24th Evening

We (With my colleagues Surath & Tharaka) drove to Kandy town within 3.5 hours and joint our crew who had already been there previous day. We reached the Kandy town at around 6.30 p.m. and searched for the news about the sky conditions, during previous days. As per the news we got the sky had been filled with clouds and it had been impossible to see even a bright star during the previous night. However we had good hopes and wished for better skies tomorrow for the Star Party 2009 to succeed. Meantime I got stuck to the plan of streaming the whole show of Star Party 2009 live with ustream especially from the official website http://www.starparty2009.com/ . We also had pre-show transmissions which were successful.
Even some people who were online watching those “behind the scene actions” chatted with us.
We spent the night at KUNDASLE area which is located some 20-minute drive from the Star Party 2009 location, which was the Premises of University of Peradeniya, Kandy.
As I mentioned we had successfully broadcast the behind the scene actions, featuring the Star Party 2009 Crew, working and developing decoration items. However it’s around 12:00 midnight that we got this shocking news.

Bad News:

This happened to be the most crushing news that we got. The servers of the site had fallen. The servers were down, leaving us with nothing to update the exclusive page for the live cast @ http://www.starparty2009.com/sp-09-live . I immediately opted to transfer the hosting to another server, as we had to start the live show at 6:00 pm on 25th. Since we had more hours and (it was about 2:00 am 25th Morning) I transferred the nameservers of the to the xtraorbit nameservers that I purchased simultaneously. However they said it’d take up to 6 hours for the nameservers to update. I also did a domain redirection to a temporary page @ Skylk.com and waited for the updates to happen.

25th Morning

After having a sleep of about 3 hours I got up in the morning at about 7.00 am and soon got to the University premises. Everyone was busy dealing with their specific stuff in the organizing affairs. We had some webcams and a professional handy camera for the recording. However we opted the use of webcams as they were of much ease. We also got involved transporting the essential stuff and had a good time of working.

25th Evening

It was during the afternoon that many of the lecturers and quiz masters arrived the premises. However I should recall that still the nameserves had not been updated. Therefore we arranged a blogspot subdomain @ http://www.starparty2009.blogspot.com/ and a new URL @ Skylk.com site as http://www.skylk.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=176%3Alive-stream-star-party-2009&catid=20%3Alocal-news&Itemid=5&lang=en
and started the live cast with ustream. We broadcast the events as they were happening and were able to fully launch the transmission from the Department of Geology where the Opening Ceremony started from 6:00 pm onwards.

It was a great thing that Sachith ayya also joined with us with Skype ( Sachith ayya was there at each Star Party ever since 2004 when the event was embarked as the primordial Observation Competition in South Asia ). We began the live streaming of Opening ceremony. I won’t bother mentioning every thing : You shoul have watched the live stream and even if you did miss it please find the video archive here @ http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2225545 . Not forgetting you IYA 2009, yeah It was on the early stage of the Opening Ceremony that the importance & significance of International Year of Astronomy 2009 was mentioned.

Then the Observation Competition started at the same hall where the opening ceremony took place. In addition, the Workshop also began with a highlight on Solar Observation. The competitors got a 1-hour writing paper starting from 7:05 pm and it should be mentioned that Sky was supporting us, Yes Sky was crystal clear which was like a blessing.

Then the Observation sessions continued at the ground, where the competitors observed Mars, Jupiter and other Constellations. Moreover the workshop continued inside the Gymnasium and outside it where it was necessary for observation. The workshop participants were divided into groups and each group had a separate lecturer, introducing basic facts on Observation and answering the questioned arisen. Then came the Good News.

Good News:

The servers had been updated. Yeah That was the best news we got. Instantly the visitors to http://www.starparty2009.com/ were redirected to the live streaming page of Skylk.com
Now we were really happy that the live streaming was fine and it was made sure.

26th Morning

Things progressed well and you can view the recorded stuff at the URL given above @ ustream.

I won’t go in detail and would mention the special quiz item featured in Star Party 2009, which was the Spot Test, where competitions are rounded up in a circular-arranged desks. Each desk has a separate unique question, which should be answered in the paper within 2 minutes. At the end of each 2 minute threshold time, am alarm is rung, indicating that it’s the time competitor moved to the following desk in the circular arrangement. In Star Party 2009 Spot Test, it was really understood that to perform well, in the Spot Test, each contestant had to quickly go through the question and get it answered ASAP.

Meantime the live streaming went fine and we also had continuous chat with the online viewers updating the sessions.

In the workshop the amateur participants were taught about the assembly of telescope and significance of it as the 400th anniversary of Telescope is now already dawn crediting to Galileo. They also had the show of Eyes on the Skies, together with the subtitles in Sinhalese, as subtitled by SkyLK team. You can find the youtubed video here http://www.eyes.skylk.com/

In the end De Mazenod College, Kandana emerged overall Champions and Sangamitta College, Galle became the runners-up.

Moreover it should be mentioned that there were awards especially for the round-wise performance featuring IYA 2009.

Award for Theoretical Round & Spot Test : Dharmaraja College, Kandy
Solar & Observation Astronomy : Royal College, Colombo
Constellation & Deep Sky Observation: Sangamitta College, Galle
Moon Mapping : De Mazenod College, Kandana
Planetary Observation : De Mazenod College, Kandana

It was about 7:30 in the morning that Star APrty 2009 officially concluded with a great success.

Would like to see your comments:

You may also find additional photos here @ http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=124941&id=597140918&page=8

They have also included a chat box there and you may ask any questions simultaneously and be updated as soon as it happens, The local time of starting will be 4:30 pm on 25 th Sept and if you’re in EDT it will be 8:30 am on the same day.

So, it’s the time I left for Kandy.. See you guys online with the feed

In addition you can mail to helpdesk@starparty2009.com/ to get your inquiries asnwered. Moreover the Star PArty 2009 team comprised of just school student, which is the most amaxing thing, has published the quiz paper of last year’s event.

For those who need, I have included a fine resource to get the data @ http://users3.jabry.com/iya2009/Star_Party_Quiz_Paper_2008.pdf

Please feel free to contact and comment.

Every participating team should contain a maximum of 5 participants and only two teams can represent a
school. All participants should be currently attending school whereas the students who had already written
for the A/L exam are not eligible to take part under any circumstance whatsoever. All the participants
should be in school uniforms for the opening ceremony. It’s mandatory that the participants are
accompanied by a teacher and a parent.
All the participants should be present at the gymnasium of University of Peradeniya on or before
4.00 pm , 25th September 2009 together with clothes for warming . Students are advised to be present
before 4.00 pm. Registration will be started at 3.15 pm and closed at 4.30 pm. You will not be able to take
part in the first Theoretical round (Sun observation round) if you get late.
The Star Party mainly comprises of two segments which are Observation Competition and Workshop.
Every group, participating for the Observation Competition should possess a telescope with minimum
aperture of 2 inches maximum aperture of 8 inches. Telescopes which have electronic controlling system
(Automatic star tracking systems) are strictly prohibited for the event. The mounting system of the
telescope must be manual. Any types of binoculars are also allowed to be used.
Though you do not have a telescope, still you have a chance to participate. Please be kind enough to inform
that to either president or secretary of Anandian Astronomical Association before 10th September 2009.
If you have more than one telescope we would be pleased if you could give it to a fellow school during the
competition. If so, please be kind enough to inform us since there are many schools without telescopes.
The aperture of your telescope does not affect the final result of this competition, since the judging panel
judges your skill and the quality of your work according to the telescope aperture you use, not on the size or
the prize of equipment or apparatus you use.
Scientific calculators are allowed to be used for calculations during any observational or theoretical rounds.
Anandian Astronomical Association will be responsible for the preparation of questions and answers and
complete secrecy is guaranteed.
On all issues regarding the observation competition, the unanimous opinion of the judging panel, which
includes accredited astronomical personnel, will be the ultimate decision.
Anandian Astronomical Association will take entire responsibility regarding your personal security and your
equipment as long as you obey the rules and regulations, imposed for STAR PARTY 2009.
In connection with this event a special workshop has been arranged to promote the observation awareness
among amateur astronomy students of schools. The schools, willing to participate at the workshop, will not
be eligible to take part at the competition and vice versa. Please inform us your participation on workshop
before 10th September 2009.
About the STAR PARTY 2009 ( Competition )
Star Party 2009 Interschool Observation Competition Rounds can be divided into two sections of
Observational Astronomy
Section 01) – Observational Astronomy (Theoretical)
Section 02) – Observational Astronomy (Practical & Experimental)
Rounds of the competition
Theoretical Rounds Practical Rounds
01.) Theoretical Paper 04.) Lunar Observation
02.) Lunar observation round 05.) Jupiter Observation
03.) Viva test 06.) Mars Observation
07.) Mapping Constellations
08.) Deep sky Observation
In this competition, we will evaluate your ability on Practical Astronomy, Observational Skills in Planetary
Observation, Moon mapping , Deep Sky Observation, Mapping of constellations, Making Observation
Reports as well as theoretical knowledge of Solar observation , observational concepts and calculations
based on Observation.
Winners will be selected by overall marks of above rounds and the team that scores highest marks will be
awarded the STAR PARTY trophy.
The Theoretical paper will consist of 30 MCQs and 20 structured essay type questions. Duration will be
1 hour. This will evaluate your knowledge of theoretical concepts in Observational astronomy.
Solar observation round will be a paper which will consist of 20 MCQs and 20 structured essay type questions.
Duration will be 50 minutes.
Viva test will evaluate your both practical and theoretical skills.
Every practical round stated above, will be held at the playground of University of Peradeniya.
You are required to bring the equipment necessary for observational sessions.
There will be a section to examine your knowledge on experimental astronomy, exclusively in Jupiter
observation round.
Past papers of STAR PARTY competition are now available at

For more information:

President ( AAA) : Eranga Jayashantha – 0112667920
Secretary ( AAA) : Kasun Jayalath – 0332227887
President ( ASMGCK) : Chalani Kendaragama – 0812233523
Secretary ( ASMGCK) : Deshini Premawrdhana
STAR PARTY 2009 ( Competition)

A grand celebration, phenomenal sidereal endeavor, 12-hour premium experience of all time….

Since the early footprints of civilization, astronomy proved to be the blueprint of all the sciences.
The prime etiquette of stargazing was the passion that our ancestry shared. Driven by the curiosity and evolving mind, our forefathers were path-finding through the unknown access towards the beauty of dark sky, which is considered a noble virtue today.

Thus all those things resulted in 2009 being named the international year of astronomy. A new era of astronomy is now surely in progress with the IYA 2009 coming into the effect with the approval of the global community as well. Therefore many countries have contributed to the IYA 2009 by numerous means with both collective and individual efforts. We are glad to step into the arena with Sri Lankan identity, featuring STAR PARTY 2009. In fact this Observation Competition will be the major focus of IYA 2009 endeavors of Sri Lanka. On the 25th of September 2009, STAR PARTY 2009 is scheduled to take place at the grounds of University of Peradeniya.

The elite passion of stargazing will continue on the very day from 6.00 pm onwards, lasting for almost 12 hours. Students from different parts of the island will have a scope on Observation Astronomy and will compete to be crowned as champions depending on how they utilize the talent they possess. Star Party 2009 will also be a resource center for the amateurs seeking the quencher for their taste on Astronomy. The workshop conducted in affiliation with the Observation Competition, will share the knowledge and will be delivered by accredited professionals.

Furthermore it’s worth referring to the Anandian Astronomical Association, of Ananda College and Astronomical Society of Mahamaya Girls’ College, Kandy for the commitment and innovativeness; they have taken up when it comes to organizing such a massive event. This will be the 6th occasion they organize Star Party, starting from initial appearance in 2004, where the latter was the primordial Observation Competition held in South Asia. Hence, there will be lot of cherished memories to recall, while marching towards the 6th successive milestone.

Be there, to eye-witness STAR PARTY 2009 The Rendezvous of Celestial Surveillance

There have been 6 landings – and 12 people – on the moon; all were US Apollo missions.

The First Moon Landing (July 20, 1969)

American astronaut Neil Armstrong (commander of the Apollo 11 mission), accompanied by Buzz Aldrin, landed the lunar module Eagle on the surface of the moon at 4:17:42 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

All the 6 manned moon landings:

• Apollo 11 – landed 20 July, 1969
• Apollo 12 – landed 19 November, 1969
• Apollo 14 – landed 5 February, 1971
• Apollo 15 – landed 30 July, 1971
• Apollo 16 – landed 20 April, 1972
• Apollo 17 – landed 11 December, 1972

Who Walked on the Moon?

In each case, a 3-man crew was sent to the moon: 2 astronauts actually landed on the moon, whereas No. 3 remained on the mother ship as it continued to orbit around the moon. All in all, 12 people have landed on the moon, as per the information below:

Apollo 11 – Neil Armstrong (of “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” fame); Buzz Aldrin

Apollo 12 – Pete Conrad; Alan Bean

Apollo 13 – is famous for not getting there and the heroic efforts needed to save the crew.

Apollo 14 – Alan Shepard; Edgar Mitchell

Apollo 15 – David Scott; James Irwin

Apollo 16 – John W. Young; Charles Duke

Apollo 17 – Eugene Cernan; Harrison Schmitt

In the United States space program, SIX Apollo missions took astronauts to the lunar surface and back. Apollo 11 was the first, reaching the moon on July 20, 1969. Later successful missions were Apollo 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17, the last being over 35 years ago (December 1972). 12 men have walked on the moon. Luna spacecraft from the USSR had at least three robot missions that returned lunar samples (1970-1972).

This cool event is gonna happen from 11th onwards to 16th August 2009, thus lighting every nook & corner of Gothic Toruń. The both old urban & suburban premises will be lit so as to meet the outline of the festival. There will be embodiments of science, history & culture to educate the folks.

Meantime the ideal conditions will be provided by annual Perseid meteor shower, which is always cherished as a passionate endeavor. What else is needed to enhance IYA 2009 the International Year of Astronomy.

Skyway 09 – International Light Festival’s official website: http://www.skyway09.eu/

More information about Toruń: http://www.torun.pl/portal/index.php?lang=en

On might say that the climax was reached, whereas someone would say it would be yet to arrive.
Whatever, happens I’m sure the global citizens have gained a wider perspective of the IYA 2009 during the course.

In fact we will do a retrospection later to comment and analyze the events. In this post I’ll just be reviewing the IYA 2009 briefly. I was able to to find some important Youtube videos and you may view them here.

Basically the IYA has shown the sky to a large amount of people and still the number of people who were able to get the telescopic picture in their minds is increasing. The national nodes have meantime reached 145, reflecting the world’s concern for Astronomy and Science in general.

In this post I’ll bring you the best captures of the eclipse that we had from Sri Lanka especially from its western and eastern coastal areas. In this case, I should say that the best viewing could be achieved from the eastern coastal of the island as the sun rises from the East. Unfortunately I, myself tried to observe the eclipse and found the sky cloudy as per my location, some 12 km eastwards away from the capital Colombo.

However my colleague Thilina Heenatigala had observed the eclipse from his Panasonic DMC-LZ8 Digital Camera. Here are some of the images that he has been able to capture.

This one shows how cloudy the sky has been, thus changing the conditions rapidly over the course of 6 minutes. If you are careful, you may still notice the solar image amongst the dark clouds.

The observation data are as follows,

Device : Panasonic DMC-LZ8 Digital Camera, mounted to 14gadge welder’s glass.
Coordinates: 6.8670° N, 79.9830° E
Time:06: 45 – 07:20
Location: Athurugiriya, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
(GMT/UT+ 05.30, EST+9.30)

Moreover there had been observations of the solar eclipse from the Arugam Bay, located in eastern coastal area of Sri Lanka. In fact Shehal Joseph was able to have some good but rare observation. Please find his achievements at http://www.kanabona.com/kanabona/?q=node/10221

Now you may see below how his eclipse images look like. As per my belief, I am sure these are the best eclipse images taken in Sri Lanka recently.

You can see how beautiful the images really are, as sun is being silhouetted by the moon. The image to the left is awesome with its background which features a coconut tree in the beach ( may be a Palmyra palm) . Here are the optical data about the equipment that Shehal used.

- Camera: Canon EOS 50D
- Lenses: Canon EF-S 18-200mm, Opteka 500mm Mirror Lens, Celstron NexStar Telescope
- Filters: InfraRed, h-alpha
- EXIF data available on Photos

You can see how Shehal’s hand is lit by the telescopic image of the eclipse.

Full credits go to Shehal for providing us with such amazing images. In fact he had a long way to Arugam Bay traveling from Nugegoda, Colombo, where he is generally located. Please do feel free to visit his site kanabona and the gallery of images here at http://gallery.kanabona.com/main.php?g2_itemId=28502

Guys, now let’s move on to see what Deshan Chanaka had witnessed. His observations were from Kannawila area, Horana. H L Deshan Chanaka de Silva (එච්. එල්. ඩෙෂාන් චානක ද සිල්වා) is the blogger at http://mageahasa.blogspot.com/ and you can see his observations at http://mageahasa.blogspot.com/2009/07/blog-post_22.html

Deshan’s location was bit cloudy and the above are the images that he had captured during the eclipse session. Analyzing all the above attempts, I feel that Arugam Bay (Eastern Coastal Area) was the best location that Sri Lanka had for observing the eclipse. Shehal says in his site that he had gone through the meteorological data taken from the satellites in determining the best location, in which he succeeded.

That’s the updates that I have at the moment on the eclipse and will update you guys as soon as I reach the news,

Don’t forget to recall the memories of the previous solar eclipse on 26th January 2009 and I have already published an article about the solar eclipse at http://www.iya2009sl.blogspot.com/2009/01/partial-solar-eclipse-salos.html

More over we are looking forward to the total annular eclipse on 15th January 2010. This will be visible from the northern areas of Sri Lanka, especially for the areas from Jaffna to Anuradhapura. You may also visit the eclipse 2010 blog I’ve set up for this cause at http://2010eclipse.blogspot.com/

Visit Google Maps to get the locations of the Observations here : http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&vps=1&jsv=169c&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=117780149433056460395.00047029ee44d7a976e47

Prove di tal genere potevano essere offerte solo dopo meticolose osservazioni e lo strumento che le avrebbe rese possibili era stato appena inventato. Di ottica si erano occupati Giovanni Battista Della Porta nella sua Magia naturalis (1589) e nella De rifractione (1593), e Keplero nei Ad Vitellionem paralipomena, del 1604, opere dalle quali era possibile pervenire alla costruzione del cannocchiale: ma lo strumento fu costruito per la prima volta, nei primi anni del XVII secolo da artigiani olandesi, indipendentemente da quegli studi. Galileo ne ebbe notizia – e forse anche un esemplare – nella primavera del 1609 e, ricostruito e potenziato empiricamente, il 25 agosto lo presentò come propria invenzione al governo veneziano che, apprezzando l’«invenzione», gli raddoppiò lo stipendio e gli offrì un contratto vitalizio d’insegnamento.
Il Sidereus Nuncius

Per tutto il resto di quell’anno Galileo s’impegnò nelle osservazioni astronomiche: acquisì informazioni più precise sui monti lunari, sulla composizione della Via Lattea e scoprì quattro dei sessantatré satelliti di Giove. Le nuove scoperte furono pubblicate il 12 marzo del 1610 nel Sidereus Nuncius, una copia del quale Galileo inviò al granduca fiorentino Cosimo II, già suo allievo,insieme con un esemplare del suo cannocchiale e la dedica dei quattro satelliti, battezzati da Galileo in un primo tempo Cosmica Sidera e successivamente Medicea Sidera («pianeti medicei»).

Sono trascorsi 400 anni da quel glorioso momento e oggi come non mai la nostra sete di conoscenza rappresenta ancora una gola arsa nel deserto.
Il 2009 è stato proclamato Anno Internazionale dell’Astronomia, l’evento che ha dato una svolta all’umanità che ci permette di guardare il cielo e assaporarlo in tutte le sue sfumature.

In Italia il coordinamento delle iniziative è da parte dell’Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) che è l’Ente di Ricerca italiano per l’Astronomia e l’Astrofisica.
L’utilizzo delle missioni spaziali rappresenta un elemento imprescindibile per lo sviluppo della ricerca astrofisica e i ricercatori dell’INAF contribuiscono in modo sostanziale allo sviluppo dei programmi scientifici e alle ricerche condotte con le missioni dell’Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), dell’Agenzia Spaziale Europea (ESA) e della NASA.
Quale migliore occasione per esplorare l’universo con i potenti mezzi messi a disposizione da innumerevoli Osservatori sparsi su tutto il territorio.

IYA2009 (The International Year of Astronomy 2009), a cui partecipano più di 100 Paesi, riveste grande importanza sul piano culturale e si pone, con i progetti di eventi e manifestazioni per il pubblico, degli obiettivi “alti” che toccano, tra gli altri, temi come il ruolo della scienza e il suo contributo alla società e alla cultura, la crescita dei Paesi in via di sviluppo, l’avvicinamento dei giovani all’Astronomia, ed alla scienza in generale, la riscoperta del cielo come eredità universale dell’uomo, lo sviluppo sostenibile.

Attraverso l’osservazione del cielo tutto il mondo può riscoprire ciò che ormai da tempo, a causa dell’inquinamento luminoso e la frenesia quotidiana tende a farci dimenticare.

Abbiamo un posto nell’Universo seppur infinitesimale da ca. 4 miliardi di anni.

E come diceva un saggio siamo particelle cosmiche…

Iniziative in Italia
http://www.astronomy2009.it/Eventi-nazionali/

———–Today’s post is written by my Italian facebook friend & fellow astronomer Mr. David Longo on “We have an Infinitesimal Place in the Universe” upon my invitation. I would like to thank David on this occasion for his immense contribution and would take this opportunity to cordially request him to keep blogging and continue updating with Astronomy in Italy. Thank you again, David…

Desh ——————

If you have trouble in reading Italian please use Google translator tool.