Astronomy in Bali is there any ?

islandofthegods

As an amateur / hobby stargazer I traveled a lot around the world with a telescope and SLR camera. I live in Holland which is virtally the least suitable for stargazing due to high cloud cover (higher than Bali) and very strong light pollution. I found out that Bali does not have the best climate for it but not the worst either despite the balmy humid climate. I visited Bali more times in the rainy season but the number of clear skies (even for a short period of 1-2 hours) is not bad. The air transparency is usually remarkable clear and out of the Denpasar area, light pollution is low so dark skies apply. A sky sometimes nearly as good as in the Atacama in Chile at 2500m high. On 2009 Jan 26 I was in Gili Trawangan (not exactly Bali it belongs to Lombok) and there was a deep partial solar eclipse but nobody knew about it. I took pictures of it and was good to see. My question is : are there any interests in the sky in Bali ?

JohnnyCool

Hi [B]islandofthegods[/B] and welcome to this forum. [QUOTE]My question is : are there any interests in the sky in Bali ? [/QUOTE] Sad to say that there doesn't seem to be much interest here, certainly [B]not[/B] to the extent that there is an astronomy club, let alone an observatory, that I know of. A [I]few[/I] people in the past, (all westerners), occasionally expressed some interest in this. If you search this site for "astronomy", "eclipse", "meteors", you'll find some past comments. If you ever visit Bali again, please feel free to send me a [B]PM[/B]. :applause:

islandofthegods

JohnnyCool: Next Feb 2 I'll go to Bali (and bring a telescope) for 4 weeks. But I cannot send you a PM as this is my third post on this forum and one requires 10 posts.

JohnnyCool

No problem...I just sent [B]you[/B] a PM, (I think). If you don't get it, post some more stuff between now and February. And curious about what kind of telescope you travel with? :eagerness:

RhysG

hey i knw abit about it but wouldnt mind learning more mars and saturn are already a line with the earth what plantes next do you know

tintin

I believe you'll appreciate this video. Outer Space on Vimeo ...and you wont have to bring your telescope with you to Bali. :cheerful:

tintin

...and another one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWz5ltE_I4c

JohnnyCool

Some highlights for May 2012 Here are some of my picks for this month. 1 May. Venus is close to its maximum brightness (magnitude -4.7). 3 May. Saturn's rings are tilted more than anytime in the past five years (about 14 degrees). Of course, you'll need a small telescope to seem them properly. 6 May. Full Moon, 03:35 UTC (11:35 am in Bali). This will be the largest full Moon this year. (The closest point in its orbit to planet Earth, or "perigee 5-6 May. The Eta Aquariid meteor shower (19 April - 28 May) peaks in the early morning hours (look towards the East a couple of hours before sunsrise). This is one of the best meteor showers to watch in a good year - maybe 60 meteors/hour. The meteors are usually fast and often bright. The problem this year is the full Moon which will wash out most of the fainter ones. The Earth is basically passing through old spoof left by Halley's Comet. A better meteor shower might be the next Leonids (14-21 November), which can produce 100+ meteors/hour. Perhaps the most "spectacular" event this year will be the transit of Venus next month (6 June), when it crosses the disk of the Sun. These transits are very rare and occur in pairs eight years apart, and then not again for another 95 years, or so. The last transit was in 2004, the next this year and the next pair will be in 2117 and 2125. Captain James Cooks' first voyage was primarily to observe the transit of 1769 from Tahiti. After that, he voyaged westwards and mapped much of New Zealand's coastline and then went on to "discover" Australia in 1770. The June 6 transit will be visible from Bali (begins 6:14 am and ends 12:47 pm). However, it's important to take safety precautions. Never look at the Sun through a telescope, binoculars or even the naked eye without proper protection. If you do, you might burn out your retina (the back part of your eyes) and go blind. Not only that, you won't even feel it because the retina doesn't have any pain sensors. The cheapest safe way is to project the Sun's image onto a piece of white cardboard. You can do this with binoculars, with a little fiddling. A camera tripod with an attachment for binoculars is ideal, but you can just prop them up with whatever you've got lying around (books, ladder, gaffa tape?). Just remember NOT to look at the Sun directly at any time. If you think you might be interested in seeing this rare event, which might be like looking at a tiny ant crawling very slowly across your projected image, do some practice in advance. Try and project an image of the Sun with what you've got (any binoculars will do, but 7x50 or larger are better). If you have a small telescope, try that. You should be able to see a disk of the Sun and possibly a few sun-spots. One other thing: don't leave your unprotected optics pointed at the Sun for too long at a time (possible damage). More to come later, when I have time. And for those people interested in astronomical things, there are oodles of websites out there. A good site for complete beginners is One Minute Astronomer. Enjoy and pray for clear skies at all times. :unconscious: