Hubble Space Telescope

Recently, I've taken a great interest in Astronomy.
The star, galaxies, nebules are all very fascinating to me.
Brought a few books on Astronomy and noticed that a lot of images I've seen were produced by this Hubble Space Telescope(HST).

Hubble Data :
Length : 13.2m (44ft)
Diameter : 4.2m (14ft) without solar arrays, 12.0m (40ft) with solar arrays
Mass : 11.1 tonnes
Orbit : 569km (355 miles) above earth
Speed : 28,000kph (17,500mph)

Shuttle mission STS-31 successfully launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit on 24 April 1990!


Hubble was named after Edwin Powell Hubble (American Astronomer)
Born : 20 November 1889
He studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Chicago and earned a Bachelor of science degree in 1910.
Later he studied law at Oxford University.
After World War I, he returned to the University of Chicago and obtained his doctorate degree in 1917.
Edwin Hubble formulated the "Hubble's law", a statement in physical cosmology that the redshift in light coming from distant galaxies is proportional to their distance.
Giving us a measurement of the time scale of the universe.
At age 64, he died of a heart attack on September 28, 1953, in San Marino, California.


Servicing of Hubble :
Another service date for Hubble is set on 8 October 2008.
Hubble are said to be in function until at least 2013.
Its successor is James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).


One light-year is the distance that light travels in vacuum in one year.
Light travels about 300,000 kilometers (186,000 miles) per second.
One light year is approx. 5,874,589,152,000 miles.
One light year is also approx. 9,454,254,955,000 kilometers.
The followings images belongs to NASA taken by Hubble Space Telescope.
I've selected out a few of my favourites images.

Crab Nebula, NGC 1952
Distance from Earth : 6,500 light years away


Eagle Nebula, M16
Distance from Earth : 7,000 light years away


Horsehead , Barnard 33
Distance from Earth : 1,600 light years away


M74
Distance from Earth : 32 million light years away


M82
Distance from Earth : 12 million light years away


NGC 346
Distance from Earth : 210,000 light years away


NGC 1672
Distance from Earth : 60 million light years away


NGC 3603
Distance from Earth : 20,000 light years away


NGC 1705
Distance from Earth : 17 million light years away


NGC 1569
Distance from Earth : 7 million light years away

My first lesson in Astronomy & Lunar Photo

Today, I attended a very interesting Astronomy event in Singapore.
Held at Singapore Art Museum 16 August 2008 from 10am onwards.
Pretty amazing at all the different types of telescopes on display.
One of which is also Singapore biggest telescope on display.
It was said to be bigger than the one at Singapore Science Centre...



The first workshop was started off with "Introduction to Practical Astronomy" with Remus Chua.
Breiefing on the basic and different types of telescopes, basic things to look out for in Astronomy..etc.
Later followed by another workshop "Making Lunar Mosaics"
He is holding his photo which consist of 68 images using stacks.
A very close up image of the Lunar and even when zooming large using a projector, the picture quality is very high.
He gives a very good insight teaching on how to use the computer editing software to create good images.


After lunch, there was a Sun-Grazing event.
It's a pity I missed it because when it was my turn, lots of clouds were gathering round and covering the sun!
Was told to be back 15 minutes later but I was already in the midst of another workshop.
Arrggguuuuhhh...


A short movie on Nebulae and Galaxies were shown.
Below are the images I took off the projector's screen...with some touch up of course!hehe!
I think deep sky are very beautiful.
Do you think so?



Another very good workshop which helps me understand more about our universe is the "Heavenly Things" by Dr. Phil Chan.


One shocking news he revealed was that after so many years of studies and research, Scientists only know 4% about our Universe.
The unknown are classified as Dark Matter and Dark Energy which sums up to 96%.
Wow... this ratio percentage is drasitic apart.
So meaning... All we know now is so SO so so little!


After attending the working, I've got to know a different definations of Machos and Wimps! LOL!
MACHOS = Massive Compact Halo Objects
WIMPS = Weakly Interacting Massive Particles

There were more events going on into the night.
It was a wonderful workshop on Astronomy and I hope they'll can make it a yearly event too!

At night, I went to a park at 8 plus.
It was a 100% full moon tonight.
About a couple of hours more...at 5.08am , there will be a Lunar Eclipse.
I didn't wait to see it because I'll be too sleepy by then!LOL!

My 1st lunar close up photo.
Not very clear but I very happy with it already! hehe.
I took this picture with my Nikon D60 DSLR using a 200mm lens.

Moon through my binoculars

I've long been fascinated by the universe.
The planets, the stars, the galaxies...
Maybe this was the reason why I love collecting Star Wars, Robots, Gundam.
When I was very young, from my bedroom window, I can see many stars.
Glittering in the night sky, it was so beautiful...
As I grew older, I felt the stars were getting lesser and lesser.
Sometimes, when I look up, I don't even see a single star!
I kept complaining over the years about stars getting lesser.
But I was wrong!
Actually, it is because cities are now brighter plus all the streets lights, buildings lights..etc.
This all makes us harder to see the stars.

I was reading the "Atlas of the Skies" last night.
Frankly, a lot of the terms inside I do not understand.
But I think this is a good book and full of informations.
So, I'll have to re-read a couple of times more to digest it!
Now, I have hundreds of questions marks inside me.
In short, I'm LOST!

I went to a nearby park at 8.30pm today.
Using my old Aus Jena Notarem 10x40 B binoculars.
My first view of the moon!
Of course, I didn't expect to see really close up view like a telescope.
To me, as a tryout, the feeling is GREAT!
I could see a very tiny part of the Moon's surface.
How should I describe?
Imagine a photograph divided into 12 sections.
Only 1 section is the view of the moon.
That's the furthest I could get!
Then I spotted 2 stars, tried to view it but it turned out to be 2 blur round spots in my binoculars.
I stayed for only about 15 minutes as today was rather cloudy.
I'm sure to go out again when the weather is good.
Meantime, I will have to read and there's endless things to learn.
I hope to be able to purchase a small telescope when I know more about astronomy.
(Aha...plus need to save up too)
From this website, I found out that Today's Moon Phase is :
1st quarter, 48% full, Friday 8 August 2008.
Today 08 08 2008 marks first baby step Into The Galaxy.