Astronomy: Massive New Ring Detected Around Saturn

An undated handout of an artists impression released by NASA to illustrate the extent of the largest ring around Saturn An undated handout of an artist's impression released by NASA to illustrate the extent of the largest ring around Saturn

A three-member team of U.S. astronomers say they have discovered a giant new ring around the planet Saturn. A thin sheet of ice and dust particles extending about 12 million kilometers out from the planet's surface has been detected by the U.S.-built Spitzer Space Telescope.

Officials with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says the ring is so big it would hold the equivalent of one billion Earths.

The trio of astronomers, led by Anne Verbisher of the University of Virginia, believe the ring was formed by debris from the impact of comets striking Phoebe, a moon of Saturn that orbits within the ring. The astronomers believe the ring also solves the mystery behind another of Saturn's moons, Iapetus, which has a light and a dark side. They say the dark side of Iapetus is caused by dust particles from the ring striking its surface.

The Spitzer telescope, launched in 2003, is currently 107 million kilometers from Earth in orbit around the sun.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP, CNN and NASA.

Astronomy : Deep Sky Objects [Originally posted in 1996]

Deep sky objects are celestial objects including nebulae, star clusters, galaxies etc. Astronomically speaking, they are classified as Messier's Objects or NGC (New General Catalog) objects

These objects are best observed at Dark Sites. Due to light pollution in the city areas, the best place to view such objects are in the rural areas or open fields with no street lamps around.

A bit of history, a long time ago, an astronomer by the name of Charles Messier started to catalog a list of celestial objects to assist amateur astronomers to avoid confusing them with comets. the result is the catalog known as the Messiers's Objects

Astronomy : What can you see in the Malaysian Skies ? [Originally posted in 1996, Updated 20 Sept 2009]

Although generally cloudy, there's lots of things that you can see in the Malaysian sky.

Personally, these are the celestial objects which I've seen using my naked-eye, a Vixen 7 X 50 binoculars and a Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain 8" Telescope from my front garden in Prai, Penang.

• Comet Hale-Bopp in April/May'97
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Comet Hyakute, a spectacular sight in 1996
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Moon, with its craters, mountain peaks etc
• Jupiter, with its moons dancing around it
• Mars
• Saturn, with its famous rings
• Venus, bright but featureless
• Orion nebulae, a Messier object
• Constellations including, casseopia, scorpio, orion, tauraus...

Astronomy: Star Parties [Originally posted in 1996]

What are star parties ? In the USA, where astronomy is popular, Star Parties are held on the annual basis or when a major celestial event is due to occur.

Annual or regular Star Parties normally held to observe :

• Messier Objects
• NGC objects
• Major planets etc

The adhoc parties are to observe major celestial events like

• Jupiter Crash of 1994
• Persid Showers
• Comet Hyakute, 1996 etc

In Penang, there are star-gazing activities held at the USM every Friday and supervised by Dr. Chong Hon Yew.

I used to join Dr. Chong on a very infrequent basis at USM. What I am really interested is to gather a group of enthuasitic star-gazers to join me to obseve major celestial events.

The latest event which I observed was the Great Comet Hyakute at Telok Bahang on March 25, 1996 together with CCH Web's Webmaster, Choong En Tet and my brother-in-lay Francis Phoon.

Astronomy : Guide on buying a Telescope [Originally posted in 1996]

When buying a telescope, you should consider the following:

• What do you intend to observe ?
• Focal Length
• Aperture
• Reflectors versus Refractors
• Availability of lenses
• Telescope mounting
• Telescopes can be classified as either refractors or reflectors.
• Reflectors, which are generally cheaper than refractors include :
• Dobsonians - cheapest
• Newtonians
• Schimdt-Cassegrain - most expensive
  
  
  
  
  
  

Astronomy : Seeing Stars [1996]

I am a backyard astronomer who :

1. owns a 8-inch Schimdt-Cassegrain telescope
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. owns a 2 inch refractor telescope
3. owns a poweful binoculars
4. have witness the total eclipse of the sun in 1995 at USM, Penang
5. have actually seen Comet Hayakute on 25/3/96 at Telok Bahang at 2.00 am & in front of my house in Prai at 4.00am
6. have seen a number of Messiers objects including the Great Orion nebula
7. reads monthly astronomy magazines like Astronomy, Sky & Telescope
8. surfs the Internet for astronomy related sites have wriiten a software called the Celestial Tracker to track the Moon, Comets, Asrteriods, Planets & Star constellations