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Share your own activities, experiences, and thoughts about astronomy with the rest of the worldwide AWB community.

Member Reports

Feb 10
2011

Man and Space expo at Saint Gerard, Belgium, at the Brogne Abbey

Hello, I'm guide , show the sun with the PST and have helped organize a 6 weeks long space fair in a 10th century abbey, south of Belgium. Schools are visiting the place during the week days(an interesting mix of modern technology in a very old building) and others during the week-ends. It's from january 14th till february 27th. There are meteorites exposed, more than 50 models of european spacecrafts. We had the visit of our astronaut Frank De Winne. We had debates too. https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StGer2 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011STG3 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011STG4 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011STG5 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StG6 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StG7 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StG8 # https://picasaweb.google.com/astroraoul/2011StG9 #... Read More...

Feb 01
2011

Say Hello to Astronomy from Bray Co Wicklow Ireland

January 3rd I held an almost impromptu star party for the new astronomy group attached to St Conan’s National School in Bray Co Wicklow. The group is so new it has not got a name yet so for the moment we will call it St Conan’s Young Astronomers. About 50 children and adults arrived at the green Sans Souci Wood, a very cold evening for stargazing. On offer the sky had a very close conjunction of Jupiter and Uranus plus the Galilean moons in the same view.   Jupiter and Uranus will not be this close again till 2024 .The magnificent... Read More...

Jan 31
2011

Galaxy

A galaxy is a massive, gravitationally bound system that consists of stars and stellar remnants, an interstellar medium of gas dust, and an important but poorly understood component tentatively dubbed dark matter. The name is from the Greek root galaxias , literally meaning “milky”, a reference to the Milky Way galaxy. Typical galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million (10 7 ) stars, up to giants with a hundred trillion (10 14 ) stars, all orbiting the galaxy's center of mass. Galaxies may contain many star systems, star clusters, and various interstellar clouds. The Sun is one... Read More...

Jan 28
2011

Indian astronomy

Indian astronomy —the earliest textual mention of which is given in the religious literature of India (2nd millennium BCE)—became an established tradition by the 1st millennium BCE, when Jyotiṣa Vedānga and other ancillary branches of learning called Vedangas began to take shape. During the following centuries a number of Indian astronomers studied various aspects of astronomical sciences and global discourse with other cultures followed. Early history – Early astronomy in India—like in other cultures— was intertwined with religion. The first textual mention of astronomical concepts comes from the Vedas—religious literature of India. According to Sarma (2008): “One finds in the... Read More...

Jan 14
2011

International Space Station

International Space Station Pass Details Date: Thursday,13 January, 2011 Satellite: ISS Location: Binnaguri ( 26.7667°N, 89.0500°E) Local Time: Universal Coordinated Time -5:30 (GMT + 5:30) Orbit: 347 x 354 km, 51.6° (Epoch 13 Jan) Sun altitude at time of maximum pass altitude: -23.4° Event:Rises above horizon;Time:18:42:47;Alt:-0°;Azi:301° (WNW) Event:Reaches 10°altitude;Time:18:45:07;Alt:10°;Azi:282° (WNW) Event:Maximum altitude;Time:18:47:18;Alt:19°;Azi:233° (SW ) Event:Enters shadow;Time:18:48:22;Alti:16°;Azi:204° (SSW) I went into my garden a few minutes before 18:45:07 and waited, expecting that I might see the ISS but was not really sure if I would. Then I saw the International Space Station. It was the first time I had seen it.... Read More...

Jan 04
2011

REALITY

Often one wonders if what we see is real, a question I often get from Students, young and old alike. When you tell them we should at times be refered to as Archaeo-Astronomers as what is in the night sky is older than we can imagine, and infact may not even resemble what we see today. As we chase the Holy Grail in Astrophysics and Cosmology a Theory of Everything, lines are crossed, and at times, our understanding of Physics seems less than we thought, as the Universe continues to hide those secrets, yet the picture is less cloudy as... Read More...

Dec 21
2010

December 2010's Lunar Eclipse from Nicaragua

One of the most wonderful astronomical events available without the need of any particular artificial optical instrument, and shared almost instantaneously in a whole hemisphere is without doubts a Lunar Eclipse. And the Eclipse from December 21st, 2010 was no exception to the previous statement, with so many good astro-friend in may Countries that were as expectant as I was for this event. This particular eclipse coincided with the Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere and happened to be one of the most "darkest" (meaning that: one where the shadow of our planet fell almost perfectly over the lunar disc)... Read More...

Dec 16
2010

Meteors Without Borders Phlippines 2010 (Geminid)

The Astrocamp Observatory Services and the Astronomical League of the Philippines just held a successful Meteors Without Borders Event the night of December 13 to the early morning of December 14. The ALP group in Astrocamp Observatory saw 48 geminid meteors and 9 of them were imaged by Andrew Ian Chan and 2 by Bobby Parhizkari. There were around 17 clients + 8 ALPers + 8 friends who joined the event plus some 100 passersb y given free views of the moon and Castor through a Celestron Nexstar 4SE! The event was supported by meals and tarpaulins provided by Cutting... Read More...

Dec 15
2010

MwB,EwB,SwB introduced for Japanese

Hello, I am an amateur astronomer in Japan. Web sites introducing MwB : Geminids 2010, EwB : total lunar eclipse 2010 and SwB Dec. 2010 for Japanese have been made by volunteers (particularly from JAAA - Japan Amateur Astronomers Association - worldwide events Working group). MwB and EwB Dec. 2010 http://sites.google.com/site/awbwwe2010decjp/ SwB Dec. 2010 http://sites.google.com/site/swb4jp/ The sites have forms to fill out reports of the events. I will write summaries from these reports for this blog. Katsushi Taguchi (An amateur astronomer in Shirosato-town "Fureainosato" astronomy club, Kitami astronomical society and JAAA) Read More...

Dec 15
2010

MwB,EwB,SwB introduced for Japanese

Hello, I am an amateur astronomer in Japan. Web sites introducing MwB : Geminids 2010, EwB : total lunar eclipse 2010 and SwB Dec. 2010 for Japanese have been made by volunteers (particularly from JAAA - Japan Amateur Astronomers Association - worldwide events Working group). MwB and EwB Dec. 2010 http://sites.google.com/site/awbwwe2010decjp/ SwB Dec. 2010 http://sites.google.com/site/swb4jp/ The sites have forms to fill out repots of the events. I will write summaries from these reports for this blog. Katsushi Taguchi (An amateur astronomer in Shirosato-town "Fureainosato" astronomy club, Kitami astronomical society and JAAA) Read More...

Dec 15
2010

Japanese Web site of MwB,Ewb and SwB

Hello, I am an amateur astronomer in Japan. Web sites introducing MwB : Geminids 2010, EwB : total lunar eclipse 2010 and SwB Dec. 2010 for Japanese have been made by volunteers (particularly from JAAA - Japan Amateur Astronomers Association - worldwide events Working group). MwB and EwB Dec. 2010 http://sites.google.com/site/awbwwe2010decjp/ SwB Dec. 2010 http://sites.google.com/site/swb4jp/ The sites have forms to fill out repots of the events. I will write summaries from these reports for this blog. Katsushi Taguchi (An amateur astronomer in Shirosato-town "Fureainosato" astronomy club, Kitami astronomical society and JAAA) Read More...

Dec 15
2010

Geminid Meteor Shower (14 December 2010)

I was watching the constellations of Orion, Lepus, Taurus and Eridanus for the Geminid Meteor Shower . I caught my first Geminid meteor (bright as Sirius) near the Zaurak of the constellation of Eridanus. I viewed total 20 Geminid's during the 3 hours (00:30-3:30 AM IST) including 5 huge as fireball that was brighter than Jupiter. Most of the meteors I observed were fast moving, appearing as sharp streaks of light, lasting a 4 second or less. It was awesome. Read More...

Dec 14
2010

Astronomy with Purpose: Reaching the most important universe´s stars

The Project "Astronomy with a Purpose" can´t be understood by some people. We still live in days that many people confuse the science astronomy with not science astrology . Moreover, there are pastors who do not want to work in science, believing that the pastor only place is in the Church. But around the world increases the influence of the gospel everywhere. We have soccers players, f1 pilots, artists, politicians ... all servants of Jesus. Why not science? Even in the face of criticism,I´m working in this two areas - religious and scientific - for 29 years. I waited and... Read More...

Dec 05
2010

Project "Astronomy with Purpose"

RDM Magazine - The Mato Grosso Best Magazine with an interview about my dream. Page: http://astronomywithpurpose.blogspot.com/ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Planning-an-Observatory-Astronomy-with-Purpose/168554573179197 The Project "Astronomy with a Purpose" can´t be understood by some people. We still live in days that many people confuse the science astronomy with not science astrology . Moreover, there are pastors who do not want to work in science, believing that the pastor only place is in the Church. But around the world increases the influence of the gospel everywhere. We have soccers players, f1 pilots, artists, politicians ... all servants of Jesus. Why not science? Even in the face... Read More...

Nov 25
2010

Watching Eclipses, Counting Orbits

The telescope is no substitute for counting and thinking. Ancient people, before telescopes, could have determined basic astronomy constants by counting and thinking. During a Metonic eclipse period, rotation observations enable solving period proportions as follows: 235 moons = 6,958.6877 rotations 254 lunar orbits = 6,958.7014 rotations 235 : 6,958.6877 = 235.00046 : 6,958.7014 254 lunar orbits = 235.00046 moons Subtraction solves solar orbits 254.0 - 235.00046 = 18.99954 solar orbits Division solves rotations per orbit 254 lunar orbits = 6958.70257 rotations 6958.70257 / 18.9995407 = 366.25636 rotations per orbit Download the PowerPoint: http://jqjacobs.net/astro/ppt/counting_moons.ppt Read more about fundamental and ancient... Read More...

Nov 25
2010

Kutch Amateur Astronomers Club

by Narendra Gor

http://kutchastronomy.blogspot.com/ Read More...

Nov 19
2010

Without Borders

There are probably hundreds of organizations "without borders". The most famous, and one of the first, is Doctors without Borders (or properly Medecins sans Frontieres for this organization based in France), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. Reporters without Borders has been in the news quite a lot as well (naturally). Translators without Borders is a natural as well. But have you heard of Surfers without Borders? How about Water without Borders? Monks without Borders? All real, and all doing good work. The plethora of "without borders" organizations is the subject of an article on the MatadorChange web... Read More...

Nov 15
2010

Exploring Solar System and Sun Day at Tunas Unggul

Last week, langitselatan went to Tunas Unggul kindergarten and elementary school to teach astronomy for the students. Because we had 2 different level of students from kindergarten and 2nd grade of elementary school, we decided to have 2 different class and session. So the kindergarten students starts with astronomy class and the elementary school students had sun observation and telescope session in school yard with me. And we had so much fun. The children were energetic and they keep asking about everything. They have high curiosity about space science. They ask about the sun and give comment why the sun... Read More...

Nov 15
2010

Pesta Blogger+, National Blogger Gathering in Indonesia

Pesta blogger (blogger party) is a big vent for blogger in Indonesia. This is a blogger gathering around the country since 2007. At the first Pesta Blogger, the information and communication minister announce October 27th as blogger day in Indonesia. This year, the blogger party opened by Education minister. In 2010, pesta blogger (PB) held an event not just for blogger but also for other social network users such as facebook, twitter, foursquare, koprol and etc. This year, they took a theme of “celebrate the diversity” and invite many communities to join the event. One of the communities which is... Read More...

Nov 15
2010

PSB Singapore School Star Party

Last month, on October 28th, we had a chance to have starparty and astronomy session with PSB Singapore School students for 7 grade level. It was our first time to have a starparty with international school in Indonesia. And it was fun indeed. PSB Singapore school was in their lesson trip from Jakarta to Bandung, and they had outbound activities, and also an astronomy activities at night. Although we started late on 9.30 but the students weren't tired at all. I think. They came to the villa after dinner and we swap our plan to have astronomy session in the... Read More...

Oct 27
2010

PERSEUS METEOR SHOWER IN ANCIENT SHAHAR YERI ENCLOUSER

پیرآزمیان مشگین شهر(شهر یری) Read More...

Oct 24
2010

The French Ambassador in Iraq, Boris Bouillon:"I will support AAAK!"

In a series of cultural and scientifically activities held by the (French Cultural Center) of (the French consulate in Erbil), the Centre make an unique exhibition on 10/13/2010 entitled (Sky: "Mirror of Cultures" - Ciel, Miroir des Cultures) brought together a collection of paintings, manuscripts, ancient astrological which reflect the ideas and opinions and beliefs of different civilizations on astronomy and cosmology in general around the world. This was in collaboration with (Astronomical Society of France) and in coordination with the (University of Salahuddin) in Erbil. After the opening ceremony… Mr. Boris Bouillon, the French ambassador in Iraq meets with... Read More...

Oct 21
2010

Global Projects for IYA2009 and Beyond: Talk by Mike Simmons, Founder/President AWB

Watch live streaming video from ocastronomers at livestream.com Read More...

Oct 17
2010

Night of darkness & Beauty without borders

Last night was a long ago programmed belgian Night of Darkness, to bring awareness of the Light Pollution to the public. As it happened at the same time as "Beauty Without Borders", it was easy to combine both events. This time, they took place saturday 16 in Brussels, capital of Belgium at a park, called the Red Cloister at Auderghem. http://www.virtourist.com/europe/brussels/48.htm One thing we needed, was a clear sky.....Well, we got it before the visitors would leave the place! We had conferences about the light pollution issue, two of my club were giving astronomy lectures on astronomy and my "Beast",... Read More...