential Area, Taman Petani Jaya, Sungai Petani
Date: February 22, 2014
Family Program : 1

Successfully Viewed:

February 22
- Jupiter and its 4 major moons and Orion Nebula thru scope

- Orion Constellation

February 23, early morning
- Southern Cross Constellation and Big Dipper asterism

- Saturn and its moon (Titan), Waning Moon and Mars. All thru scope

 

  Sasi is a good friend who has an interest for night sky for a long time. Once he knew about astronomy program, without hesitation he hired us to fulfill his dream together with his family. We had a family event on Saturday 22 Feb, 10.30pm. We drove to SP. It took about half an hour to reach his in-law's house and of course we won't be reaching there on time without his road direction. :)

 

 Once reached, we are delighted to receive a very warm welcoming by Sasi and family. there were seven family members and his other friends. We display out night sky on his front yard. While Veerayen begins the scope setup, I gave away explanation about night sky to the family members. Then Veerayen briefly explained about telescope.

 

 Then the fun begins. Veerayen shows Jupiter thru a 240x magnification. Everyone were so delighted to witness the biggest planet in our Solar System for the very first time in their life. The family also witnessed Orion Nebula and trapezium shaped stars at that region. Veerayen demonstrated how to snap the Nebula and with just 10seconds of exposure time the Nebula looked impressive with colors.

 

  Nearly midnight, though Mars was rose that time, we told them to take a rest while waiting for the Moon ans Saturn rising. Indeed within the waiting time, we were served with a warm tea and biscuits. We also had a good chitchatr with family members particularly about footbal and of course more details about astronomy.

 

  About 1.30am, we started again. We gave opportunity to view Mars. The Red planet is about opposition and we are lucky to see details of the planet include polar ice cap. Then, we showed how to map constellation with star map and also pointing the constellations and asterism in the sky. Glad they see what we see too.

 

  Soon after that, Veerayen projected to Saturn. Of course, everyone like it ! Photos were taken over and over again. When we asked which planets you prefer to see and I think the readers know the answer :) The excitement led to Moon then. The craters were superb during gibbous Moon phase. Most of the family members were happy with the Mon surface details observation.

 

  Besides viewing, Veerayen taught scope projecting technique to Sasi. Unbelievable, he projected the Moon and Saturn in just one attempt. Not to forget his wife, Ranjeetha, who perfectly aligned the Moon thru the eyepiece. Good Job !

 

 We ended the session at 3.3am. We are so happy when the family now understand the night sky into details and we are sure they will look at the night sky everyday.

 

- Jivagaran

 

Pictures that snapped during the night:

 

Orion Nebula: - This is post-processed at very minimal level and the picture is cropped.

 

Moon

 

 

Saturn: - This is stack of 120 frames using RegiStax.

 

 

Saturn video which recorded during the session

 

 

Night Sky Observation at SJKT Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang

Venue: School area of SJK(T) Nibong Tebal

Date: February 21&22, 2014
Presenters: Jivagaran and Veerayen
Facilitators: Uma and Vijay
Target Group: Students (100ppl)
School Program : 12

Successfully Viewed:

February 21
- Jupiter and its 4 major moons thru scope

- Orion Constellation

February 22, early morning
- Southern Cross Constellation and Big Dipper asterism

- Saturn and its moon (Titan), Last Quarter Moon, Mars, and Venus. All thru scope

 

      We felt much excitement to conduct our School Program number 12. Without the good thought and hard work by all the school teachers, we wouldn't have made so successful. I must say many many thanks especially to Mdm Mylampah and Mdm Vatsala and of course the rest of teachers, parents and also the school HM Mr Rajarajan.

We impressed with school arrangements for the event. This is definately the finest school that have made the arrangement very well. Apart that, students with school t-shirt, with slogan "Tamizhal Mudiyum" looked very nice and very well disciplined.

Once we completed the theory sessions, then, we had the science officer from JPN, Mdm Asmah for the opening ceremony event. She was very delighted to see the students excitement who were waiting to observe the night sky wonders thru telescope. In her talk she expressed her gratitude for the school management and our team for made this happen for the students. She would like to see the students to become an astronaut in the future. Very visionary woman indeed !

After the opening ceremony, Mdm Asmah observed planet Jupiter and its 4 major moons thru an 8" newtonian scope. She personally liked the view. Later students and teachers take turn to observe Jupiter. We had another scope too, a refractor, to cope with huge number of students.

 

We were seeing some clouds moving in and out. That little obstructed the smoothness of the first observation session.  So we allowed students to take their supper and then we moved to quiz session. The quiz session was very interactive between the team members. There were 8 teams, which each had the planet's name. After the test time ended, we discussed the answers. Group Mars performed very well in answering 19 questions out of 25. We ended the first day session at 1am of Feb 22.

 

After 3.30 hours of sleep, all were woke up for another much anticipated observation session which includes Saturn with its biggest Moon, Titan, Waning Gibbous Moon, Mars, and crescent shaped Venus. Also successfully viewed are Big Dipper and Southern Cross. We ended the session at about 6.40am.

 

Overall it was fantastic event.  We strongly believe the students have received the best out of the program. Also we would like to have yearly basis program to the school. We are eagerly looking forward for the next session .

 

Report by

Veerayen M.

Some of event pictures: 

 

 Group picture with JPN Officer Mdm Asmah and School HM Mr Rajarajan

 

 



School HM thanking Mdm Asmah, together with dedicated school teachers

 

 

 Jivagaran conducting interactive theory session together with Vijay who helping running the slides

 

Observation session.

The Makkal Osai reporter, Mr Murugaiyan seeing Jupiter thru scope

 

Group Mars

 

The quiz session

 

Everyone so focused to answer the questions

 

Questionaire session

 

Quiz Winner - Group Mars

 

Observation session

 

We help you to see :)

 

 

The Happy Faces !!!