These are some of the interesting pages in this web site:
What's up in Singapore Sky
To locate celestial objects in the sky and be able to appreciate the spectacular show the nature offers, we need a sky chart and a good astronomical field guide. These are available in some bigger bookshops in Singapore.
I highlight some of the sky scenes here as seen from Singapore:
Highlight of night skies in January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
Searching for Moon and Planets.
Is Singapore sky different from others?
Singapore is situated near equator at 103°56'E, 1°20'N. Because of its proximity to the equator, the sky looks like a big globe rotating from the east to the west with axis running from the north to the south. The rotation completes a round in a day (24 hours). As viewing from the earth, the stars appears to rotate 15° (360°/24hours) from the east to the west every hour. Theoretically, we could view the whole sky when the earth rotates half a turn (12 hours). For those who live in northern hemisphere, the rotating axis points upwards into the sky. A part of the sky (around Polaris) is always visible throughout the year and the opposite part of the sky can never be seen.
If we stay awake whole night admiring the night sky, you could roughly see about 80% of the sky. The reasons are 1. we could only see stars from 15° above the horizon because of serious skyglow, 2. We could only see stars during night time from 8 pm to the following day 5 am.
Due to the earth orbiting round the sun in a year, the sky in a night at a certain time looks the same as the previous night at a time 4 minutes later. If we convert that into rotation angle in the sky and calculate the rotation for a month, we could say that the the sky rotate 30° more from the east to the west a month later at the same time.
For the casual night sky observers like me, we look at the sky after the night has fallen and go to bed well before mid-night. It will take us a year to view all the constellations in the sky. The sky scenes described here correspond to the ones around 9 pm. If you are observing the sky at a later time, you can find out the sky scene by reading a month later description for every two hours lapse. For example, it is now January. The sky scene described in January paragraph correspond to the sky that you see at around 9pm. If you want to observe the sky at 11pm, you could find out the sky scene by reading February paragraph.
The eastern sky is beautiful early in the evening. Facing directly to the east, you can see Orion at about 60° above the horizon. Orion is a constellation with many bright stars and can be easily identified. It looks like a big butterfly flapping its wings flying towards you. My son thinks that it is a bow tie which I do not dispute. You may use it to orientate yourself in the sky. Taurus is on the upper left above Orion around the zenith.
(Place the mouse pointer over the picture) |
At the lower right side of Orion, you can find Sirius, the brightest star in the sky seen from the Earth. At the lower left of Orion, you will find the constellation Gemini, the twins constellation. Its two bright stars Castor and Pollax can be seen about 20° above the horizon. |
The three brightest stars in the sky, i.e. Betelgeuse (of Orion), Sirius (of Canis Major) and Procyon (of Canis Minor) form an equilateral triangle in the eastern sky. It move gradually to the zenith in March and disappear in the west in May. It is a feature of the sky which is easily recognizable.
Pleiades is a beautiful open cluster visible with naked eyes. You can find it by tracing a line from Bellatrix of Orion and go beyond Aldebaran of Taurus. If your eyesight is good, you can make out 6 bright stars. They are beautiful when viewed in binoculars or a wide view telescope.
The rich star field stretching from the zenith to the south is very
spectacular. The best way to view this is by a pair of binoculars. When you scan from the
zenith to the south, you find Orion, Canis Major, Puppis, Vela, Carina and even Crux if
you stay late until mid-night. There are many clusters of stars that are very pleasant to
look at. This spectacular view lasts until March and after which, they lie too low in the
south to be observed properly.
The two brightest stars of Gemini, Castor and Pollux are now very high (about 50° above the horizon) in the east. In the centre of Cancer constellation (in the lower right corner and 15° away from Pollux) is a beatiful open cluster called Beehive cluster.
Leo constellation appear in full view (around 40° above the horizon) in the east.
The southern cross, Crux start to appear from the horizon in southeast direction. You have to stay late at night or wait until next month to catch a good glimpse of it because it is too low.
In the south, the Southern Cross, Crux has risen quite high (20° above the horizon) to provide us with a good view. At the lower left corner of the diamond shape formed by the four brightest stars of the southern cross, you find a beautiful cluster called Jewel Box. You can only see them properly with a telescope.
To the left of the southern cross, there is a globular cluster the size of the moon in Centarus constellation. Unfortunately, we cannot see it with our naked eyes in Singapore condition. It appear like a ball of cotton wool in the binoculars. The two brightest stars (Rigil Kentaurus and Hadar) of Centarus has begun to appear in the horizon below the southern cross.
| In the north, the big dipper asterism of Ursa Major comes into full view. It is the most conspicuous feature in the north. It reaches its maximum altitude of about 30° in May and plunges into northwest and disappears in August. |
Bootes appears in full view in the east.
Crux and Centaurus are directly in the south at their highest altitude (about 30°).
Scorpion starts to emerge from southeast east direction.
The scorpion is in full view in south eastern direction. It faces upwards with its sting hanging below at the horizon. It looks like an upside down question mark.
The Tea Pot asterism starts to emerge from the horizon on the left side of the sting of the Scorpion.
The constellations Lyra and Aquila starts to emerge from the east. These two constellations and Cynus come into full view in the east at the end of the month. It corresponds to Chinese calendar the 7th day of the 7th month which according to Chinese legend is the day when the loving couple "Niu Lang" (Lyra) and "zhi Nu" (Aquila) is allow to meet at the bridge (Cynus) across the celestial river, i.e. the milky way. This day is Chinese "Qing Ren Jie" or "Qi Qiao Jie", the equivalent of the Valentine Day.
| The brightest stars of Lyra, Aquila and Cynus (vega, Altair and Deneb respectively) forms a conspicuous triangle 45° above the horizon in the north eastern direction. It is interesting to look at the rich star field around these brightest stars with binoculars. The triangle stays in the northern hemisphere for another three more month and set in northwest in November. |
| Directly in the south and 60° above the horizon, you can find the Scorpion lying flat with the Tea Pot asterism of Sagittarius to the left of its sting. There are many open clusters around the sting of the scorpion which should not be missed. They are much more interesting to look at with a pair of binoculars rather than a narrow field-of-view telescope. | (Place the mouse pointer over the picture) |
The big square of Pegasus appears in the east at about 20° above the horizon. To its right, at the same level, there are three bright stars forming a horizontal line stretching to the south. These stars are Fomalhaut (of Pisces Austrinus), Al Nair (of Grux) and Peacock Star (of Pavo).
The scorpion is lying flat in the southwest. The Tea Pot asterism is tilted looking as though it is emptying its content on the Scorpion.
Aquarius and Capricornus are right at the zenith. Theses two are difficult to identify. You might want to look at them carefully when they are at the zenith where the sky are darker.
Taurus starts to appear in the east.
Pleaides is on its left.
Cassiopeia looks like a 3 in the north northeast direction.
The Orion has fully emerge from the east.
The brightest star in the sky, Sirius has started to appear in the eastern horizon; it is just below the lower right corner of Orion.
| Cassiopeia and Perseus have risen high (35° above the horizon) in the north. Cassiopeia looks like a M and Perseus looks like a y. These are "My" favorite constellation in the north. It is challenging trying to trace the M in Singapore's not-so-dark sky. The beautiful rich star field around Mirfak, the brightest stars in Perseus constellation is something not to be missed. There is a double open cluster in Perseus that look very nice in a telescope, they are so close that you can see them together in a telescope. | (Place the mouse pointer over the picture) |
Moon:
There is no easier way to find out the phase of the moon than to use the
lunar calendar which is easily available in Singapore. The moon changes from new moon on
the first day of the month to full moon on the 15th day of the month.
New moon: First day (or around) of the month
Full moon: 15th day (or around) of the month
The moon appears to move in the same manner as the sun, it rises from the east and set in the west.
From 1st day to 7th day, you will find the moon in the western
hemisphere just after the sun has set.
From 8th day to 15th day, you will find the moon in the eastern hemisphere just after the
sun has set.
From 15th day onwards, the moon rises later and later, you have to wait for a while after
the sun has set to see the moon rising from the east.
When it nears the end of the month (28th day), you can only see the moon in the east just
before the day breaks.
The four brighter planets that are easy to identify are Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. To our naked eyes, they appear like a bright stars and they are usually brighter than any stars in the sky.
Jupiter
looked like this when I viewed it through my 5 inch telescope last Christmas (25 December
1998). The dark lines are patterns of cloud caused by the rotation of Jupiter. The loop is
the Great Red Spot which is a giant storm in Jupiter's cloud.
Saturn looks like this in a telescope. You will never see the color of a
planet because its light is pretty faint.
