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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Viewing the sun from Science Centre Observatory

One certain sweltering sunny day in December, Scobbers hosted a group of students very interested in Astronomy. We brought the kids and teachers up to our big 16-inch (40cm) Cassegrain Reflector telescope, where we viewed the sun through a sun filter. FYI: The sun filter looks like a mirror and covers the whole front end of the telescope for safe viewing of the sun by reducing glare.

Sky was clear, there were no clouds blocking our view of the sun, and the resulting image is an orangey sun against a black background. Andrew pointed out some sunspots to the kids, and we caught it on the 2 photos below. Can you see the sunspots at the top right hand corner in the picture?


Viewing the sun in the Observatory dome is a very sweaty affair, and dangerous too. The sun's rays when focused through the telescope, could so easily burn a hole in the dome's carpet, that we better not talk about your eyes. So necessary precautions had to be taken as mentioned above. But it was very different from the usual night sky viewing, and I think you should try it too.

15 January 2009
, we are going to view the sun again at SCOB. Time is 2.30PM to 5.30PM at where the Observatory dome is. Why a Friday afternoon!? Because there will be a solar eclipse! Although just a partial one, but a spectacular event to be sure, IF the sky is not too cloudy. Expect the sun to look like a "half-eaten cookie".

As the date draws nearer, we'll post more details on the scob blog.

Hope to see you on the 15th! Meanwhile, Happy 2010!

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