It was fun. the students love it.. and they got exciting. After the session in the class… we had sun observation in a school yard. This one raised a question from several students. could we see a star in the day? so.. the explanation begun and we gave them a chance to watch the sun through telescope and sun glasses. Well there was a time when the sun hide behind a cloud but all the students managed to observe the sun.

here are the pictures :

We had fun at the day of partial solar eclipse and well.. actually we hang out and spent time together not only for the eclipse but also to celebrate my birthday. it’s a rare gift to have solar eclipse in your birthday, isn’t it?

well here are the picture

Partial Solar Eclipse from Bandung. Credit : Ferry M Simatupang/langitselatan

But another thing that really amazed us, when we show them a solar system script from Celesta, they get exciting and screaming every time a planet come. The kids pretending they are in a space ship and start to scream as they will crash with the celestial object.

well.. here is the video and some pictures ..

Exploring Solar System With Celestia

During the festival there were many foods, performances, and of course an observation session. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t good. It was cloudy all around and a little bit rainy. But it wasn’t stop the children, family and couples who interested on telescope to ask and try the telescope. They asked many things. other than that we had a small gathering from our community in the mall too.

On Sunday, October 4th the weather was still bad. It was raining but I captured the moon when it shows up for a minute or two. But over all we canceled the observation session and decided to hang out in a cafe nearby with a nice discussion about various theme.

here the photos for you.

Bandung called Parijs van Java (Paris of Java) by the Dutch, Bandung is known for its many universities, textile industry, shopping locations called factory outlets, and many roadside cafes. Its high altitude location makes the weather pleasantly cool. The great variety of food makes Bandung a culinary focal point among tourists. So many people from Jakarta (the capital city), and other cities to shop and eat.

So during these days Bandung was crowded. Full of tourist who came to shop in Factory outlet and malls. Some tourist are from Malaysia.  We have several malls with tagline as a resort lifestyle place. I went there today, especially to look for Snow Leopard in apple store and have some fun hanging out with friends.

Parijs van Java mall ground floor. credit : PVJ

One thing I notice was a ground in front of the mall, which usually use as a music stage and many other live performance is change into a pool for children fun boat. I was surprised and start thinking.. do we lack of playground so we change a “stage” as a pool?

the ground as a stage. Photo credit : Imagi Bandung

the ground as a pool during this week holiday.

Well… nothing wrong about the fun boat .. may be it because the mall wants to give new attraction for their visitor. But I keep thinking about that.

Bandung already developed in many ways. Shopping locations are all around the city. Mall everywhere… and it seems really hard to find children playground in public area. What we see is a playground in a mall. but it wasn’t for free. Shopping area and resort area development will danger this city in many ways. It took the green area and else. This issue is not only about the playground or public park.. but the issue become wider with another issue like water conservation and….. saving our observatory from the development of tourist place and light pollution of course.

We have 2 or 3 public place for children playground but it isn’t enough. with rapid growth like this we need more and more place with green area as a playground. I remembered when I was a child … back in my hometown we have many area as a playground .. and it was cool to remember me and my family spent quality time to enjoy the nature.

Hope… in the future… the local government will work on this issue and make Bandung a better place for living like it used to be. And not only for shopping and culinary trip.

At the end of October almost all of langitselatan team member will participate in Indonesia Astronomy Society Seminar. We will bring many topics from web 2.0 to starlore.

And we also in preparation for another teacher workshop..

Feel free to use it, and if you find it useful please leave a message here for me. The picture example in this poster I use from philipmartin.info.

Download template : Poster paper

During the last fasting month, we had a chance to have an astronomy session with an elementary school in an urban area here. Actually it was a Ramadhan camp exactly a week before Eid Mubarak. The purpose was mainly for spiritual building among the students. But the school also gave a chance for astronomy session at night. So here we are.

A little bit shocking when we read the title of our session in the school schedule. Observing The Glory of God. Wowwwwww….. I didn’t know what to say… really speechless.

The camp participants was around 200 students, teachers and some parents. It was really cloudy at that time. So we started with presentation about astronomy and solar system. An introduction and a start to give them awareness about the beauty of the sky.

Around 9 p.m the observation session started. But… bad news. It was cloudy all around and Jupiter come and go hiding behind the cloud. So.. we decided to gave a stellarium show and a movie show. All children were excited when they saw the stars and constellation. After that they asked so many question about universe and all in it. Well.. in the middle of the show.. Jupiter shows up. So the children get on the line again to observe Jupiter with it’s satellite. And when the cloud cover the sky.. we run a script from celestia for them. Almost all students had a chance to watch Jupiter.. and they keep talking about the giant planet to each other and asked many thing to us about it.

The night was fantastic. All students and teachers were exciting and we get a spot from local television too. Wasn’t that cool? And at the end of the event.. I admit it was a great time and it was indeed an observation to watch the glory of God. For these students and teachers it was a great moment and opportunity to watch Jupiter with their own. And spiritually it gave them insight about the wonder of God. And for me it was an amazing moment to see the excitement in their face…

here some pictures from the event.

When I was in high school.. I also thought thay way. Winning a competition is a proof of the school ability or local city ability.. or even to proof that education in Indonesia as good as another country. Not just that.. it does bring proud when I heard that student from Indonesia get a medal in science competition. Well.. yes, Nothing wrong with that. And I would like to say.. we do have genius young people in this country. But then I realize one thing.. a medal.. whatever it is… do not proof a quality of education from the entire school or even entire country. It is only a proof of some people ability.

As I grow up and enter the field of astronomy popularisation, I met many people and teachers who often ask me why our astronomy blog didn’t contain an olympiads problems and the answer of the problem? Why we only provide news or astronomy article? because for them to share astronomy information means to provide questions and answers of olympiads problem. And once a teacher ask me to give a science training for his student because the school wants her to win a medal or at least to increase the province rank among others in science olympiads. And he also said but.. I don’t have much money….

Since then I start to questioning myself… what has happen to the people here? Does science popularisation always means a competition? Competition is good but… when it become a prestige..what should we do? The initial purpose will be change. It won’t be for science anymore but for a prestige of the school. And to achieve that.. there are many ways. A new phenomenon in science olympiads in here is an olympiad training. Is this all for science or money?

A teacher once said, “I’m very proud that this year one of my student become one of the big five of the province olympiads. This makes our school proud. And I just know from the first winner that he is trained by professional scientist just to win the competition. So the first winner school pay a certain amount for the training, while my school is a public school and we have no money to pay professional”.

Wow.. I did speechless and I encourage him that his students will do his best to win and he doesn’t need a special training. But I did know in our country since science olympiads become popular, there are many special training for those who want to join the competition. And the special training come with a special price. Usually it quiet expensive. Only certain schools and students could afford to attend this class.. and those who attend this class usually are genius students. And those who become participants of the competition will also get many special  chance to use science instrument and else. Something other students could only dream about..

So another question rise, is science only for smart people? What about the other students who want to know more and have interest on science? There are many students who willing to know more about certain subjects of science. But yes, they are a little bit weak in math or physics.. but they do want to know more. In my journey I met students who developed their interest as a hobby and even they didn’t have instrument they did try to build it in a simple way.

Somehow… I become impress with these students. May be they are not genius and they are not a winner of science competition but they do give a glimpse that science isn’t that hard. Everybody could fall in love with science including astronomy through a simple hands on activities. And through these students… many people around them become aware of science…

Competition is good.. but sometimes we need something simple to share a knowledge to reach more people to be aware of science. As simple as a storytelling or a sunglasses. From there we could share more information about the fundamental science behind it.

And I do believe… education of entire country will be better when we could reach all people to be aware of science.. and start from there science will become a fun subject and not a difficult and terrifying subject for students.