SCOB Color Wall

Good Tuesday dear SCOB bleaders!! Thanks for standing by us and coming by to check our blog :) Here are some photos we can't wait to share with you...

The Science Centre OBservatory Colour Wall!!!!

Almost at its completion, the Color Wall is made up by you visitors. Each and every tile (color card) painstakingly created and coloured by visitors of all ages from as young as 3 years old to as young as 100 years old!!) These color cards contain beautiful memories and declarations of love between couples and earthlings for planets/the moon/stars.

Here are some examples.

"I am King"

"I Love Life"

"Love the Earth and Jupiter"

"I would chart the milky way (and) the universe and map it on your heart."

Hope you had a great long weekend last week :) This Friday we will be open again for all visitors.

See you there ok?



Bye for now!

Astronaut Photography of Earth

Dear all, long time no see... It's been a busy start of the year for all of us at Science Centre, and we finally made it to March! The Science Centre Observatory will be open as usual tonight, and because it is the start of the 1 week school holidays, we are expecting a surge in visitors. Feel free to come and join us! Our Colour-Wall is reaching completion soon, and since a few weeks ago, visitors have been making their own sundials and bringing them home as souvenirs.

If you have always been a fan of our Omnitheatre movies, Forces of Nature is an upcoming movie all about natural hazards such as earthquakes, tornadoes and volcano eruptions. While doing a research on natural disasters, I came across a really cool website by NASA.

The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth

Packed with 481,761 rare photographs from the International Space Station, you can search for any feature on Earth, and get a vast list of stunning photographs from their database.

A search for "volcanoes" gave me a list of beautiful volcano pictures, much like looking down on Earth from an aeroplane. A colleague searched for "Tokyo at night", and got this:

For those who love beautiful pictures, or anyone who needs a photo resource of the earth, this is definitely a webbie worth bookmarking.

February's Night Sky 2010

Below is a star map representing the Singapore night sky in February:

One of the highlights this months is the planet MARS, getting higher and higher above the eastern horizon. If you have binoculars, its great to try and use them to spot MARS this month. The red planet is steadily moving past the open star cluster known as the Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer. See diagram for details:

The constellation of Orion is very high and bright in the sky at the moment.

Orion’s seven brightest stars can easily be seen in Singapore’s light-polluted sky.
Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis) is a massive red supergiant that varies in brightness. Bellatrix (gamma Orionis), is blue giant star. Its name means “female warrior”, indicating that Orion may not have always been seen as a male hunter. Bellatrix is the closest of Orion’s stars (243 light years away).Out of Orion’s Belt, Alnilam (epilson Orionis) is the closest and brightest of the three. Rigel (beta Orionis) is a large blueish-white supergiant star. Sometimes it becomes the brightest star in Orion, when Betelgeuse occasionally fades.

Scanning Orion with binoculars or a telescope can reveal many more stars and wonders.
One of the most famous deep sky objects in Orion is the Orion Nebula (M42)

The Orion Nebula is a large cloud of gas (mainly hydrogen) part of which has collapsed to form young white stars.
It is visible to our naked eyes as a tiny speck below Orion’s belt. Binoculars show a hazy glow around a tight cluster of stars.

The diagram below illustrates the view of Orion Nebula through a telescope:


The tight group of four star is known as the Trapezium (theta Orionis).
Surrounding the trapezium is part of the hydrogen gas cloud, which is being illuminated by the energy from the Trapezium stars.
A number of other stars within and in front of the nebula are also visible.
The Orion Nebula is a large cloud of gas (mainly hydrogen) part of which has collapsed to form young white stars.
It is visible to our naked eyes as a tiny speck below Orion’s belt. Binoculars show a hazy glow around a tight cluster of stars.

Friday 15th Jan - Partial Solar Eclipse

Watch this eclipse at Science Centre OBservatory!
Observatory opens at 3pm
Free eclipse glasses for every visitor

How to view an eclipse
Bring a mat (to sit on)
Bring a hat or an umbrella (for shade)
Wear eclipse glasses (for protection)
or use a Pinhole (we'll show you how)

Festive cheer at SCOB!

Christmas decorations are replaced with Chinese New Year ones for SCOB spring cleaning today. It was cheerful and merry putting up decorations with my fellow Scobbers. The starting of the year fills one with hope, its such a great feeling :)

Scobbers Andrew and Eng Wen taking down the weather-beaten mistletoe along the stairs.

Christmas decorations to be put away until December!

Scobber Yong figuring out how to use 3M plastic hooks...

Scobbers Eng Wen and Alvin working on a tangled mess of plastic hearts and string...

Scobbers Andrew and Alfred putting up the plastic hearts. Randomness rules!

Scobber Andrew with our new year decorations! The redder and the golder the better.

Scobber Yong putting up more plastic hearts. Scobbers Eng Wen and Alvin working on even even more plastic hearts. Its Valentine's Day on Chinese New Year too, you see.

Scobber Andrew with the untangled plastic hearts

Scobber Yong!

This year's Chinese New Year coincides with Valentine's Day as well. Come to the Observatory with your loved ones and spend a romantic night under the stars!

Reporting behind the camera, Scobber SK.