Wednesday 26 September 2012
When you wish upon a space junk
Watching shooting stars was always my childhood’s dream. I wondered what kind of wish I should make, when I saw a shooting star. For some children like me, can it be good news, that there might be more opportunities to see them, even if not genuine?
According to “'Meteors' sighted in skies across UK”, a big fireball was observed in wide area of UK. Many people reported about the lightning object at coastguards or police offices, because it was different from normal shooting stars. Some experts suggested that it might have been a burning space debris.
I was a member of the astronomy club at my high school. Our main activity was to observe a sunspot cycle every day around noon, so, I carried a heavy telescope to the rooftop of the school building, and checked a sunspot, while other students enjoyed eating lunch, listening to music or having conversation there. Once a month we organized star observation night which was not only for club members but also for every student who had interest in astronomy. In spite of our effort to make posters which appealed to join the activity, in most cases there were not any other students, so we just enjoyed watching our favorite stars or planets. During watching stars, we talked many things. Most of them were small talks, but sometimes it became a more serious conversation about uneasiness in adolescence, some problems in relationship with friends or parents, or prospects of future. Darkness of night helped us to talk frankly.
The biggest event of our activities was a small trip to the countryside where the sky was clearer. Staying at a cheap guesthouse, we observed the moon, planets and stars every night until dawn. We arranged the trip to be able to watch the Perseus shower, which is most stable and famous meteor shower. I still remember how I was excited to see a shooting star for the first time. I forgot wishing something because of excitement, and what I did was just shouting, “Wow!!”
Although I believe what I watched then was a genuine shooting star, I don’t care if it is real or not. I love beautiful starry night, orange colored crescent and silver shining full moon, but above all, meteors, whose radiance disappears in the next moment as if it were a dream.
Reference
'Meteors' sighted in skies across UK.(2012, September, 22). BBC News Science & Environment . Retrieved September 26, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19683687
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Chieko's post reminded me of "Hubble captures extraordinary view of Universe" I read earlier today on the BBC News on some very recent research from the Hubble Space Telescope. This gives us a glimpse of a tiny bit of our universe as it was more than 13 billion years ago, not long after the Big Bang when everything began 13.7 billion years ago (Amos, 2012).
ReplyDeleteChieko's telescopes kind of reminded me of the instruments available when I was in high school in Australia many years ago. They were pretty good then, but science and technology have progressed rapidly in the few decades since. The latest version of Hubble shows a bit more than the telescopes and microscopes we had back when I was a school kid.
And then I started thinking of clubs at school and university, which others have been writing about on another discussion here, and I remembered when I was in high school and went on a mathematics camp. I know, it sounds a bit geeky, but I wasn't the only one who thought it was a blast to hang out in a park and listen to lectures from real university professors and mathematicians on more exotic things than were covered in the high school curriculum. As with Chieko, the conversations in the evening did turn to other things than snippets of number theory and the excitments of non-Euclidean geometries. We were at a beach, but I don't remember ever getting to the actual beach.
Reference
Amos, J. (2012, September 26). Hubble captures extraordinary view of Universe. BBC News Science & Environment. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19728375
And a neat title.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your memories in your high school days.I imagine how joyful you were at the mathematic camp. During writing I remembered many trivial but dear memories and enjoyed blogging very much.
DeleteI wrote that I don't care, if a shooting star is real or just a space junk.But today I read a Japanese news article which reported that the international space station is in danger of running into a space junk,and the collition can cause a serious damage to the station;therefore, it prepares the way for changing its orbit.
Now, I care a lot about space junk!
Chieko, Thank you to remind me that one of my dreams is learning about stars. While I was a child, I lived in the country and at night I could see many stars there. I can not see stars here;although I can see other kinds of stars such as lights from cars,building, or motor way. I watched some movies which show how important to know more about stars such as name, character, or movement. If you know about main stars in the sky, you would never lose while you travel through forest at night. It is the reason why I want to learn more about them. However, all most the star names are Greek or Latin and they are difficult to remember. These languages induce me to interest in Greek mythology. However, I still know only a group of stars which my grandmother told me.
ReplyDeleteBecause of stars interest, I read a book, named "The book nobody read", and I bough it because it is about Nicolaus Copernicus who explained that our world moves around the sun and not the sun move around us. When I read this book, I was really angry myself that I was not careful enough before bought it. The book which I read is not about the discovery's the great scientist, but it is about how to find the famous book of Nicolaus after publishing. It was really difficult to publish his book because its detail against Christianity's belief and that period Christian handled the most power in Europe. Nicolaus case might be as same as Galileo. Finally, I read it until at the end of the book. Although I did not know much about astronomy after reading, I knew more about European history in that century.
At the present, I still interest in astronomy and more in science history.
In the same way as you, my interest in astronomy began in my childhood, when I saw a beatiful milkyway on the way to a public bath with my mother and sister.(Bath again!Yes, bath is very important factor for Japanese's life and custom, I think.) Then, I learned some constellations and Greek myths,as you did, went to a planetarium, and the first expensive book I bought was an astronomical photographs collection. I think, if my passion had continued, and if I had been much better at math, as Peter was, I would have become an astronomer!
DeleteThe book about Copernicus's lost book seems very interesting. I'd like to check for it.Thanks for the information.
It reminds me a memorable time during my high school as well. I joined the astronomy club in high school as you did but I didn't do anything that much. One thing that I can remember was we observed stars in one night for the entire night at the top of sunroof at my school. We had to wait until the sky was so clear that we could see the stars. There was approximately specific time that one star would show up. For example, we could see Venus in the early night but we had to wait longer to see other stars, which I could not remember what exactly they were. Therefore, if there was not a time that the star showed up, we would go back to bed. Then, My teacher would wake us up every time there was a star shown up. That was once in my life time that I really enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteYou were also a member of the astronomy club!
DeleteHow to kill the time untill sky was getting dark was also a problem for us, too. Usually we played card games or chatting with our science teacher with a beaker(not a cup) of coffee which he brewed for us. He told us that he bought a piece of land on the Mars,which I was eager to possess,too. As Bas wrote, the robotrover is working on the Mars now. I'm wondering if my friends remember the old high school days to hear at the news.