Starry, Starry Night
I've always been interested in astronomy ever since I was young. Its rather hard as a 8 year old trying to imagine gaseous bodies millions of times the size of our Planet Earth burning in a constant nuclear reaction frenzy over the span of billions of years. Astronomy, Cosmology has always been one of those topics in physics that actually generates interest, to me at least. It beats learning about magnetism and electricity anyday.
For starters, I guess its been really wonderful to have T-Squared to discuss about these kinds of theories. T-Squared's a really brilliant person when it comes to science, especially theoretical physics. He is probably one of the few handful of people that I am able to discuss with at length things like solar wind, gravitational acceleration, electro-thermodynamics as well as the various theories of the universe like Super-string, big bang, event horizons as well as the intricacies of time warps/shifts. The other person that I know of who is also able to talk about such things would definitely be Ivan (He took 3 S-Papers at the beginning of JC2!).
One thing I love about mathematics as well as physics is all the long, weird and complex names that scientist attach to observable phenomena, in a bid perhaps to lend the science a little bit more in credibility and grandeur. Works well for me. And as far as I know, it would be rather ideal to actually read through and fully comprehend the General Theory of Relativity, instead of just quoting it and talking about it in simple laymen terms. Its hard to comprehend the incredible academic talent and ability of Einstein, Planck, Hawking when it comes right down to the actual mathematics of cosmology.
I guess most of the people I've known in the field of astronomy lament the fact that it is very hard to get a clear night sky free of clouds in Singapore, given our tropical weather. And even harder it is to see stars, as our country is terribly light-polluted. Its nowonder that telescopes don't really sell very well in Singapore, unlike in the States where there is a big following as well as culture of amateur astronomy. Nevermind, I guesss even a cheap digital camera on a super long exposure will be able to cook up something from our heavenlies such as this:
I took this shot on a tripod aimed at one cloudless portion of the sky. I shot it wide open with the longest automatic shutter release I could get on my camera, which was 30 seconds. I'm too lazy to manually trigger the exposure as it is much better to sip coffee while the camera does the work instead of me having to stick my finger at the remote cable release for as long as I want the shutter to be open. I guess its really not too bad for a first try at night time astro-photography. As expected, its hard to believe that the background is so bright after so long an exposure, but just by looking at the pictures, I myself can see quite a number of stars already.
As I didn't really edit the photo besides resising, the shortcomings in my camera lens start to show as light fall-off at the corners, stray light as well as heavy light pollution from street lamps give the photo a strong orange cast at the lower portion. But its really not too bad, especially since I've managed to convince myself and a few others that it is possible to see that number of stars at night, just only with a camea set to long exposure. And its not really an expensive camera, so anyone with a digital camera can probably get the same shot as well!
I was thinking about heading for the ACS Barker reunion dinner, but then just by looking at the list of attendees, I guess I won't find practically a good friend from Barker that's headed for the dinner on July 3rd. Most of my classmates from my secondary 4 class enlisted into National Service yesterday, after completing their polytechnic diplomas. I would too, had I gone the poly route instead of JC. And we all know its really thanks to God that I went to JC and didn't end up in poly. So with regards to the dinner, I guess I'll just have to let it pass me by. No, I won't even go down to support the event by taking photos.
Anyway, I guess very much sooner than later I'll have to leave all these memories as a student pass me by and let it drift into the deeper recesses of my mind as I look to the future with hope, although it might be stark full of uncertainty at times and perhaps join everyone else at the 20th anniversary reunion in 2020.
I've always been interested in astronomy ever since I was young. Its rather hard as a 8 year old trying to imagine gaseous bodies millions of times the size of our Planet Earth burning in a constant nuclear reaction frenzy over the span of billions of years. Astronomy, Cosmology has always been one of those topics in physics that actually generates interest, to me at least. It beats learning about magnetism and electricity anyday.
For starters, I guess its been really wonderful to have T-Squared to discuss about these kinds of theories. T-Squared's a really brilliant person when it comes to science, especially theoretical physics. He is probably one of the few handful of people that I am able to discuss with at length things like solar wind, gravitational acceleration, electro-thermodynamics as well as the various theories of the universe like Super-string, big bang, event horizons as well as the intricacies of time warps/shifts. The other person that I know of who is also able to talk about such things would definitely be Ivan (He took 3 S-Papers at the beginning of JC2!).
One thing I love about mathematics as well as physics is all the long, weird and complex names that scientist attach to observable phenomena, in a bid perhaps to lend the science a little bit more in credibility and grandeur. Works well for me. And as far as I know, it would be rather ideal to actually read through and fully comprehend the General Theory of Relativity, instead of just quoting it and talking about it in simple laymen terms. Its hard to comprehend the incredible academic talent and ability of Einstein, Planck, Hawking when it comes right down to the actual mathematics of cosmology.
I guess most of the people I've known in the field of astronomy lament the fact that it is very hard to get a clear night sky free of clouds in Singapore, given our tropical weather. And even harder it is to see stars, as our country is terribly light-polluted. Its nowonder that telescopes don't really sell very well in Singapore, unlike in the States where there is a big following as well as culture of amateur astronomy. Nevermind, I guesss even a cheap digital camera on a super long exposure will be able to cook up something from our heavenlies such as this:
I took this shot on a tripod aimed at one cloudless portion of the sky. I shot it wide open with the longest automatic shutter release I could get on my camera, which was 30 seconds. I'm too lazy to manually trigger the exposure as it is much better to sip coffee while the camera does the work instead of me having to stick my finger at the remote cable release for as long as I want the shutter to be open. I guess its really not too bad for a first try at night time astro-photography. As expected, its hard to believe that the background is so bright after so long an exposure, but just by looking at the pictures, I myself can see quite a number of stars already.
As I didn't really edit the photo besides resising, the shortcomings in my camera lens start to show as light fall-off at the corners, stray light as well as heavy light pollution from street lamps give the photo a strong orange cast at the lower portion. But its really not too bad, especially since I've managed to convince myself and a few others that it is possible to see that number of stars at night, just only with a camea set to long exposure. And its not really an expensive camera, so anyone with a digital camera can probably get the same shot as well!
I was thinking about heading for the ACS Barker reunion dinner, but then just by looking at the list of attendees, I guess I won't find practically a good friend from Barker that's headed for the dinner on July 3rd. Most of my classmates from my secondary 4 class enlisted into National Service yesterday, after completing their polytechnic diplomas. I would too, had I gone the poly route instead of JC. And we all know its really thanks to God that I went to JC and didn't end up in poly. So with regards to the dinner, I guess I'll just have to let it pass me by. No, I won't even go down to support the event by taking photos.
Anyway, I guess very much sooner than later I'll have to leave all these memories as a student pass me by and let it drift into the deeper recesses of my mind as I look to the future with hope, although it might be stark full of uncertainty at times and perhaps join everyone else at the 20th anniversary reunion in 2020.
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