We attended a night sky bservation at Planetarium Negara. It was a event organised by the Planetarium Negara to observe planet Saturn and Moon and was held on 9 April 2011 from 8 pm - 10 pm. We were one of the first persons to arrive there at 7.20 pm and the sun was just setting. When we signed up, we were given a lucky draw number for a lucky draw.
Since the indoor gallery was opened to the public that night, in conjunction with the event. we went inside to escape from the outdoor heat. Although it was night time, it was rather hot outside. There were new exhibits inside compared to the last time we visited the place.
There was this new exhibit - The Red Planet. It's Mars. And there was this replica of a Mars Rover being exhibited. The boys loved this exhibit. Several months ago, they had asked me to make a space rover.
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Creating cyclones |
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An exhibit showing the density of a planet, whose name I had forgotten. I think it was Jupiter. |
After that, more and more people came in and the event started with a talk in the auditorium. We decided to hang on outside and look through the telescopes. There were 5 telescopes prepared outdoors, which were provided by the National Space Agency (ANGKASA) and Star Finder Astronomical Society.
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Looking at the moon. They even had a special stool for children to stand on. |
It was slightly more difficult to see Saturn. It looked so tiny even through the microscope and it looked like a computer icon rather than a real planet. Nevertheless, I could see the rings around it quite distinctly. It felt so surreal looking at Saturn.
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Looking at Saturn |
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This huge "umbrella" showed the constellations |
I saw someone with the Star Finders society using a "laser pointer" that could be used to point to the planets and stars. It had a long line that seemed to stretch out to the planets.
After that, we all headed towards the auditorium for a place to sit. The place was packed with children and their parents. Some of them came wearing T-shirts bearing their school names. The talk was in Bahasa Malaysia and the planets were named differently in Bahasa Malaysia. The planets were called Utarid (Mercury), Zuhrah (Venus), Bumi (Earth), Marikh (Mars), Musytari (Jupiter), Zuhal (Saturn), Uranus (Uranus) and Neptun (Neptune). It took me a while to get used to and orientate to the planet names in Bahasa Malaysia which I had forgotten. Why can't they just follow the English names? It's so confusing.
After the 45 minutes talk, we dispersed and headed outdoors once again. Then the lucky draw started....and we didn't manage to win anything. Then we went inside and took a small lift which brought us to the viewing deck. By then, the boys were very tired and w went back at around 9.45 pm.
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