Countdown to Int'l Year of Astronomy (2009)

[rodsky]

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2009 will be the International Year of Astronomy.



In 1608, Dutch spectacle makers Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Janssen, and Jacob Metius of Alkmaar crafted a device to enable "far seeing". A year later, in 1609, Galileo pointed it to the night sky, and telescope-based observation (and the word "telescope") was born.

Now, 400 years after Galileo first saw the wonders of the heavens, the world celebrates the International Year of Astronomy. The Year was declared by the 62nd General Assembly of the UN. A global scheme, laid out by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), has also been endorsed by UNESCO.

Here is the link to the main site:

International Year of Astronomy 2009

Here is the link to our Philippine hub:

Pandaigdigang Taon ng Astronomiya 2009 - Partners

Local astronomy groups that will spearhead the IYA2009 activities in the Philippines will be the Philippine Astronomical Society (PAS) and the Astronomical League of the Philippines (ALP), as well as PAGASA, headed by our IAU SPC representative, Dr. Cynthia Celebre and the Rizal Technological University (the only school in Asia, aside from Japan, that offers BS and MS in Astronomy).

Unfortunately, most of the Philippine-based activities will be in and around Metro Manila, but since we have ALP member Chris Go here in Cebu, there is a chance that he might engage in astronomy related activities here in the city soon.

Right now I'm no longer involved in any major Philippine astronomical group or society. However, as an independent amateur astronomer, I'll still use my iStorya blog to post any relevant news about the IYA2009 activities and perhaps, given time, I'll also post local events and activities related to astronomy. One of the things I plan to do next year, is to build a new Dobsonian reflector. It will probably be based on a 6" or 8" f/8 design, and I will show how I construct/build the telescope in my iStorya blog.

Here is an example of a telescope I helped build sometime in 2006...

...my daughter is viewing the planet Saturn when I took this image. This is a 4.5" f/8 truss-type.

The design for the telescope I plan to build will be similar to this one, because it's the easiest one to construct, in terms of materials and effort--most parts in this telescope are made from scrap/junk materials. There are a lot of other elegant designs out there, but it will prove to me more time consuming to create. After I finish it (assuming I DO finish it hehehe), I'll invite you iStoryans to celebrate "first light" (first use of the scope) somewhere here in Cebu City.

So to those of you who are interested in getting into amateur astronomy, now is a good time to get into it, because there will be a lot of activities about astronomy for the entire year of 2009.

-RODION

[doreen31987]

wow this is nice... hehehe

[rics zalved]

nindota ani wui...hehehe

[xxxerorrxxx]

@rodsky..
pwede mangulos ana bro ?

[rodsky]

@rodsky..
pwede mangulos ana bro ?

Borrow what? That telescope above, pictured with my daughter? Unfortunately, that is the property of the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology Astronomical Society (MIAS), which I help found in 2004, and thus it's currently in Iligan City, inside the school's campus. A group of students, faculty and staff of the said institute, including myself, constructed the scope from designs I made using 3D Studio MAX. But if I do finish building my own telescope next year, I'll invite you iStoryans for an observation session.

-RODION

[dieseldust]

nindot ni...interested ko

[rodsky]

nindot ni...interested ko

And nindot ani is, you can show your interest in many different levels:

a) "Curious" level - you can keep track of the activities just as a curious person wanting to learn more, by just visiting websites about the activities and events, esp. if your goal is to teach your children, or other children about astronomy.

b) participant level - you can participate in the possible activities (i.e. star parties, lectures, etc.) that may occur during the entire year. To start, you can download these two simple TOTALLY FREE astronomy programs for the PC/Mac/Linux...

Stellarium - Stellarium - Amazing sky simulator

Celestia - Celestia: Home - Solar system simulator

c) involvement level - you can join a local astronomy group (but I don't know if there is one here in Cebu), and/or build your own telescope--it's not as difficult as you might think--if you can order certain parts from eBay, and if you have access to carpentry tools, or a shop, and you have some Do-it-Yourself spirit in you, it's not impossible to build a truly amazing telescope for only PHP 5,000.00-10,000.

-RODION

[sim000]

pila nlng ka days... another yr nasad..

[mejie]

can u take photos from that scope or not? pde ka mag post sa actual nga mga different astronomical figures bro nga gkan jud nmo?

[rodsky]

can u take photos from that scope or not? pde ka mag post sa actual nga mga different astronomical figures bro nga gkan jud nmo?

I had loads of images at the MIAS server, but it crashed in April of 2007, but I managed to salvage a few--the other salvaged images are with MIAS members--they backed it up on CDs.

Here is one image I managed to take a back up of:



This was an afocal taken with a Nikon Coolpix 3100, attached to a bracket on the scope. The eyepiece used was a 12mm Plossl (hence the vignetting, the dark fuzzy edges near the sides, kay gamay ra ang opening sa 12mm Plossl). The moon was a 16 day old waxing gibbous at the time of the shot (a day after 1st quarter). You can clearly see the Ptolemaic cluster in the middle there, near the Descartes area. Take note that this image hasn't been processed--I usually process them using Registax (freely downloadable), from a stack of about 10-20 images.

My reason for building the new telescope is I'm going to design it as an imaging platform from the ground up, specifically for prime focus (instead of afocal) shots.

The reason why I don't have any other shots aside from lunar or planetary (I've got shots of Crescent Venus and Jupiter with moons), is because the telescope I helped make kay walay motor drive, even if we had an EQ mount built for it--a motor drive is necessary because it allows a deep sky object (i.e. a nebula) to be tracked and thus you can have longer exposures--without a drive, it's almost impossible to take images of DSO's. I am not planning to make/buy a motor drive for the scope I want to build, because I am primarily interested in solar system objects and solar observation, and not so much on DSO's and Messiers.

ADDENDUM:

While digging the internet for some of my astro images, I stumbed upon this:



This is me, projecting an image of the moon on a wall of a building. This is a "live" image of the moon as seen through a telescope. I attached a Nikon Coolpix digital camera on the eyepiece of the scope using a DIY adapter, and projected the image of the moon for the public to see. I've had better results with the 4.5" Dobsonian rather than this China-made refractor. But I can't find the images of that activity, but when I do, I'll post them here.

-RODION