My First Camping Experience!

Chookarloo Camping Grounds

Absolutely stunning. I want to see more than this in the future!

Note: Click on image to view or download original!










My Camping Album

My Astrophotography Album
Make: Canon
Model: Canon EOS 350D DIGITAL
Shutter Speed: 30/1 second
F Number: F/5.6
Focal Length: 21 mm
ISO Speed: 1600
Date Picture Taken: May 31, 2008, 7:25:40 PM

Orion Belt, Nebula Orion and Betelgeuse

The stars you see almost every night.

It's amazing how ignorant I was when I look at the night skies, staring at stars, twinkling, wondering why... and I left myself wondering.

I look at the stars in a very different perspective today. The common stars we all see almost every night, 3 stars in a row, if you take one step back and look at the surrounding stars, you'd see a big cross with Betelgeuse pronounced as Beetlejuice, (a red star, one of the biggest stars) at one end of the cross.

According to the big picture here, you can see the Orion Belt(3 stars in a row), and to the far right is
Betelgeuse
(It takes us 427 years, at the speed of light..to reach Betelgeuse and yet we see it so bright)


That's not it. Zoom in and you'll see the other 3 stars (shorter,smaller row) diagonally positioned to the left of the 3 Ori stars, is the:

The Great Orion Nebula
(also known as M42 or NCG 1976).


I don't have a telescope good enough to capture deep sky astrophotography, therefore I've picked one of my favourite astrophotographer - Humayun Qureshi

Will save for a new refractor telescope to take deep sky images!

Just so you know:
Exposure: 30 secs
ISO: 200

Astrophotography: Mercury & Venus

Finally I got to see Venus, after talking about it! Here's my (too late) picture of Mercury and Venus. I am suppose to be taking this picture at 5.30am, but I was late :( The sun came up...the long exposure didn't work.

Oh right...How nice of that Jet to fly pass my angle :) Made everything all the more lovely.

Mercury,Venus,Neptune and the Moon

This is visible to the Southern Hemisphere, 6am (+9.30 Time Zone) for 30 minutes.

It is rather difficult to identify which or what direction should you be looking at since the moon is only 1% visible crescent.

However, there is NO WAY you can miss Venus as she is the brightest darling in the sky (also known as the morning star and evening star).

Although I'm in South Australia, Adelaide right now, I saw Venus in the early mornings 5.30am (+8 Time Zone) of Malaysia (which is NOT located in the southern hemisphere).

Guide to Sky Watch (Southern Hemisphere)

Results may differ in other time zones.

Astrophotography : Yellow Moon

亲爱的爸爸， 生日快乐！
Yellow Moon
1st October 2007

Astrophotography of the Moon at Perigee

Moon at Perigee (closest to earth) was on the 27th September 2007

For you who missed the Moon...this was a picture I manage to take through my telescope with wide angel (25) eyepiece.

I only managed to get 5 shots of the Moon due to a big patch of clouds CURRENTLY (while I'm posting this) blocking my perfect moon.
*whIne*

.

If I have a wish, I will wish to know if there's life outside of milky way.

To those who doesn't know, the Universe is what we know as the biggest atmosphere. Within the Universe, there are god knows how many galaxies. Milky way is our galaxy. Earth is accompanied by other planets such as Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and I will still include Pluto.

Zillions of money spent on sending Spaceships and Voyagers to our neighbouring planets.
So far, technology brought humans to the Moon, ...that's all I know of. Venus is too hot thus a ship was sent and only survived for two hours in the lava. Even with our currently technology on the speed of spaceships, it takes 3-6 months to travel just to the Mars. Mars is closest to earth at 35 million miles and furthest at 250 million miles away.

Let me introduce the Astronomical Units
1 Astronomical Unit = 149 598 000 kilometers
The distance for Mars (from Earth) is currently at 1.005 AU. Neptune...is now 29.288 AU from Earth. You can do the calculations by google-ing 29.288AU.
Voyager 2 took 12 years to reach Neptune.


Now let me introduce to you LIGHT YEARs
1 light year = 9.4605284 × 10¹⁵ meters
Note...STARS that we see are FURTHER than our PLANETS. Antares was known as the biggest star visible to the naked eye. It is 1,108,430,000 km away.

What is bigger than Antares? You shall find out later at the end of the post. All of these planets, these stars and wonders are WITHIN our galaxy (Milky waay).

HOW WILL WE EVER KNOW IF THERE IS LIFE IN ANOTHER GALAXY!?
Let me see...nearest galaxy is Canis Major Dwarf Galaxy at 25,000 light years away. It is a natural satellite of Milky Way. In this case, satellite means it orbits the Milky way (ie: The moon is a natural satellite of Earth).

This is making me crazy. If there are any species coming to earth from the outerspace out of our milky way, who are we to call them aliens.....? If they can come to earth from so goddamn far away, I will follow them. If they exist, they are the smart ones. I'm the alien.

To those who thinks they are enjoying life to the fullest, this may not help. So, this is what I see tonight. Pretty damn small, eh? I feel like crying.


What is bigger than Antares? by samtsai.com

I love how the Universe is killing me softly.

.

Surface of the Moon

Evening Moon

Surface of our Moon

54% of Full - Waxing Gibbous

:) I'm a happy girl!! Full moon on the 27th! Can't wait!

Farm Life

Air Rifle & Shotgun

Shooting a gun was one of my "future plan" and I finally did it under the supervision of Scout and Andrew who both have full firearm license. Air rifle was really quiet considering most people who have not much clue about guns will assume guns without silencer are usually loud.
The shotgun however... *shOck*! Ears buzzed, adrenaline rushed and pride (because I got the target!) The can was absolutely smashed! I was also told that there will be a strong kick back. It actually sorta cured my sore shoulder.

Andrew & Kylie's hobby farm

A farm 30 minutes away from town. Cows, chickens, birds, dogs, cats, lambs, horses, sheep, alpacas, and a variety of poo all over the 20 acre meadow. A mountain-like backyard that overlooks Birdwood.
2 storey high bonfire.

Do you prefer city life or farm life?

MiccObaYb's Amateur Stargazing

I did my small research on what and how to look for planets and galaxies in the milky way. So far, I saw Planet Venus at 5.30am and apparently the picture I posted recently is planet Jupiter. Didn't bring my camera out when I saw Venus...but I will see Venus again, so stay tuned.
I am not as skillful, and yet to know how to use the telescope, pictures do not turn out as sophisticated. Just being able to see clusters of stars that you can't see with naked eye is absolutely fulfilling.

I have decided to learn more about Astrophotography.
Here are some absolutely amazing astrophotography taken by Humayun Qureshi.