Twinkle twinkle little stars,
How I wonder what you are,
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky,
Twinkle twinkle little stars,
How I wonder what you are.....

Well, wonder no more, cos Kenny THE astronomer is here! Well, last Friday, while the world was busy jiving to the cheesy music and getting drunk, Kenny braved the coldness (of 6 degrees celsius) to go stargazing at the observatory... Actually, it was more of a photography trip, with Sean, haha... But it was a worthwhile trip though... Had lots of really good photos from my digital compact camera... so let's start with our astronomy lesson #1:

[ps: these photos were taken on my digital camera and arrows, lines & words have been added in to explain the constellations]

Constellation #1: Cygnus the Swan
Well, this picture goes first cos it has a good view of the observatory that I have access to (cos I'm in the Astro-soc)... It has a 12-inch telescope inside, which isn't all that fantastic, but good enough... =) And above the observatory, we can see Cygnus the swan... Sorry, but part of the constellation was blocked by the observatory so I can only show part of it.... ;p

Constellation #2: The Big Dipper
This is the big dipper, which is part of the constellation Ursa Major (a big bear)... Well, it's called the big dipper cos it looks like a dipper.. duhz... and what's useful about the big dipper is that the two top most stars in the constellation point towards the North Star or Polaris... hence, allows it to be used to navigate if you're REALLY lost in the wild... (sorry, my photoshop skills aren't good enough to draw a arrow yet...;p)

Constellation #3: Orion
Undoubtedly the most known constellation and easiest to identify, except that people usually don't know what the constellation is, other than knowing Orion's belt... Orion's belt is really the belt and if you see the 2 stars in the row below the belt, it's supposed to be the sheath... Betelguese and Bellatrix (names of the stars) are the shoulders of Orion and Rigel and some unnamed star are the knees of Orion. Orion's belt can also be used to tell the North direction actually... (see picture below)

The arrow shown points ROUGHLY to the North, but is not as accurate as the one in the Big Dipper... but since it's pretty much the easiest constellation to identify in the sky, I suppose it can be used... ;p

And then you're wondering... Kenny kenny, but I can't see the constellations in Singapore/London/Timbaktu.... Rubbish... If you look hard enough, it can be seen... (on a clear day lah... duhz) haha... =) Yupz...

Anyway, footnote here: to all who've sent me postcards, thanks, I've received them! (you know who you are... *wink*) My cough is a little better already... thankfully... (note: a little) other than that, I'm still pretty much alive and kicking... trying to keep up with the hectic routine still... cheers! =)