Regulus – My new (Lion) iMac

August 13th, 2011 at 14:37 · Filed Under Astronomy, At Home, At Work, Computing, Days in My Life, Mac OS X · Comment 

It has been my tradition to name my computers and mobile devices after the name of a moon, planet or star. This time is no exception.

The new OSX operating system 10.7, code-named Lion, was officially released by Apple, Inc. on July 20, 2011. In astrology, it was just two days before the Sun begins occupying Leo from July 22 to August 22. And I ordered my iMac and received it before the Sun leaves Leo.

In astronomy, Regulus or Alpha Leonis is the brightest star in Leo constellation. In Chinese, it is known as 轩辕十四, the Fourteenth Star of Xuanyuan. Regulus is also one of the brightest stars in the night sky. Together, with Eta Leonis (a fourth-magnitude star), they mark the lion’s heart.

My new 27″ iMac is a top range CTO model and will be the power horse for my works which include software development, some photography and design works. It is also the most powerful personal computer I have ever owned/purchased. Thus, Regulus is the best and most beautiful name for my new iMac.

Pluto will be passed down to my wife and kids after the data has been completely migrated to Regulus and a stable working environment is established.

iMac

iMac

 

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iPhone makes quick astronomy

April 16th, 2011 at 23:49 · Filed Under Astronomy, At Home, Education, iPhone · Comment 

I’ve always wanted to get into astronomy since the late 1990s but could not make it due to busy schedules (yeah lame excuse, I know), lack of mentor, not having a clue how to find and identify objects in the sky, etc.

Then, last night I stumbled upon an iPhone app, SkyView which uses Augmented Reality (AR) to reveal the current positions of planets, stars, constellation, satellites and even the International Space Station (ISS)!

I demonstrated the wonder of the app to my kids outside our home just now. Although the sky was cloudy, we could still see the moon so I used the moon as the reference. SkyView accurately revealed the exact position of the moon on my iPhone screen. Tonight, we found a lot of constellations, including Virgo which was behind the moon. Next to the moon was Saturn, as illustrated in Figure 1.

iPhone SkyView Astronomy

Figure 1: Virgo, moon and Saturn.

Not too far away from our moon, we found three satellites, the COSMOS 1536 (below the moon), COSMOS 1975 (slightly above the horizon but behind the apartment and MIDORI II (ADEOS-II) (further to the right of the moon). See their illustration in Figure 2, 3 and 4 respectively.

Figure 2: COSMOS 1536

Figure 2: COSMOS 1536

Figure 3: COSMOS 1975

Figure 3: COSMOS 1975

Figure 4: MIDORI II (ADEOS-II)

Figure 4: MIDORI II (ADEOS-II)

Beside these, we also found the Hubble space telescope and the ISS (International Space Station). Both of them were below the horizon and behind (or under?) our house!

Figure 5: Hubble space telescope and ISS

Figure 5: Hubble space telescope and ISS

The SkyView app is a great iPhone app for astronomy hobbyists and perfect education tool for both parents and kids. It’s certainly worth investing. It costs only $1 and there is also a stripped down version which is free.

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祝贺“神七”

September 27th, 2008 at 23:03 · Filed Under Astronomy, Blogging, China, Chinese · Comment 

昨日在报章上看到“神七”成功升天，心里很高兴。原本要写这篇文章的，不过由于很忙也太累了，所以没写。刚才回到家，原本也很累的，但是在电视上看到中国宇航员首度出舱外进行太空漫步，高兴得连疲累也忘了，心里真的感到一种莫名的兴奋。我孩子也看到了中国宇航员太空漫步的画面。向他们解释了一些太空科学。不知道他们是否了解，不过他们也非常的高兴。

在此，我们一起祝贺中国，“神七”为中国人带来了骄傲！

最新：神七返回舱于28日17时37分在内蒙古四子花旗着陆。

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First astronomy lesson

July 16th, 2008 at 23:52 · Filed Under Astronomy, At Home, Blogging, Days in My Life, Education, Family · 1 Comment 

After the TV, I went to lock the outer gate. The sky was clear and I could see the full moon and many stars. I saw the brightest star twinkling on the lower left corner not far away from the moon. I guessed it was Jupiter. Jupiter is the largest planet and one of the four outer gas giants or Jovians in our solar system. To be sure, I checked with Stellarium on my Mac and confirmed it was Jupiter.

Then I called the boys and mom to gaze at the sky and told them it was Jupiter the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in our solar system. I told them that Jupiter would take about 11 years to orbit the Sun compare to one year for our planet earth. The two older boys responded with a big “Wow!” Nik was rather excited and very vocal.

We could also see some other stars and Ara, Triangulum Australe, Libra and Virgo constellation. They were magnificent.

The kids had their first astronomy lesson and so did I. I learned that Pluto is no longer the ninth planet in our solar system. Instead, the International Astronomical Union or IAU has reclassified Pluto as one of the four dwarf planets together with Ceres, Makemake and Eris.

I will reconsider to acquire a telescope soon. I almost invested in a Meade’s ETX-90PE in 1998 but for some reason I did not. I will consider a larger model, ETX-125PE.

I became interested in astronomy when I was first introduced by two persons. One was Dr. Ghaffar and Khoo. Dr. Ghaffar is a nuclear physicist and Khoo is my ex-classmate and a mechanical engineer. Both of them were very involved in star gazing. Khoo had even built his own 12″ diameter Newtonian Reflective Telescope.

I almost invested into one as mentioned earlier but I didn’t. At some point, I became very interested in astrophysics. Writing software to model celestial body can be interestingly challenging. Perhaps I should go get a Ph.D. and become an astrophysicist. Or, perhaps, one of the boys will become a renown astrophysicist.

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