Hello, I blog!
I share all my sporadic and toilet thoughts in here, because I am random like that.
Gems in the night sky
As predicted, the sky show did happen – the 10% illuminated crescent moon joined in the conjunction of Venus, Mars and Saturn in the western sky this evening.
Hurray for clear skies. The weather was pretty stormy yesterday until early this morning, but every wisp of cloud cover had cleared by early evening. It was a pretty starry night, though my attention was mainly focused on the western sky – where the moon and the three planets were hanging low. (Plus, stars aren’t easily photograph-able in Singapore skies anyway – too bright. :()
Planetary conjunction with the moon joining the crowd.
For larger resolutions, you may check out the photos I’ve submitted to Space Weather.
Ooh, and just take a look at the earthshine on the moon. I rarely see that here, actually – because the overpowering city lights. Hmm, tonight is indeed special.
As promised, I did end up dragging my woozy self up to the rooftop garden to capture this rare event in the sky. (Still pretty much reeling from the after-effects of IV sedation from my early morning procedure today – but nothing, absolutely nothing stops me from my sky watching!)
Thanks to the sky for co-operating. It made a pretty positive ending to an otherwise one-of-those-I-want-to-forget days.
There is supposed to be a meteor shower going on at this moment too, actually. But … the sky garden faces the wrong direction, so I doubt I would be able to do any decent fireball-watching. If you have a window facing the North-East however, don’t forget to look outside! (Do check whether the perseid meteor shower will be visible in your area first, though!)
The skywatcher
Venus, Mars and Saturn are slowly closing in for a triple conjunction coming Thursday – where they will be the closest they can get to one another – but are already forming really pretty patterns in the sky as of now.
In view of this, I’ve been using my parents’ rooftop garden as my little observatory, photographing the planets as the gradually gravitate towards one another. Hurhur. Thank goodness for the occasional clear nights in between the stormy days we’ve been having as of late.
Planetary conjunction as on 6th August 2010.
The sky appears pink in the pictures, no thanks to the light pollution that continually plagues Singapore. On a completely dark sky, the planets are supposed to appear much brighter than you see here, especially Venus.
Apparently, we’re also reaching the peak period of the perseids meteor shower as well, which coincides with the maximum planetary conjunction (Venus, Saturn and Mars) this coming Thursday. Oh, did I mention that the crescent moon will be joining the three planets for a quadruple conjunction too?
Planetary conjunction as on 9th August 2010.
Look ma, I caught a meteor!
Nah, I kid. It was actually a passing airplane. The skies here a wee bit too bright for proper meteor watching.
Lemme’ have clear skies this Thursday! I just hope I am able to crawl out of bed of witness and photograph the whole thing. (Going for some procedure coming Thursday morning where I’ll be all drugged up with IV, supposedly leaving me pretty much zonked out for the rest of the day … but I’ll haul my ass up to the rooftop by hook or by crook!)
When day became night
The weather on eclipse day was dark and gloomy. It was overcast, with the clouds threatening to burst with rain any moment.
Despite escaping the rain belt in Shanghai which was threatening to ruin eclipse viewing, it still dealt us a glancing blow in Yangshan. (The latter supposedly to be the best observation area in China.) As a result of the clouds, I only managed to witness less than 15% of the eclipse in progress.
The clouds broke every now and then to provide me with glimpses (and photo opportunities) of the eclipse.
About 40% obscured at 9.09 A.M.
I am however, slightly miffed that I didn’t get to see the eclipse during totality. An extremely thick bunch of clouds decided to move in at the last minute (and it wasn’t as if there weren’t enough clouds to begin with) and thus the majestic sun corona was completely obscured from view despite the sheer length of totality.
The atmosphere was terrific, though!
I was amongst a whole flock of avid eclipse chasers with really bizarre, advanced equipment which made me really envious.
However, the weather was so bad that it was really beginning to look as if I’ve flown all the way here for nothing. It made me grouch for a while. Then, a gap suddenly appeared in the clouds and everyone started screaming with joy. (That was when I captured the above photo.)
To put it in my dad’s words – “This is one eclipse that will really make you shit in your pants.”
The rest of the eclipse viewing was erratic. I was staring at a patch of grey clouds for most of the duration, occasionally sitting up, alert when I spot a potential patch of cloud-free sky heading in my direction. The fact that there were so many people around with the same goal, and looking out for the same thing felt … good. It was as if we were all united against one enemy – the clouds.
I spent most of the time just sitting around and soaking up the atmosphere.
The period of totality was especially amazing despite not being able to see the sun. It suddenly became extremely dark (and rather eerie) really quickly, and I was surrounded with cheers and shrieks of delight.
The period of darkness lasted for slightly more than five minutes before light soon flooded the area again. Bloody awesome feeling, really.
I am really happy we made the decision to drive down to Yangshan for the eclipse. Based on what I’ve heard (and seen in the news), it was raining heavily in Shanghai throughout the eclipse duration and hardly anyone managed to even catch a glimpse of it.
More photos within. ;)
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