back in My JC days, I joined the astronomy club, but it wasnt that fun cos there was nothing much except stargazing, we did not do star charts or anything, just pure stargazing to see stars and the moon. we did not keep track of exciting events like the Venus transit, or the lunar or solar eclipse

but now its different, I even have homework/projects requiring me to keep track of the sun and the moon

the first lunar visibility, where does it happen and such

and the exciting solar eclipse in chinese new year

and do you know that total solar eclipse only happens once in 400 yrs if u just stay in one place. so in singapore there is no way in my lifetime to see a total solar eclipse.

however, the next eclipse of the century, meaning the best eclipse you will see in your lifetime is happening soon in 22July 2003. why is it the best is because its a very long eclipse of 6 mins plus, the longest eclipse possible is 7 mins only

it will pass by china and india, northern part of myanmar and so on…

perhaps I will make a trip there to hangzhou or shanghai to see it, however even when u r there, doesnt mean u can experience it, need some luck too, esp if the sky is overcast, the effect will not be as dramatic

and as for venus transit, only happens once every 180 yrs, but the next one is happening in 7 yrs…

why the enthusiasm regarding astronomy that is my main topic in this post

firstly is because I found out that astronomy influences so many things in our life.

from the calendar we use, be it Julian, gregorian, islamic, chinese etc, the timezones

to the weather and other cultural decision, like when is the public holidays

to exciting happenings like the midnight sun and the seasons,

how does the moon and sun looks like in different places and how to choose ur next house to get the best value out of it

for the travel lovers, many more sites to visit, like the Greenwich observatory which everyone knows, to the ancient Beijing observatory, the Kennedy space centre, the North pole and other cold places to see the beautiful Aurora Boeralis

even in NZ, there is a town dedicated to stargazing, they keep everything very dark at night for maximum stargazing  capability

so if u have not taken any science gem, i strongly advise u to take Heavenly Mathematics and Cultural Astronomy, its a very fun module and has a very fun lecturer

if u are not going to take the module u can still know alot of bout it by going to this website

http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/teaching/heavenly.html

lastly , I leave u with a very recent picture taken by the Hubble telescope,

its the quaduple moon transit on the gassy planet saturn,

spot titan pls