Astronomy Notes

Links for 2009-10-27 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 00:00:00 PDT

eSILAv2 -Gerbang Maklumat Modal Insan-

Orionids 2009

Robin Lee — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:33:24 +0000

What does the third week of October mean to us? Yes, as indicated by the title, the earth is passing through the debris stream left by the Halley Comet. As a result, earthlings get the chance to watch the spectacular Orionids. The rate is about 60 meteors per hour.

As usual, the best time to watch meteor shower is before the dawn. This year is especially good since the moon is almost new, no moon light will interfere the show. As you get under the night sky, you will notice that the winter constellations (for northern hemisphere) are up which makes the sky spectacular again. For example, Orion, Gemini and Taurus. *I love winter celestial objects the most, especiall the Great Orion Nebula.

Set your alarm and enjoy the shower.

Since the show this year sounds to be good, I will be going with George Zhou tonight to Mt. Stromlo at 12.30am till 3am. I also borrowed Joan’s D90, hopefully I will catch some Orionids.

Why have Orionids become one of the best showers since 2006?
According to Japanese meteor scientists Mikiya Sato and Jun-ichi Watanabe, Earth first encountered some very old debris in 2006 which results in fireballs rich shower. The encounter produced good displays in 2007 and 2008. The good news is the meteoroids are expected to encounter earth in 2009 again.

More info at Science@NASA

Links for 2009-09-25 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

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Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

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Links for 2009-09-19 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

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Some Random Shots in Australia

Robin Lee — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:39:51 +0000

The first twlight seen in Australia

Sydney Airport

Burning cloud. This photo was taken on the way to Canberra

Another shot of burning cloud. Notice the sky? It’s so bluish.

Front yard of Bruce Hall. Go straight and the path will lead you to University Avenue, where most students attend lectures and tutorial.

My breakfast. Cereal, peach, scrambled egg, bacon, croissant, spaghetti, mushrooms, tea and milk.

We had raw oyster during the Christmas night. Yup, we celebrate Christmas in July.

Fresh prawns for Christmas!

My DIY pizza. BBQ sauce + Alfredo sauce with cheeses, hams, onions, pineapples and lots of cheeses!

The cherry blossomed last month. Spring brings the spirit back.

Most of the photos here were taken with my loyal Panasonic LX3. It had retired 2 weeks before I went to Japan as my bottle in the bag leaked and soaked the camera in water…

My friends, we had a great dinner at Ritch, hadn’t we?

Thank you, my friends.

Links for 2009-09-14 [del.icio.us]

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

CountryLink: Home
Australian Train

Links for 2009-09-13 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 PDT

9 Weeks Australian

Robin Lee — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:18:50 +0000

Australia

[Posted on 31 Aug 2009] Time is really passing swiftly, I have been living in Australia for 9 weeks. So far, everything is going well. Hmm… not really.

I just had my first mid semester exams today. I was not in the mood to do revision on Mechanics and Electronics. A deep voice told me that I have learnt these things before but it’s obvious that I do not really know much about them. The funny thing is I am in a financial dilemma that if I could not get any scholarship to pay for my tuition fee and accommodation, I will end up going back to home after my first year. Robin, you should really think of your situation seriously. All you have to do now is to secure a scholarship, in other words, get good grades. Yes, I know. The motivation that carries me so far since high school has somehow disappeared. The enthusiasm is lost.

I need to find a new direction and redirect myself. Blogging is a good way to slowly set my new sail. Revive and readapt!

I will post up the photos I took on the way to Sydney from KL, Canberra and at ANU before Wednesday.

When people ask me how is Bruce Hall, how is my university life, how is Canberra, I always tell them the weather is cold but the people are warm. I am really grateful for those who helped me to get through all the difficulties. The girl working at the train information kiosk in Sydney airport who changed some coins for me to call back home and booked a bus for me to get to Canberra. Aishan who picked me up at the Jolimont centre and leaded me to Bruce Hall, ANU. AJ, the senior resident who got my room ready and the list goes on…

Since Australia is an isolated and huge continent from the mainland, most of the stuff have to be imported, resulting in sky-high price. At least, that’s true for me. However, the workers here are pretty well paid though. The average wage for 18-year-old worker is AUD15/hour in ACT (Australian Capital Territory). For 21 and above, it is about AUD22/hour. I will get a job as soon as I catch up academically, then I will be freed from the days saving every cent I could.

Cheers.

MICSS Science Camp 2009

Robin Lee — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:04:03 +0000

Theme of MICSS Science Camp 2009 – 天工开悟

Attending to MICSS Science Camp 2009 in Foon Yew High School, Kulai as a counsellor was a great pleasure. I can focus more on making friends instead of striving hard for prizes. Most importantly, it was a great chance to widen our perspective on science and to realise what we have in mind is just a fraction of the whole puzzles.

From left to right: Chia-Wei Li, Robin Lee and Wei-Hsin Sun

The main program of the science camp was the lectures by renowned professors. They were Prof. Wei-Hsin Sun, Prof. Chia-Wei Lee and Prof. Shun-Fen Tzeng. Their talks covered topics ranging from astronomy to life science. It was a pity that they were not given enough time to go deep into their exciting stories. However, I think their talks were impressive enough to encourage us to dig into them ourselves.

The second night of the camp, I joined Dr.Chong from USM for the “Night talk”. I was really amazed that he is so energetic and passionate. I can hardly find anybody else on par with him. He gave us a talk on the topic – The Search for More Extra-solar Planets – E.T. Where Are You? Wow! Interesting huh? Yeah, jia bueh liao! (Hokkien).

Dr.Chong pointed us the Alpha Centauri. Wow!

Right after that was stargazing party. It was even more fun with the present of Dr.Chong. He was like a boy running on the field with endless energy. He distributed lots of star charts and almanac to us and showed us the constellations by green laser. He also showed us the Meade MySKY which functioned as an electronic starchart. I was his assistant but I went away to take Prof. Sun’s autograph. Haha… Sorry about that Dr.Chong. Back to the stargazing party, the telescopes were not as many and powerful as last year. The weather was not very nice though. In fact, it was not a failure but it was not great enough to allure people to pursue astronomy as a hobby.

Dr.Chong said, “Fuiyoh… Don’t underestimate this cheap-looking water rocket. It can fly up to 150 meters high! No joke!”

Earlier the day, I also joined Dr.Chong for the mini water rocket DIY session. I loved to learn from him. He was such a high spirit, energetic and humorous professor. I can’t help laughing throughout the workshop. He is a real funny guy. The water rocket can be made under RM5. We just need plasticine, masking tape, wood made chopsticks and 2 7-up bottles. The launcher can be done with RM20. The designs of the water rocket and launcher are proven to be effective. I will ask for Dr.Chong permission if I can upload the guide of making water rocket.

The Universe movies were visually nice. However, most of us were not happy with the Bahasa Malaysia dub. The movies would be more interesting if they were played in English.

I have a little complain here. The food was considered below average. It was oily and boring. The breakfast, snack and supper were almost the same for the whole week. Some said that it’s not green to use paper plate (Yes, we had our food with use-and-throw tableware). Do you think it will be greener if we use reusable tableware? Save trees and petroleum or water? Discuss, please.

Congratulations! You guys did a great job! I am really proud of being the counsellor of Team 7.

I will have a gallery working later which shows all the photos I took. Stay tuned!

C02 Emission, Birth and Death Rate of Your Country

Robin Lee — Wed, 27 May 2009 17:47:05 +0000

Screenshot of BreathingEarth.net

I just stumbled across this interesting facts about the earth and I think it shall worth a read. BreathingEarth tells us about the CO2 emission, birth and death rate of human on Earth by country.

In Malaysia, every 55.6 seconds, a new life is born and every 4.1 minutes a person dies. 1000 tonnes of CO2 is emitted every 3 minutes.

I accidentally came across the facts of Spain. The birth rate and the death rate are exactly the same which is 1.3 minutes each.

The country that releases the most CO2 is United States of America which is every 1000 tonnes of CO2 per 5.3 seconds, second by China at 6.4 seconds. Wow… terrific… I think if we do not reduce carbon emission promptly, disasters are ahead of us soon.

Links for 2006-10-04 [del.icio.us]

Thu, 05 Oct 2006 00:00:00 PDT

NASA - Electric Ice
Correlation of Ice and Thunder