Astronomy fans waiting to catch the Venus in transit

Not a bad effort: The Venus in the form of a black dot against the sun

FOR as long as I can remember, I have always been fascinated by astronomy. As a strapping young lad, I joined the Astronomy Club in my school, Sekolah Menengah Sultan Abdul Samad in Petaling Jaya, enduring jests by friends who warned of an impending descent into geekdom if I joined.

Well I guess its their loss then a part of their childhood that they will never regain.

This fascination with stellar objects permeated into my adult life and although I was never even close to becoming a serious astronomy buff, once in a while I found myself staring at supermoons, eclipses and other assorted celestial phenomena over the years.

VENUS TRANSIT

Recently, the transit of Venus piqued my interest and I found myself climbing the stairs up the National Planetarium located on a hill in the Lake Gardens.

In case you missed the media brouhaha, the transit of Venus happens very rarely and wont happen again until Dec 11, 2117. So its unlikely that any of us will be around for that next photo opportunity. But for those of you who felt left out, rejoice as a transit of Mercury will take place on May 9, 2016.

The National Planetarium on that day was a hub of activity, packed with schoolchildren as well as adults.

Astronomy buffs were out in full force, setting up their telescopes all over the planetarium grounds. I met Jong Tze Kian, one of the science officers at Angkasa and requested for an opportunity to fix my camera to one of the planetariums eight-inch Mead telescopes which had been conveniently set up outside. He gladly consented, but unfortunately, clouds decided to congregate over the sky and block our view of the sun.

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