Long after the memorable event of total solar eclipse in
1983, I started again recording my observation. The first was in January 2008
after I joined local astronomy club IndoSkyGazer (ISG) in September 2007. I observed the night sky in my backyard
in Bandung without any optical aid. Orion and Orion belt were clearly seen that
night. On the other night I tried taking some photos of Orion in the evening
and Scorpius during dawn, but the results were far from satisfactory.
In February, I was able to acquire Celestron C6 NGT, and my
scope was capturing moon surface.
I was so delighted to see the first photos of the moon, with my Nikon D40X
attached to the scope.
In March, I saw Saturn
and its famous ring, then, before dawn, Jupiter
and three of its four Galiean moons, these should be Europa, Io and Ganymede. I was speechless seeing these
spectacular views for the first time in my life.
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| Saturn as seen from the eyepiece |
August 17 is the independence day of my beloved country,
Indonesia. On August 17 2008, before dawn, I witnessed a rare event of partial lunar eclipse in my
backyard in Purwakarta (a small town about 100 km east of Jakarta). This is a
nice gift on the independence day, I guess. Moon glare was much reduced as the
eclipse occured. There was a small noticeable blue dot near the moon. I
curiously checked Stellarium (www.stellarium.org),
and to my surprise, this small blue dot was Neptune! This giant planet is in
close proximity to Cap 42, one of the stars that form constellation Capricorn.
This was really a very fortunate coincidence!
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