Aricia's stargazing journal

Stargazer

1. Keep a log or notebook giving observations of stars, moon and planets (if any), visible from a window, garden, street, in or near her own home. (6 hours over three months) with description.
2. A photo of a celestial object through the telescope and describe the telescope specs and the camera used.
3. Find out:
   3.1. at least four constellations visible in Singapore;
   3.2. name one deep sky object that is visible in Singapore from 3.1.
   3.3. at least four first magnitude stars visible in Singapore

Observations timeframe is spread out to 6 months so that the Guide can make meaningful observations over a longer period of time. Each observation can be just 15 minutes.

Her stargazing journey planning started on 10th June 2020. Just when school started their new term. During the school hols we did occasionally look up from our balcony but we didn't think about doing it to get a badge. When I realised there was this profiency badge, I asked her if she wanted to take a step further and doing it more seriously to get a badge.  

I emailed her teacher (our exchange of emails is copied here for keepsake purpose)

20th June @ 3.55pm

Dear XXX,

Hope this email finds you well.

I would like to get your advice on starting on the activity on stargazing. 

Infact, Aricia for the past 2 years has occasionally stargazed. And when I realised there was a proficiency badge on this, I was elated. 

If she were to start on this, does it mean she starts in June or can she start with effect from an earlier month. 

As for the photo through a telescope, does it have to be the raw picture or can it be edited/cropped? Honestly, I haven’t tried taking pictures through telescope (plus not that we have a fantastic telescope to begin with) so not sure how to, and how big or small the object will turn out to be. I mean usually I’ll just use my telephoto lens on DSLR to take pictures myself (so easy - no need to set up telescope 😄) , and I still need to crop to enlarge the photo. 

Hope you can give me some pointers so I can try to guide her more in this. 

11th June @ 5.23pm

Thank you for your email.

I'm happy to hear that Aricia is working on her proficiency badges. It's fantastic that you also have a telescope and a telephoto lens at home for stargazing too. Aricia should be able to see Saturn, Jupiter and Moon quite easily if it doesn't storm at night.

As long as Aricia can capture a clear photo of the planets and the moon and identify them, that will suffice. We don't want to deter students from stargazing.

And if Aricia can produce a record comprising 3 consecutive months of her observations, she'll receive the badge. The log should include location, weather, time, and a description and/or a sketch of what she sees in the sky. 

Ms XXX is recommending that Aricia follows a Facebook group of stargazing enthusiasts, Singapore Sideway Astronomy. Aricia can also refer to this website so that she can be fruitful when she looks into the telescope. https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/night/singapore/singapore

Hope this helps! 

May the stars align in your favour,

XXX

11th June @ 7.05pm

Thank you for your reply. 

As she’s been doing this occasionally, and if there’s something that she can earn, why not. 

3 consecutive months, must it be daily? Considering there are days when it is cloudy. And also coz usually I’ll ask her out to spot after I recee, when she can’t see anything I won’t bother to ask her to go out to balcony. And I’ll only ask her if it’s a non-school day the next day. Therefore the log won’t be consecutive days, it’s ok right? 

Great, so I don’t have to take pictures through telescope right? It’s quite a challenge for me to set up the lousy telescope though as we are surrounded by blocks and I’m on the ground floor. Many times, when I do it, it looks like I’m launching a rocket. Plus my unit is next to a path, a high traffic area where neighbours all keep looking at us whenever they walk past, I feel so embarrassed. So I hardly set it up. 

Thanks Ms Heng for the links. We’re aware of this. Since we started stargazing end 2017, we’ve relied a lot on a few FB pages and apps whenever we stargaze either in SIN or overseas. 

12th June @ 8am

I hear your concerns about not being able to stargaze meaningfully every day for 3 consecutive months. Would a 90-day log be something more feasible? It will still require Aricia to display a high level of discipline to maintain the log diligently at the end of each fruitful stargazing session, and we are confident that Aricia is capable of finishing it well!

No problems using the telephoto lens to take possibly clearer photos of what's in the sky. :)

I'm sorry to share that I had quite a good laugh imagining the trouble you have to go through each time you set up the telescope. 🤐

Have fun stargazing with Aricia! We really appreciate the support you render at home to ease Aricia into Girl Guides.

Make a wish on a shooting star,

XXX

15th June @12.25am 

Thank you for your reply. 

Thanks for your clarification. Just as I thought, 90 days is definitely reasonable as 3 months on a daily basis doesn’t guarantee clear nights daily. We will endeavour to complete the task. Nevertheless thank you for making the exception for us, because as much as I’d like her to enjoy astronomy I try not to interfere when it’s a schooling day. She’s enjoying it more these days cause she knows she’s working towards something at the end. I need a badge for myself too! 

Oh yes, that telescope! The funniest thing was when she suggested we should set up 2 nights ago (past few days didn’t set up), less than 10mins we had people walking past and even the security staffs stopping by our unit to see what we were doing. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Something for you to enjoy. These were taken by Athena’s teacher who chaperoned students to some ulu place in Thailand late last year. Athena did some editing to his photos. Needless to say she was really so excited to see the clear sky and Pleiades. 

Anyway, thanks a lot Ms XXX for your encouragement. 

And so we began our journey to the stars and beyond. First entry dated 9th June 2020 and last entry 16th March 2021. The books are filled with many wonderful time spent with her, looking beyond what our eyes can see, into the beautiful (ahem polluted Bortle 9 sky. Welcome to sunny Singapore, bright in the day and in the night!) sky. 

I found this quote encouraging -

Look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. 

– Stephen Hawking

So I decided that we shall do her journaling in more educational way. I hope we're on the right track. In the process, I learn new things as well. There is just so much more we can discover, so much more... not in Singapore but where we can get dark sky, good camera, good telescope, a tracking system and hopefully a good photographer. 

I remember this day so clearly. 22nd June 2020 @ 5am. The sky was the clearest of all the days. So many stars in the sky! Quickly woke her up to see and identify the stars, she went back for a short nap before getting ready to go to school.   

Second Book

Took us a year to complete the task. By 27th June, we had completed the journal. Did the final checks before submission

29 June 2021 @ 9:47 

Dear Ms XXX, 

Hope this email finds you well.

Just to let you know that Aricia will submit her stargazing journals (2 books) to you via your pigeon hole on Thursday. 

Thank you for being patient with us. 

Regards, 

XXX 

30th June @ 8am

I am looking forward to learning more about stargazing from her journaling!

Best regards,

XXX

And now we shall wait for her well deserved badge.