ALiFe

"Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight."

When I was nine, I read up Snoopy's Encyclopedia and learned that the first bright thing you see in an evening sky is most likely to be a planet, and not a star. Only for the simple reason that the sky would still have been too bright for a pin-point light to be seen.

The weather in JB was not so favourable to the common star gazer. The one and only session happened on our first night there, and even so, the quite well lit-up area of Senai was interrupted by the occasional cirrus clouds.

See the white dot on the top right? That's Jupiter.

But when it did happen, Padre's six inch Celestron opened my world to Jupiter. I managed to catch a glimpse of five of its 16 satellites (or moons) and the latitudinal bands were quite prominent. How fascinating and incredible!


An enhanced computer image of Jupiter as seen on Padre's laptop.

To infinity and beyond...