Comet Lovejoy - Hello From East Coast Park

East Coast Park
East, Singapore
January 2015

Intrigued by a post on a local forum, Merlion Wayfarer recently braved the dark and the mosquitoes to catch Comet Lovejoy.

On reaching the open field at East Coast Park, she was overwhelmed by the number of huge super whopper telescopes lining the muddied field.

While waiting for the sky to be dark enough, some of the enthusiasts focused on other astronomical phenomenon.

M42, the Orion Nebula, is part of a giant complex of clouds of interstellar gas and dust. Pockets of this material are collapsing to give birth to new stars...

When twilight dawns and night falls, Comet Lovejoy was spotted.

(Source : Universe Today)

First discovered in August 2014 by Australian amateur astronomer Terry Lovejoy using his backyard telescope, Comet C/2014 Q2, otherwise known as Lovejoy, has been hanging around in our night skies for a few weeks now, but it is currently at its brightest and easiest-to-spot part of its journey around our sun.

To the unseasoned astronomer, locating Lovejoy can be a challenge - Depending on the earth's orbit, the date, and the time of the night, its position shifts. Here are some guides based on the star constellations...

(Source : Daily Mail)

(Source : Sky & Telescope)

Still lost? Star Date has a good pictorial guide with textual explanations on the stars forming each major cluster.

(Source : Star Date)

Comet Lovejoy gets its eye-catching colour from two gases, cyanogen and diatomic carbon, which both glow green when sunlight passes through them. Its green hue is produced by molecules of diatomic carbon in the coma that fluoresce under the Sun's ultraviolet rays. In contrast, its delicate gas tail is tinted blue due to fluorescing charged molecules of carbon monoxide.

(Source : Daily Mail UKS)

See you again in 8,000 years!

(Source : The Telegraph UKl)

Sources

• "Binocular Comet Lovejoy Heading Our Way" by Alan MacRobert (28 December 2014). Sky & Telescope. Retrieved from http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/binocular-comet-lovejoy-heading-c2014-q2-lovejoy-1211142/
  
• "Constellation Guide" (12 January 2015). Star Date. Retrieved from http://stardate.org/nightsky/constellations
  
• "Dazzling green Comet Lovejoy tears across the sky in closest encounter with Earth to date" by Mia De Graaf & Jack Crone (11 January 2015). Daily Mail UK. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2905630/Dazzling-green-Comet-Lovejoy-tears-sky-closest-encounter-Earth-date.html
  
• "Subaru Telescope Captures the Fine Details of Comet Lovejoy’s Tail" by Jason Major (06 December 2013. Universe Today. Retrieved from http://www.universetoday.com/106995/subaru-telescope-captures-the-fine-details-of-comet-lovejoys-tail/
  
• "When and where to see Comet Lovejoy" (09 January 2015). Telegraph UK. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/space/11333541/When-and-where-to-see-comet-Lovejoy.html

Read More

Pasir Ris Park - The Flight Of The Hornbills

Pasir Ris Park
East, Singapore
January 2015

It was one of those cloudy days in the beginning of the year. With the rainfall held back, it was time to venture out east to explore the mangroves from the safety of boardwalks - no muddied shoes from the rain-sodden grass.

Periophthalmodon schlosseri (Giant Mudskipper)

Quite a few of these huge mudskippers were seen around the mangroves at mid-tide today.  At almost the length of a 30 cm ruler, here's one moving away from the "swimming puddle" it created at low tide to keep some of the seawater in.

 

Anthracoceros albirostris (Oriental Pied Hornbills) - Nesting Pair

Our first sign of bird life here were two photographers with their huge lenses lying in wait at the base of some trees. 

This is how far away the nest is...

On zooming, we realize that the pair is nesting in a specially built box...

Mud lined the edges of the diamond-shaped entrance. It appeared that the female is inside, lining the nest with soft mud. She has finished the interior of the nest and is now lining the entrance of the nest to slowly seal it up...

Minutes later, the male emerges and opens his beak. Instead of food, crumbs of mud spill out. He spits them out and slowly passes these mud crumbs to the female. When he finishes, he flies off again to retrieve the mud from the nearby riverbank...

Other Sightings

The ants appear to be most active at this time - shifting food many times their weight...

It was also a good time to start planning for the next generation...

A transparent snail doing yoga-like contortions...

A Numenius minutus (Little Curlew) wanders in the thick mangrove undergrowth...

A few Ardea cinerea (Grey Herons) were circling the bridge near Downtown East. It appears that the whole flock are nesting on several trees on the bank of Sungei Api Api...

The visible gold of the Nephila pilipes (Golden Web Spider) can be viewed from below the tree...

There are not 1, but 2 grasshoppers in this photo...

The orb-weavers were well-hidden under the wooden railings. Many of their webs lasted despite the recent spate of rainy days...

Initially this looked like a bee stopping for a rest on a leaf. But then, bees do not stop on the underside of leaves to rest. And look what's grasping the bee - a Misumenops nepenthicola (White Nepenthes Crab Spider)! Such is the wonder of the macro world! You get surprise finds by zooming in on your photos on a larger screen...

  

Photographers On The Bridge

From the distance, we saw a group of about 20 photographers armed with their DSLRs on tripods on the bridge. First it was just the Halcyon capensis (Stork-Billed Kingfisher). Dashing in his bright hues, it waited by the riverside, ducking in several times for fish that swam way too fast...

Moments later, a female Alcedo atthis (Common Kingfisher) flew out from among the shrubs. It was a pleasure watching her quick darts in her elegant blue coat with the shimmering fluorescent turquoise spots.

Anthracoceros albirostris (Oriental Pied Hornbill) - Juvenile

As we left, we were surprised to see a blue-eyed boy peeking at us from among the short trees lining the boardwalk....

This cheeky boy beeped and shook his head at us in his childlike curiousity, then perched on a branch and looked straight at us with his gestures...

Ever playful, he then flew even lower (to below the boardwalk height) and started surveying the ground before finally flying off...

Read More