English Island
Hello, America
Oct 3rd
I should post this earlier when I got internet connections at Mt. Davis YHA and Hong Kong International Airport, however the battery of my laptop run out and I do not have an adapter for Hong Kong-style outlet, so this post got hold. During this cross-the-globe journey I'll keep you tuned by writing a few lines on the blog when I get able to access the internet (and should be able to do so frequently).
I left Guangzhou on Oct. 1 for Hong Kong, shouldn't comment more on the atmosphere of the National Day, you'll got a lot to read on the news media if you like. It's my second visit to Hong Kong, and everything seems as great as my first visit in 2007, but I still don't get myself able to stay here for more days. I met Mr. Johnson Lau (an amateur astronomer in Hong Kong) and he suggested me to take a look at the firework on that night. The firework was great, too, and I was surprise to see so many Hong Kong residents on the show -- they are still happy for the Day, right?
I stay at Mt. Davis YHA that night, it's a western-style house at the top of Mt. Davis and has a prefect view of Victoria. The room was not luxury but everything was really nice, especially the view. Viewing sunrise there should be great. Its only disadvantage is being considerably far from the airport -- good for a brief car-tour of the city, but not good for the budget (HKD 290 for taxi!).
The check-in precedure went quite smooth, the friendly staff didn't ask twice about my poster bottle. The take-off time was delayed for a couple of minutes due to the ATC control linking with the National Day parade. "Our plane is large and require more space, so we have to wait for another 10 minutes..." the captain humorously remarked. Despite so, it feels great to see the blooming landscape when flying over mainland China and compare the view with Hong Kong. We directly passed Beijing around 13:30(CST) and I got a view of the T3 Terminal and the Forbidden City.
With the in-flight power outlet to keep my laptop operating, the journey was not boring at all. Besides from eating nice meals, playing laptop or sleeping, I was excited about the Arctic sunset and sunrise, and aurora (although not in active period) was also beautiful. Our flight reaches a northern limit of 79.3N -- only 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole! Let's see how much further I can get on the return trip.
Our plane landed in schedule and I got a nice view of NYC and the Atlantic Ocean in background while approaching. This Continental service is the best air service I have ever had, mainly, because the electronic supply and nice dishes.
Then I was going to the connected flight to San Juan. The security check at Newark Airport is the very, very strict, even more strict than that of Olympic-China. My bag was checked twice for a confirmation of my pencil-box. On the other hand, I still have to pay extra attention to the speeding English from the Americans. Unfortunately I'm affected by jet-lag now (12-hour difference from China to America!), so paying more attention for me is more difficult than ever. Hope I can get myself well-warming-up before the DPS meeting.
The New York airspace was extremely busy, our flight delayed for an hour due to ATC control. But when the plane cruising over the Atlantic Ocean, the scenery was great, with the full moon illuminating the convective cloud. By the way, we also flied thru the famous Bermuda region -- nothing happened. When descending I saw big thunderstorm clouds about 250 kilometers away, the powerful lightning was very impressing.
I'll keep this updated -- stay tuned.
TY Morakot seriously affected Lulin Obs.
Sep 12th
I got a sad email from Lulin Observatory's director Hung-Chin Lin on September 9 reporting Typhoon Morakot's destructions at central Taiwan and affectiveness at Lulin Observatory. Morakot, a Catagory-2 typhoon, hit Taiwan around August 8 and caused about 700 fatalities and a damage of $443,000,000. According to Lin, who quoted the report from local transpotation and electrical authorities, the only two roads to Lulin (Provincial Road No. 21 and No. 18, including electricity and communication lines) both suffered "very serious" damages due to lots of landslides along the way and a fully recover may require 1-2 years at least. The observatory staffs were stucked for 10 days at the observatory until being rescued by helicopters. Thankfully, the observatory itself does not suffer major damages, but Lin suggests it will take more than two months to get the telescope working again, and it may take at least a year to get things back to normal.
I have upload a few images of the road conditions, copyrighted by those who took them.
Updated Sept. 19: I noted Dr. Lakdawalla from the Planetary Society has monitored this post at her Twitter -- thanks for her attention. I may added a few introductions of Lulin Observatory for new-comers. Lulin Observatory is the only observatory in Taiwan that with fully operation on both research and education. It's also where Lulin Sky Survey (once had been the only asteroid program in East Asia/Western Pacific) and Taiwan-America Occultation Survey (TAOS) conducted. Astronomers should be familiar with one of its best-known discoveries -- Comet Lulin (the naked-eye comet in early 2009). I'm no longer with Lulin Sky Survey as it had been terminated about six months ago, but I do keep contact with the friendly faculties and staffs there since the excellent collaboration we made over the last three years and occasionary use the 1-m telescope there to do some research on asteroids. The newest report I got this weekend is that the observatory can be accessed by staffs again since an emergency way has just been completed.
100 Hours of Astronomy Concert Series: of Apr. 6
Apr 7th
The VIIth China Astronomy Olympaid were held on Apr. 2-6 at Guangzhou and I was busying giving hands when in need, meeting old friends and guided them walk around the city, although I was not in staff group. I participated the Ist and IInd ChAO in 2003 and 2004 (and being a member of Chinese team for VIIIth International Astronomy Olympaid that held at Stockholm in 2003) and met lots of participants that are similar to my age at that time, many of them are now my best friends and still being very active in astronomy. I am very happy to see that ChAO is more and more successful. It is also a great pleasure to meet old friends at hometown and share their happiness for being together for the sake of universe!
For this reason, the title of the closure to 100 Hours of Astronomy Concert Series is chosen as "One Sky, One Dream".
Philharmonic Orchestra '92 | Ye Quanzhi
2009 Apr. 6, 19:30 CST at The Blue Hall
Richard Wagner (1813-1883)
1. Overture of "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg", WWV 96
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
2. Symphony No. 45 in F-sharp minor, "Farewell", Hob.I:45
[INTERMISSION]
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
3. Symphony No. 9 in C Major, "Great C Major", D. 944
Ye Quanzhi
4. "Farewell! Beijing", Q. 95
Paul Lincke (1866-1946)
5. Berliner Luft; Berlin Air
100 Hours of Astronomy Concert Series: of Apr. 3
Apr 4th
Not surprisingly, we had all overcast thorough the 4-hour party, which held at the North Gate of Sun Yat-sen University on behalf of the 100 Hours of Astronomy. However it's still successful, with hundreds of citizens visited and observed the scenery of Guangzhou by telescopes. The teachers and team leaders came for '09 China Astronomy Olympaid also attend the party.
The private concert held on Apr. 3 for 100 Hours of Astronomy is under the title of "Sky gazers". A total of six privately-composed sky-related compositions are chosen, including "Meteor Storm Overture" (Q. 133), Leonids Suite (Q. 116), Twilight (Q. 132) and "Night of the South Sea" (Q. 82) that to be played for the first time.
Philharmonic Orchestra '92 | Ye Quanzhi
2009 Apr. 3, 22:30 CST at Nanchuan Observatory
Ye Quanzhi
1. Meteor Storm Overture, Q. 133
2. Suite of "Leonids 2001", Q. 116
3. Twilight, Q. 132
4. Mountains in Afterglow, Q. 144
5. Night of the South Sea, Q. 82
6. Coriolis, Q. 119
100 Hours of Astronomy Concert Series: of Apr. 2
Apr 2nd
The climax of IYA 2009 -- 100 Hours of Astronomy -- finally arrives, unfortunately the weather is not favourable for star gazing now, as an old Chinese poem goes, "Qingming time lots of drizzle" (Qingming: a traditional day occured on Apr. 4 or 5 each year, it's the time for Chinese to visit the tombs of their ancestors and passed relatives). I don't know the reason to schedule the 100 Hours of Astronomy around the Qingming days -- maybe the weather condition is favourable for star gazing in North America or mainland Europe, but not China. Last week, a serve thunderstorm hitted Guangzhou and meteorological observations at the observatory of our campus showed it is the worst thunderstorm we had since at least 2006, thus, very few students would like to join the Earth Hour activity by turn off their lights. For me, I had wish to show my support to the EH by holding a "dark sky" concert at the center park of our campus, but it had to be cancelled due to heavy rainfall.
So the situation may well possible to be similar this time, a cold front is expected to arrive around Apr. 4 and bring another server weather to us -- although unlikely to be as bad as the Mar. 28's -- but enough to rule out possibilities for an excellent 100-hour activity. Anyway, I'll be the North Entrance Plaza of the old campus of our university for the Guangzhou 100 Hours of Astronomy, although I'm not very opmistic for its outcome.
On the other hand, I will celebrate the 100-hour privately by a unique (but "ordinary" for me) way: holding concerts. This time, a series of concerts will be held thorough-out the 100-hour, and everyday there will be a concert with a specific theme, with some of my works written over the past ten years to be played. As usual, I will "conduct" the Philharmonic Orchestra '92 (well, actually, the orchestra is a combination of me, my CDs and MIDIs on hand...) for the concerts.
The opening concert on Apr. 2 is under the theme title of "The universe we observe and the planet we live".
Philharmonic Orchestra '92 | Ye Quanzhi
2009 Apr. 2, 19:30 CST at Kissland Music Ground
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
1. Festive Overture, op. 96
Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
2. Symphony No. 104 in D Major, "London", Hob.I:104
Ye Quanzhi
3. Prelude of Our Solar System, Q. 151
4. Little Star Variation, Q. 173
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
5. Verklärte Nacht, op. 4; Transfigured night
Josef Strauss (1827-1870)
6. Sphären-Klänge, op. 235; Music of the Spheres
Ye Quanzhi
7. 24-hour, Q. 45
8. Coriolis, Q. 119
A Lulin-style hair before hair cut
Mar 5th
Revised on 2009 March 12.
With the help from Sisi Chen, I finally managed to make a "Lulin-style" hair before I cut it off -- see above. I wish to thank Sisi for her patient and help. Sisi is also a fan of astronomy, and she had been well possible to study astronomy in Nanking University -- but for some coincidence she came to Sun Yat-sen University and study meteorology as me.
Today I went to the barber's and cut my hair very short. Let's see how Lulin will response this time! Before updates on Lulin's appearance, let's see some nice photos from Lulin and others.
This very nice photo is taken by Michael Pagitz with a GRAS (Global Rent-a-scope) telescope, used with permission. Michael is a long term user of 7Timer! service (http://7timer.y234.cn) and I'm really happy to see his nice Lulin image!
And finally I took some Lulin images with the 0.41-m reflector (the one which found the comet) during the course of Lulin Sky Survey, and confirmed that I have to the right to publish them on my blog this time (but please don't re-post these images on your sites). The animation above show a major burst during late Feb. 25, the duration of this animation is about 1-hour (around 15-16h UT).
The one above is taken on Feb. 28 with LRGB combined, the total exposure time is about 170 minutes. There are other images below you may have a look. According to the latest reports, the comet is still visible to naked-eye observers at magnitude of about 5.5.
(189347) Qian
Mar 2nd
(189347) Qian = 2008 BQ15
Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998) was a Chinese literary scholar and writer,
best known for his satiric novel, Fortress Besieged. His works of
non-fiction are characterised by quotations in both Chinese and western
languages. Late in his life he played an important role in digitizing the
Chinese classics. (MPC 65125)
Lulin astrology
Mar 1st
It has been cloudy since Feb. 26, meanwhile I spent nearly 12 hours each day on bed to make myself recover faster from bad cold, I'm feeling much better now. Over the next weekend I'll fly to Beijing and Tianjin, meeting friends, and giving a talk about Comet Lulin and the total solar eclipse at Peking University, I'll also attend the Vienna Philharmonic's performance at National Center for the Performing Arts on March 9 -- actually, this is the main reason I go to Beijing!
When being unable to see Lulin, a message from Liaoshan Shi draw my attention to some interesting but somehow strange remarks of comets (http://www.chinaufo.com/jplw/jplw37.htm). In 1997, some one had shot Comet Hale-Bopp and claimed he had used Qigong mechanism to "confirmed" there are poinsonous microzymes on Comet Hale-Bopp. "Saccharides are composed by C, H and O molecules, and astronomers had proved that there are C, H and O elements on the comet, so saccharides can be formed under the force of solar wind and produce microzymes." The author wrote, "On March 20, 1997, at 22:33, after taking photograph of Comet Hale-Bopp with my camera, I used Qigong to study the nuclie, I felt the nuclie like a heater and there are some molecules moving toward the tail. After that, the materials of the tail connected with my body, I felt bad and felt the energy of Comet Hale-Bopp is dark green and poisonous. After connected with the tail, my hands turned green, in order to prevent further poisoned, I 'repeated' the virus back to Comet Hale-Bopp many times, however I still got urinary tract infection..."
I have mentioned Liaoshan many times during my Lulin monitoring campaign here and I think you need an introduction of her -- Liaoshan is two years younger than me and she is now studying physics and optics in Sun Yat-sen University (the same university as me). She has a long-term interest on asteroids and comets, as well as deep sky observing and drawing, and she is the credit discoverer to some NEAT asteroids (possibly the youngest female discoverer over the world), and has help me do reductions for some Lulin data as well. She also has a very good sense of humor!
I could not suppress my inclination to laugh anymore as the author went on, "base on my Qigong experiment, I confirmed that there are 'bacteria virus' on Comet Hale-Bopp indeed. At least, I think this is the truth I can get."
I'm not going to blame the author for such an interesting point of view since it gives me too much laughers. I don't recommend to laugh at different or ignorant views -- we should discuss, angue, or teach when the time comes. But sometimes, we have no choice but laugh. I agree that there are many secrets in cosmos, but I believe we should study them by observation and deduction, and these are what scientific research based on.
The astrologers also noted Lulin's visit to the inner solar system, but from an angle much better than the author above. Well, I'm not a fan of astrology. It may be good for entertainment ("foolish daughter" of astronomy, Kepler remarked), and actually a few serious works have been done in history, but I have seen too much ignorant talks and discussion from the so-called astrological fans about universe and stars. So after reading the funny article about Comet Hale-Bopp's virus, I decided to try to look for some fresh funny stuff, so I began Googling astrological news about Comet Lulin. I did not receive a bigger laugher but a few discussions appeared to be serious, it's not bad to learn the comet from another angle!
An Italian astrologer named Margherita Fiorello investigated the visit of Lulin seriously and wrote what her found on her blog (http://heavenastrolabe.wordpress.com/2009/02/09/about-the-comet-lulin/), after investigating the syzygy chart of the date I discovered it, she concluded the comet will "produce many damages" since it moves "against the order", but the areas under influence are likely to be Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The sentences and phrases she used remind me the astrological teacher appeared in J. K. Rowling's book "Harry Potter". Meanwhile, another astrologer named Anton Grigoryev investigated from ancient book full of Greek-alike characters without a clear conclution (http://www.antonblog.net/astrology/mundane-astrology/comet-lulin/).
The two astrologers seems to know the sky quite well, at least as good as an experienced amatuer astronomer. Other astrology fans try to find "freak" events to support astrological theories -- one noted a "Gamma Ray burst in Virgo", well this seems to be quite profesional but strikes nothing; while another noted that at the day before Comet Lulin's closest approach to the Earth, the US stock market hit its lowest point since 1997! However I later learnt the Dow Jones Index coutinuously went down after Lulin's approach... Lulin is not that bad, right?
A even more interesting viewpoint is given by Aluna Joy Yaxk'in says we have been "experiencing a lot of interesting energy shifts" since Lulin is swinging pass the Earth. "Physically we are having stomach aches, nausea, and to sensitive ones, even a sense of your entire body being hit by a fast-moving truck.If you are feeling these physical symptoms, it means your spiritual, emotional and physical bodies are working to realign to the new energies."
The author continues, "This comet will be passing close to the Earth just as we enter portal and core days in the Maya calendar... according to Maya Cosmology, March 20, 2009, is potentially the most powerful and transforming event that we will have ever experienced in recorded history."
"Be aware," after reading this article, Liaoshan remind me, "it's well possible that your bad cold being an excellent example for astrologers that comets are indeed bringing disasters to our human beings!" "Well, don't worry that much," I replied, "at least we now know that greenish Lulin did not make those who had taken photo of her get urinary tract infection -- it's safe!"
By the way, I plan to have my hair cut before my departure to Beijing -- let's see if Lulin will cut her tail as well! ("You should have done that when Lulin cut her tail around Feb. 7!" Liaoshan remarks)
Comet brings sickness? Maybe, but not Lulin
Feb 26th
After the Lulin observing compaign on Feb. 24/25, my tireness of long travel, preparation of the new term operning and many other things stacked and made my bad cold intensified into the worst bad cold I have ever experienced in past ten years. I feel sleepy everywhere, unable to recall something quickly, even unaware of what I'm doing. I think I need a good rest this weekend. If the recovery is not significant, I may need to go to the doctor's.
Although I was feeling very bad last night, I still carried my binocular and tripod with the help from Sisi Chen to the top of laboratory's building for Lulin. The sky was good for a downtown-based field -- with LM around 2.0-2.5, cirrus on. I spent a little bit longer to find the comet -- about a minute I think. Cirrus occasionary went over the region and we had to pause. Under heavy light pollution, I estimated the brightness of Lulin to be about 5.0 mag. with a coma at about 20', the tail was faint in the background, I measured several times and confirmed it's about 1 deg long. Although not formally trained before, Sisi recorgnize the comet with ease, and she could detected the tail too. Very sharp eyes!
I should stay there longer for the view, but I had to go to bed, so I forced myself to go back to dormitory at around 22:50. Comet may indeed bring bad fortune like sickness, but Lulin shouldn't -- the cause of the bad cold maybe, like 85P/Boethin? Its period is 11.5 years so it fits the fact for this 10-year worst bad cold Thankfully the cloud comes up tonight so I can sleep early. The moonson season is coming, but in early March I will pay a short visit to Beijing and Tianjin, so there are still chances to see Lulin!
Feeling lucky when Lulin shining above
Feb 25th
I departed with a few friends from Guangzhou for Gaocun Village at around 22:30, Heng Zhou drove the car. It's our Guangdong Southern Cross Star Association which held the party, and there is only one topic -- Comet Lulin. It was prefectably clear all the way down, but according to the messages from those friends who arrived earlier, "it's overcast!" We laughed and refused to believe, as the sky was really "rarely-seen prefect".
At around 0:15 we arrived Gaocun and had to believe what was told earlier -- it's indeed overcast. What made us feel more frustrated is that we were under a small patch of heavy cloud, the patch went just right over the village. After a few minutes of discussion, we made a casual decision that a new temperory site must be found. Quanzhi Shen and several others would stay at Gaocun since their equipment could not move easily, while Heng, I, Jianji Li and some others (2 cars in total) would drive east to seek for clear sky. We made a U turn and drove about 10 kilometers to reach the clear sky we had found on the way to Gaocun, but quite unfortunately, when we found a flat area near Xiaodong Village after about half an hour's search and were just about to unpack our equipments, the clouds came and blocked our view. Disappointed and frustrated, we decided to go back Gaocun, set up our tents and sleep. At around 1 a.m. we arrived Gaocun and began to set up our tent. "Lulin is shy," I explained to others, as I had predicted the sky to be "partly clear" that night but it seems not, "she is unwilling to turn up when there are so many guys pointing their telescopes to her."
We worked 20 minutes to set the big tent up, but just at the time we finished all the things and plan to go to sleep, Heng's mobile phone rang, it came from another group which had also went out to seek clear sky, "You said that the sky is clear there?" Heng shouted, and we were all stop talking to hear what he went on, "drove... west? Okay, okay, we're coming." After only five minutes, Heng was driving at about 150kph at the tiny path heading west and we were on his car (Quanzhi Shen and his fellows stayed still at Gaocun). At about 1:40 we arrived Picun Village, the group arrived earlier had set up a temperory observing field on the ground in the front of the local goverment building. Everyone was unpacking their equipments with a hurry. I, too, dragged my 11x70 binocular out from my bag as quickly as I could. Less than 15 seconds did I spotted comet -- it's almost impossible to miss that bright, fuzzy, lovely target, with a mild anti-tail pointing east, that's really gorgeous! I measured its brightness to be 4.6, with a ~25' coma and a tail at a length of ~1.7 deg. Heng estimated the brightness to be around 4.2 with his 10-cm refractor. We could spotted it easily with naked-eye, the estimate is about the same with the binocular's -- around 4.5 mag. with a 30' coma, but I couldn't detect the tail with naked-eye.
Xun Zheng, a journalist of the Evening News who had monitored activities of our association for a long time, took some nice photos of us, and two of them were printed on the Yangcheng Evening News later that day. After obtaining Xun's permission, I'm posting some of them here.
I also took a glance of a few dozens Messier objects with my binocular before the sky turned bad at around 5 a.m. We learnt later that the sky of Gaocun also became clear but still far from Picun's. As an old Chinese saying goes, "Man proposes, but God disposes." For any astronomical activities, no matter how well you prepared, the God only need a patch of cloud to let your preparation get ruined. We were very lucky to get 3 hours clear sky that night.
As spaceweather.com had reported, Lulin's tail is changing rapidly. Around Feb. 22 the ion tail suddenly showed some complex structure, but on Feb. 25 the ion tail was torn away by a solar win gust (I'm not fully agree with this solution; it might as well be the geometry effect which had made the ion tail disappeared). On the other hand, the appearance of the comet appeared to be about normal (as the structure of ion tail is not visible to visual observers under most occasion), except the main tail is an anti-one: it points directly to the sun! But after Feb. 26, the double-tail Lulin will become mostly single-tail since the comet has passed the opposition point and the geometry effect (see my earlier explanation) disappears. Stay tuned for updates!
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