Category: Art

Action Sun in Java – a week of learning and harmony at Bosscha Observatory - Building the Scientific Mind 2013 Blog 2

6/25/2013

I felt particularly intrigued and honoured to be a participant at the Fifth Advanced Colloquium - Building the Scientific Mind 2013. Dr Jan Visser from the Learning Development Institute sent me a formal invitation to attend back in August 2012.

The Colloquium was to have a specific focus on questions regarding this year’s theme "Science and Technology in the Service of Beauty and Harmony". Dr Visser felt that my work was eminently relevant to those questions.

These colloquia bring together prominent minds from a wide variety of disciplines pertaining to the sciences, the arts and humanities. In previous years themes were Learning for sustainable futures ( South Africa 2011) and In Search of a Home in the Universe ( Egypt 2009) )   Learning in the perspective of complex and long term change ( Canada 2007) . The initial Building the Scientific Mind was in 2005 in the Netherlands during International year of Physics. Previous participants included Nobel laureates such as the physicists Leon Lederman and Carl Wieman, UNESCO’s former Director General and noted molecular bio chemist Federico Mayor.

During Building the Scientific Mind colloquia contributors are encouraged   to think beyond the boundaries of their own specific disciplines. The overall goal of these meetings is to improve the conditions of learning, in both formal and informal settings.

Into this transdisciplinary   arena on May 27th 2013, I brought Action Sun.
I developed this workshop in order to bring the sun to Earth in real time using simple materials with collaboration from local children and the child within us all. The purpose is to teach people of all ages the features of the sun and to take time to appreciate its wonder.

The Colloquium began with very uplifting rocket launches carried out by Aldino Adra Baskoro, a local teacher. This got everyone in the mood for fun and set a playful atmosphere loose around the grounds of Bosscha Observatory.

A team of people helped carry the 12 foot X 12 foot black tarpaulin for Action Sun out to the grass in front of the magnificent dome. It had been donated by the local military; it was real tarpaulin, heavy and thick, a great canvas for the sun.

Everyone took part in building the suns photosphere, sunspots, chromosphere, and filaments. Children from local schools and orphanages, teachers, scientists, philosophers, anthropologists, economists, game builders, educationalists, representatives of UNESCO, UNAWE, astrophysicists, astronomers, theoreticians, rocket builders, mathematicians, and musicians.

Fellow educators from amongst the colloquium cohort were very quick to jump in with gusto to help distribute the paper, glue and other elements to construct what would eventually be a nine foot diameter solar disc.

As it was a cloudy day I took my sun building data from the Solar Dynamics Observatory “The Sun Now” page. Bosscha Observatory had a plasma screen set up inside the dome showing the page so participants could understand where the prominences, sunspots and filaments were during the hour that it took to bring the sun to Earth. They also had some beautiful h alpha telescopes ready for me in case the sun did actually shine on the proceedings.

Sally Roberts from California was the first to say “how can I help?” she became my super hero glue mixer and paper distributor. Vidula Mhaiskar from India took photos for me and also distributed the wonderful educational material supplied by NASA Goddard to support the workshop. With something like 100 people present it was great to have such enthusiastic assistance. Binta Moustapha   from Nigeria and Sally Roberts also got busy making the giant filament that graced almost half of the suns disc on that day.

Lovely local children flung paper and paint with great joy and curiosity and soon the sun was glowing from the black canvas on Java soil. I noticed some of the little orphans got paint on their hands; it was a slow motion moment for me in a very action packed hour. They looked at their hands like they had never seen paint before, that image will stay in my mind forever.

It seemed the child in many delegates was very close to the surface and burst out in actions of jollity. I was surrounded by professionals from many disciplines delightfully flinging paper and glue with no inhibitions. Questions were also flying at me about filaments and other solar structures. There was learning and listening magically absorbed while all the time we worked toward finishing our sun in real time. This was easy learning, it was cross cultural and for some it was language less. My sun builders were from 5 to 75 in age, they were bolted together by passion and enjoyment.
When finally our sun was created, I invited everyone to sign their names to the canvas. A few drops of warm Java rain prompted the crowd to carry the sun back into the dome. It remained on display for the rest of the week under the seven ton Carl Zeiss telescope WOW!

During the colloquium a gentle breeze mingled with the call to prayer and often fanned the passion in the room with seamless ease. Inside the observatory pools of beauty were daily being squeezed and teased out of Economics, Philosophy, Trash Anthropology, Maths, Cosmology, Music, Emotions and Football.

Bosscha Observatory was built ninety years ago and has many similarities to Dunsink Observatory in Dublin. I felt very at home there and for the first time felt even more at home amongst this gathering than I had ever felt at conferences or festivals that were solely astronomical in content.

One of the major differences at this observatory compared to Dunsink was the size of the dome and the main telescope. Bosscha’s dome was twenty two meters in diameter, the telescope named “Zeiss” weighted in at seven tons and was eleven meters long. The dome at Dunsink is 9 feet in diameter and the telescope is 18 feet long. The day after Action Sun I had a personal introduction to “Zeiss” from Dhani Herdiwijaya. WOW!!
The floor was mechanised to lift up observers so that objects could be viewed at whatever elevation was required. Massive chains on each side of the floor pulled it up under power generated by ninety year old controls. Everything works perfectly and the observatory handles 60,000 members of the public in its outreach programme annually.

This awesome telescope is double refractor made by Carl Zeiss. The main telescope lenses are 60 cms in diameter. The telescope was specifically designed for double star observing and can observe stars that are much weaker, approximately 100000 times fainter than the stars that can be seen by the naked eye. Focal length is a whopping 1080 cms or 35 .4 feet, the dome of the building has a weight of fifty six tons and is made of two mm thick steel.

One of the joys of being six degrees below the equator for me was seeing Crux for the first time and also seeing Scorpius in its entirety also for the first time. This happened one night when just a small section of the sky was clear over the hotel. Java was still having its rainy season so there were no clear sky nights to observe from this iconic instrument.

You might enjoy my photographs Action Sun,the telescope and the Colloquium in the slide show below.

A short video showing Action Sun on display under the 7 ton Carl Zeiss Telescope at Bosscha Observatory West Java Indonesia

Moon over South China Sea - Reflections on Building the Scientific Mind 2013 at Bosscha Observatory West Java Indonesia Text, Images & Video Plus What's Up for June 2013

6/15/2013

Baby Banana tree at Bosscha Observatory

Building the Scientific Mind 2013
Science and Technology in the Service of Harmony and Beauty
Bossacha Observatory, Lembang, West Java, Indonesia May 27th to June 1st 2013

A Learning Development Institute, UNESCO, Institute Teknologi Bandung , Bossacha Observatory Fundacion Culture de Paz and UNAWE event.

Moon over South China Sea – Blog 1

Altitude 41,037 ft , Speed 545 mph, Outside temperature – 71 degrees, 06:14 local time, one hour too touchdown in Singapore. Over my right shoulder framed in the super jumbo’s oval window I noticed the full moon setting over the South China Sea. This beautiful vision triggered an immediate reaction to record it in some way. I took data from the flight path graphics screen, searched desperately in my bag for a pencil but only found a biro for sketching. The crispy clear moon offered the illusion that it was suspended for a time on the wing of the plane. A double moon halo with a rich tangerine inner circle and a pale silver blue outer circle enriched the view even further. I became transfixed with the complexity of the observation before me. The moonlight made a strong glint on the wing. The light dissipated along the blue slate leading edge as we sliced through the freezing outside atmosphere.   Diffraction spikes, then developed over the wing in the moonlight. I think they were made by the window; they looked like spokes of carefully assembled, tight lined gas spectra.

For a long while the moon seemed to stay on the wing. I decided that moon drawing from a moving aircraft was a luxury I would like to have more of. The light playing from moon to wing and window was visually powerful, a painting hatched there and then. I took notes of colour tone and positions of everything for a later work as hot towels were once again handed out by the elegant flight attendants on Singapore Airlines.

A bird strike at Heathrow left all my subsequent flight connections very tight. I had 12 minutes or so in Changi before my Bandung flight at Terminal 2. The Sky Train and a wobbly run to gate 32 F did my sore foot no good at all, however I was very pleased when I was onboard the Silk Air flight on the last leg of my 8,000 mile journey ( or so I thought ) to my hotel in Lembang, West Java.

Bossacha Observatory had sent a car, a two hour journey ensued, the distance was only 20 kilometres .For most of that journey my eyes were wide open and so was my mouth as I was shocked at much of what I saw. The extreme opulence of finely designed gated houses, side by side with extreme poverty was difficult to understand. The condition of the roads, the pavements, and infrastructure left me aghast It seemed there were no road rules or standards. Everywhere there were food stalls on wheels and most of them were over open drains beside piles of uncollected rubbish which added to the chaotic view. What seemed like 500 million motorcycles competed with flash cars, angkots (local taxis) and trucks held together with gaffer tape for every available piece of road. Entire families were on these motorcycles. Babies being fed on motorcycles, children asleep on motorcycles, everyone moving at speed in between the other vehicles with inches to spare. My only conclusion was that the government did not give a care for these people in any way shape or form.

I witnessed large dogs, domestic cats and rabbits for sale in cages on the side of the road outside very grandiose houses. Where have I come to? What was I thinking of? Were the thoughts in my head as my lovely driver tried to persuade me to go shopping for water before we reached my destination. After a rather dizzy U turn in this manic road system we were suddenly taking another route with involved a kind of toll road, well actually a toll lane to be more precise.

A pole as narrow as the car was lifted by a tiny old woman to bring us into a beautiful peaceful country road with banana trees, jungle and local houses all along the way. This was a very different world to the mayhem of Bandung.

The hotel was guarded and secured, very beautiful planting and facilities. I found great peace and clarity by its Koi pond and restful thinking in the sunrays.

Allahu Akbar
God is Great
[said two times]

La ilaha illa Allah
There is no god except the One God

For the pre-dawn (fajr) prayer, the following phrase is inserted after the fifth part above, towards the end:

As-salatu Khayrun Minan-nawm
Prayer is better than sleep
(said two times)

This was my wake up call at 4 am each morning, it had me on my balcony alert and listening to the jungle sounds competing with chanting voices from somewhere in the pre dawn darkness. As the sun’s rays climbed over the valley, the view of Tankuban Perahu,a recently active volcano to my right and a stunning gorge below filled every light receiving cell in my eyes, with awesomeness. The steep terraces were flanked by exotic trees full of yellow and purple flowers. Very tiny jet black birds darted everywhere, too fast to see their shapes, butterflies of many colours fluttered in the greenery below my perch.

I had no problem with the Muadhan’s   early call, it reminded me that I was a visitor to a unique place on the planet. This country needed my effort to accept and understand its culture. ( see my short video below to hear some of it, he called from 4am - 5am daily)

My first thoughts about Java were illuminated in a broader context by a most excellent talk during the colloquium. Dr James Lees (University of the Western Cape) gave to us a presentation he regularly gives to his students. He used clips from the popular show X Factor to develop in our minds thoughts of being judgmental, feelings of empathy, and a gamut of other human emotions which were soon all present and tangible in the room. James’s presentation was a global lesson. Dr Lees works with young people suffering from HIV. He teaches people how to live and how to die with strength and harmony while dealing with this disease which finds little emphatic engagement amongst the world’s nations.

His work brings understanding to forgotten people who do not have time to enjoy beautiful moons dangling on the wings of airplanes.’ Walk in my shoes ‘   the slogan on the posters he distributed to everyone, a strong message. Extending the aspiration of that slogan slightly, the right to education is not for all the world’s children but it should be. In Bossacha observatory we were there to discuss Building the Scientific Mind with input from people of many differing disciplines. How many minds are lost to education, creative and scientific development by Hunger, HIV, War, Corruption, Ignorance, Prejudice, and Neglect? How can this planet strive to ensure that all its children now and in the future will be embraced by an education and have the freedom to indulge not just in scientific and creative expression but in life itself?

My experiences at Building the Scientific Mind 2013 can only be articulated through several blogs as it was so rich and varied in form and learning.

More on this soon and Action Sun at Bossacha Observatory

A selection of slide images for this first write up on the Colloquium

Early Morning call to prayer in Lembang West Java , the white thing in my video is the column on my balcony and the flashing red light is on a mast just in front of the volcano.

What's Up for June 2013 from Jane Houston Jones

In response to Objects from my childhood - Interest based learning MIT course

2/19/2013

Sketch East limb proms 93,000,000 miles away from Bray Co Wicklow January 12th 2012 10:50 UT - 11:20UT PST 40 / 8mm TVP eyepiece /50 X Pastel and Conte on black paper Seeing good Sketch is 9 inches X 4 inches on A4

Deirdre Kelleghan – Ireland Feb 18th 2013

The objects from my childhood that are still in my learning zone today are black paper and chalk. I was bored as a child in primary school, the only thing I really enjoyed was drawing. Simple drawings with white and coloured chalk in a small black papered book. The drawings were separated by tissue paper with strong indented patterns.

Today drawing complex images of the sun and the moon is one of the most poignant joys of my life. I use black paper and pastels. Pastels are sophisticated chalk and I have a thing about black paper, which is never quite black enough for me. I use my blackest black pastel to make it so. I draw to learn and understand, it is something I have done all my life, to draw is to know.

I am an old fashioned Astronomical Sketcher; it was big before astro photography. My drawings are like photographs and are very accurate. I know this because I can put a photograph of a solar image or lunar image taken at the same time beside my work and my drawing is accurate to a high degree. I take the sun and moon from the sky via my telescopes with my eyes and chalk and put them on black paper. This activity is soul filling and I love it. I teach astronomy through the medium of drawing and artistic activities and am never bored.

Action Sun at St Pauls Senior Girls School Dublin 12 - What's up for July 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

7/5/2012

WOW !! this is huge in the hall

St Pauls Senior Girls National School in Greenhill’s Dublin 12 is just a few minutes’ walk from the house where I grew up. It was fortuitous to have the opportunity to carry out my third Action Sun for a school in this area.

On June 25th 47 young girls from third class, took part in building the sun. This was a very positive group all eager to get going and get busy. Streamers of orange and red paper flew through the air in vast amounts. In a short time the photosphere began to grow in the schools courtyard.

The activity of Action Sun supports the school curriculum in its art as it uses mixed media to create the sun. The program uses paint and paper to convey activity and explosive movement on the solar disc. Action Sun also supports primary school art as it enables children to use the characteristics of the materials to make structures and features on the solar disc. Making the sun in this way is both creative and explorative. Learning a little science through the arts facilitates the use of many kinds of intelligences. The learning process in the making is as valuable as the finished suns. Textures and spatial organisation also comes into the creation of this work. The girls at St Pauls School were very good at working as a group, helping each other out. They also made good decisions during the activity which showed they were an excellent team. This is kinesthetic learning, learning by doing.

Action Sun compliments science in the primary school curriculum on several levels. A short information talk in between making the suns features informs the children about our suns role in the solar system. We talk about the scale of the sun and the Earth. We talk about the energy of the sun and its function in relation to the other planets. The mini talks make sure that the children understand that the sun is our main source of heat and light. By building the sun the children learn by hands on investigation. The children literally explore the physical features of the sun with their hands in mini scale. A quick review of the evaluation sheets shows the quality of the learning. Several children not only drew sketches of the complex sun but also put in arrows to the different features and labelled them all correctly. The action of throwing the paper was very popular, signing their names was also a highlight and for some children carrying the sun into the hall was the stand out moment of the day.

When I look at the sun in my solar telescope I see a huge amount of detail and very often in the past I have shared that view with children. However it takes a long time to show this view to a large group as the sun presents as a small disc with tiny features. It is difficult for children to comprehend the enormous scale of our nearest star. I put Action Sun together to bridge that gap and help more people achieve some understanding of this wonderful star in safety with a big fun element.

The features of the sun itself were totally new to this young group, but at the end of the programme words like photosphere, chromosphere, filaments, prominences and sunspots were all a little more familiar. We closed our eyes at the end of the build and held our faces up to the sun to feel its heat and remind ourselves that it takes eight minutes for its light to get to us here on Earth, a 93 million mile smile. Building the sun took about 90 minutes. The 7.9 X 4.9 meter tarpaulin was pre prepared at home using four litres of matte black masonry paint. During the activity we used approx 3,500 individual pre cut pieces of crepe paper ,15 litres of washable PVA glue, 6 litres of yellow paint , 1 litre of red paint, plus the energy of forty seven eight and nine year old third class girls.

My thanks to Sarah Jayne Reid for setting up Action Sun at St Pauls and to Phil Curran for all her efforts prior to, during and post the build. Thanks to Ms Keating, Ms Daly and Principal Sr Maureen for their support during the activity. NASA Sun Earth Day bookmarks, posters and other educational material were provided to the teachers. The solar feature data for this Action Sun was an observation of the disc made from my PST earlier that morning. The Solar Dynamics Observatory website was pointed out to the girls so they could continue to watch the sun safely.

What's Up for July 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

Action Sun – Lets bring the Sun to Earth © by Deirdre Kelleghan - What's Up for June 2012 from Jane Houston Jones - The Transit of Venus

6/6/2012

As I approached the City of Kilkenny medieval towers and spires broke the dull May skyline. Pure yellow rapeseed fields painted sunshine on the landscape. Rich green wheat moved slowly in the cold breeze each side of the motorway.

At Kilkenny Castle on National Drawing Day my Action Sun participants were young families randomly stopping by and taking part for short periods. Small children throwing crepe paper photosphere clumps with smiles on their tiny faces. Just as well for the completion of the project that two boys Max Gronowski aged 12 and Daragh Lynch aged 12 got stuck into it from the start. They helped paint the acrylic / glue base, the root for two of the suns atmospheres. As the solar build progressed my information spiel became simply a three and a half hour conversation with the boys. They asked questions, I answered; we discussed the photosphere as we threw our orange paint dipped paper targeting the empty spaces on this sixteen foot highly textured sun. They asked ‘where did the sun come from’? What will happen to the sun in the future? How big is the sun? They could not wait to fill in the photosphere and move on to apply the chromosphere. We talked about solar telescopes, space telescopes, the dangers of looking at the sun, the Venus Transit, Apollo 11, becoming an astronaut, Mars, going to Mars, Mars Science Laboratory, photosynthesis, energy and light. At that point Action sun had become a constructive dialogue with two very tenacious boys. Some parents came to help for a while and we were joined for the last hour or so by Matthew Shortall aged 9 who helped to make our photosphere denser which on a solar disc of that diameter was a very big task. Daragh said it would be great if we had music to work by, ‘what kind of music?’ I asked,   Beethoven was the unexpected reply.

We had dragged the sun through the clouds and reproduced it on the ground. Groups of adults got answers to ‘what’s going on here? Is that the sun? ‘Ha ha I have not seen that for weeks’. ‘Does it really look like that?’ ‘What are the black things?’

Max helped place the sunspots using my drawing made directly from the Solar Dynamics Observatory website at 09:02 IST. We made the filaments, I added the prominences; local papers took photographs of the creation. The sun never showed its face at Kilkenny Castle that day but as each hour went by the sun on Earth was growing brighter every minute as our build continued.

Venus, a black polystyrene ball on the end of a stick, demonstrated the transit   as seen from Ireland against the newly created sun. The Earth had escaped from my car earlier and spent   the day in the middle of my driveway.

We actually ran out of time, our photosphere big as it became, was just not dense enough and the boys knew it. Our red thinly spaced solar chromospheric   paper   fluttered in the wind. Sticky hands and paint splattered tee shirts told the story of almost four hours of creative work.

For their wonderful effort I gave the boys NASA Sun Earth Day packs. They helped me give out Venus Transit information to all who passed by. Max, Darragh and Matthew signed their names proudly to the giant canvas as they had done most of the work. The 7.9 X 4.9 meter Action Sun will hang at Dunsink Observatory during Solarfest on June 23rd. The photosphere will be complete by then.

Action Sun first light was with St Cronans Stargazers children’s school club on May 4th 2012. Sixteen boys and I constructed an eight foot solar disc based on my early morning observations. This eager group worked on the sun interspaced by pockets of solar information delivered in short bursts which punctuated the action.   Link to blog

Action Sun was funded by Dublin City of Science 2012 and The Butler Gallery Kilkenny Castle , Kilkenny City. Action Sun was a NASA Sun Earth Day event also
Action Sun – is an indoor or outdoor activity which allows groups of children to participate in building a large solar disc or several solar discs. This Earth built sun mimics the photosphere and chromosphere of the sun, includes sunspots, filaments, and prominences present on the sun ideally in real time. The materials are simple, paper, glue and paint. It is kinaesthetic participatory learning for young children. The activity educates and supports science through art and the creative process.

Slide show of Action Sun at Kilkenny Castle

What's Up for June 2012 from Jane Houston Jones - The Transit of Venus of course :-)

Action Sun - Let's bring the sun to Earth - What's Up for May 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

5/10/2012

Action Sun image by Bernard Kelleghan

On May 4th 2012 children from St Cronans Stargazers Astronomy Club in Bray took the sun from the sky and brought it down to Earth. We used a 10ft X 8ft plastic sheet, crepe paper, acrylic paint washable glue and plenty of energy. It was a very cloudy day but a brief look at the sun in the early am gave me a good view of the large sunspot in Active Region 1471. I took the rest of the data from the space telescope Nasa Solar Dynamics Observatory. ‘The sun now’ on its website shows the status of the sun in many light views in real time.

By building the sun the children were literally exploring the physical features of the sun with their hands in mini scale.

Exploring astronomy via art is a very varied learning for all participants. Even finding out a little about what we see in the sky during our entire lifetimes is enhancing for life. Understanding where we are helps us understand who we are.

Art expressing unique awe and wonder at the magnificence of our stars role, in every second of every day of our lives is unavoidably beautiful.

Astronomy and Art are for everyone, each person has something to express, each has their own life journey to make, to live, to experience. The action of bringing the Sun to the ground, bringing it down to Earth is a deep experience that can only have a positive effect. Action Sun invites children to be creative, expressive, and informed.

During the activity I emphasised to the children the dangers of looking at the sun. Action Sun is a very safe way of exploring our star in a way that enhances a child’s knowledge and encourages curiosity and further learning.

During the making of our sun in Bray we had just finished the photosphere when spontaneously some of the children bowed down to the paper sun. This was a funny happy moment, so totally unexpected, it came out of nowhere. When we were carrying the finished sun into the school, the smallest child began singing ‘here comes the sun’
I was amazed that a 2012 child would know that song and even more surprised that he sang away. The singing soon became a group effort as we struggled through the double doors into the hall.

Action Sun supports Art in the curriculum as it uses mixed media to create the sun. We used paint and paper to convey action ,and explosive movement on the solar disc. Action Sun enables children to use the characteristics of the materials to make the structures and features on the solar disc. Making the sun in this way is both creative and explorative.

Making is the technological component of the Science Curriculum. Action Sun provides the child with an opportunity to make the sun, and thereby investigate its properties in their school yard.

Action Sun is a cooperative activity encouraging social skills and group learning. The goal is to bring the sun to Earth to examine it and observe it safely. We were not just aiming for an understanding of the subject matter but were making connections between head, hand and heart while cultivating the capacity to discover systems. Observation and wonder equals sustained learning.

Action Sun supports Geography in primary education as the Solar System is part of the lesson plans. The Sun is the central hub of our solar system and is therefore one of the most important objects in our daily lives.

When the Action Sun piece was hung in the hall , the children said ' the suns up , the suns up' with smiling faces, what a happy moment.
Action Sun was created by Deirdre Kelleghan slide show below
On this occasion Action Sun was funded by Dublin City of Science 2012 Many thanks to Paedar O'Briain and Paula O'Donnall for their invaluable help on the day
Many thanks to my husband Bernard for taking the image above , a wonderful job.
Many thanks to principal Maeve Teirney for saying YES !
Many thanks to John for hanging the sun in the school hall, a big job. !
Many thanks to the Bray People for covering the event in the paper
This was also a NASA Sun Earth Day Venus Transit registered event.
The childrens work also had the honour of being Astronomy Sketch of the Day
on May 5th2012

Next Action Sun was on May 19th at Kilkenny Castle National Drawing Day 2012

Whats up for May 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

World Space Week Deadly Moons Rockets and Robots in Walkinstown - What\'s Up for October 2011

10/13/2011

Mars Science Laboratory aka Curiosity Launches on November 25th 2011

October 5th 2011 St Peters Boys National School Walkinstown Dublin 12

Clare Mercier from the Schools Completion Programme invited me to do two workshops at St Peters for World Space Week. As usual I was warmly welcomed at this school which is close to where I grew up as a child. I set up my gear in the community room and soon 41 boys from fifth and sixth classes trundled into the room and took up what seemed like every single space available.

They listened carefully to all my tales of Moons far and near, they commented freely and enjoyed the images. At one point the sun shone a beam through a slit in the blinds and took Titan down to a ghostly glow on the screen. A cheer went up when the dark clouds of Earth closed down the light and Io then on screen was revelled in its structured wonder.

Moon drawing ensued on tables, chairs and benches. Calls for Our Moon, Enceladus, Titan and Europa were interspaced with calls for white pastels and longer views.

Ever helpful boys cleaned up and also helped me to get my gear upstairs for the next workshop.

Third and forth classes came together for Rapid Rockets Wicked Robots, an interactive white board was available and very welcome. This workshop is about the history of space exploration via drawing, from Sputnik to Mars Science Laboratory also including the recent JUNO and GRAIL space explorers. Some boys took pride in knowing the names of a least two of the Apollo 11 astronauts, and all got very busy producing their choices of rockets or robots on paper.

JUNO was popular, as was the privately built Virgin Galactic Spaceship 2. I had included the Lunar Electric Rover even though it’s not a robot or a rocket. This moon truck has such a sense of adventure look to it and I was pleased that two boys did drawings of it. There were far to many drawings created to take photo's of them all , a selection are in the slideshow below.

All the Deadly Moons produced and all the Rockets and Robots produced are now on exhibition in the school hall. Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork, the National Coordinator for World Space Week will honour St Peters with a participation certificate for their efforts.

Jane Houston Jones - This month it's more about Moons. Not only our Moon,
but you can also see Jupiter's four moons.

Click here to read about my adventures in Tipperary for Chinese Moon Festival and Drawing workshops in Bluebell

Mars Earth Merge Painting - What's Up for July 2011 Asteroids

7/10/2011

As an artist I am totally fascinated by the surfaces of other worlds. I find the images taken by solar system explorers very inspiring. Many of my canvases emerge directly from my observations of a tiny fraction of an image or are influenced by an entire object.

My painting Mars Earth Merge is not so directly influenced by outside images but more by my observations of some surfaces on Earth.

Keel Beach in Achill Island is one of my favourite places to walk, its six kilometres long, with a constant roar from the Atlantic breakers.

I enjoy taking macro images of the sand, and love observing how the sea makes channels in its softness as it retreats. Often the markings are delta shaped, water etched, well defined, but delicate. On Keel sometimes the wind whips up dry sand and sends it at great speed to wrap itself around rocks on wet sand. It’s nice to watch, but very difficult to photograph.

This painting started as a depiction of those sand deltas on Keel. As it developed I had the idea to use Martian colours often associated with false colour MRO HiRise Images. I used pallet knives to merge Earth style water erosion on a beach scale with long gone water erosion on Mars which was on a larger scale.

I further developed the link by adding a beach stone and lots of sand in layers on each side of the Mars / Earth delta. Unfortunately for me the sand I used was too perfect and I had to enhance it by introducing particles of pastel in yellow, and orange to give it some depth. The addition of a little seaweed gave a 3 D property to the work.

In hindsight this painting has taken several years to complete as my influencing walk was actually on January 1st 2009. A bitterly cold day with strong winds and huge waves, it was totally exhilarating. I started to paint this canvas several months ago.

Here are a few images from that trip that led to my painting and a video of the waves on Keel beach. Although unintentional on my part it has been said to me, that my painting reminds some people of images taken of Mars from orbit .
28 inches X 22 inches Acrylics, Pastel, Rock , Sand and Seaweed on canvas.

Whats Up for July 2011 from Jane Houston Jones

Irish childrens paintings BOUNCED to the Moon and beyond on Radio Waves - What's Up for April 2011 - Saturn

4/4/2011

Moon Bounce was Live on Sunday April 10th

Paintings via radio waves to the MOON and back in 2.5 seconds
The paintings were be converted into radio waves , each colour in the paintings equals a note in music
its a Newton idea. The paintings traveled 500,000 miles and returned as altered versions of themselves with individual sound signature files unique to each painting created in the process.

The paintings were sent to the Moon via large radio antennas in Brazil , the UK and Switzerland and received
in The Netherlands by a 25 Metre radio telescope in Dwingeloo all online to music created by Marty Quinn Sonifonics a NASA developed sound out of images software .

Send me your colour by Deirdre Kelleghan

Earth calling Moon ................... come in over

Moon calling Earth ....................receiving you loud and clear

Earth: Is anybody there?

Moon: Not a soul

Earth: Are you lonely?

Moon: Not much going on here, so yes a bit lonely

Earth: How about we send you some paintings to brighten up your surface?

Moon: Wonderful, I will look at them and then send them back because I have nothing to hang them on. So how about I BOUNCE them back to Earth?

Earth: Sounds Good

Moon: Yes I look forward to all the colours as I am many shades of grey.

Earth: Here they come OK?

Moon: Ooooooooooooh ...................... boy I can feel the colours, all the colours of the rainbow. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet . Wow !! ............... a lovely LRO false colour Moon painting by Paul Byrne , one of my very round young craters. Oh and now a beautiful SDO First Light sun painting by Lucy Grier , I love the sun. Here comes ................. oh yes indeed ......... it’s another moon Saturn’s Enceladus by Diarmuid Moran . That Moon has an ocean exploding out of it! Now I feel the SDO Solar Flare painting by Liadh Farago oh my ,so gorgeous.

Hold on the next wave brings a little painting of the sun and a big painting of Saturn and Cassini by Deirdre. I feel them all in my craters and maria. I think I can feel some sounds, some music too.

The colours swirled around my craters, over my rays and up my mountains . How special colours are , how exciting to bind them up in radio waves and send them into space to visit me.

How fantastic radio waves are!!! I felt six bouncing paintings what a great experience. Do come back and colour my face again soon. The Earth Moon connection is so exciting, from now on when I bounce the suns light to Earth I will try to feel the colours every day.

Read more about Deirdre's paintings click here

For more technical information visit OPTICKS link below

Thanks to OPTICKS Daniela De Paulis , Jan van Muijlwijk, Deirdre Kelleghan, Paul Byrne , Diarmuid Moran, Lucy Grier, Liadh Farago , Astronomers without Borders, Stillorgan Gold Pack Brownies, St Cronans National School Bray, Solar Dynamics Observatory, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Cassini.

False colour ? What is it ?
Inside light there are seven colours , we can see them sometimes in rainbows.
The colours tell us information about the light
When scientists use "false colours" over an image of something in space, the colours tell them
and us more about the picture.

More here on False Colour and Radio Waves Mission Science

Stillorgan Gold Pack Brownies IGG attended Deirdre's workshop The Suns Massive for OPTICKS

St Cronans Star Gazers attended Deirdre's workshop Deadly Moons for OPTICKS

What's Up for April 2011 from Jane Houston Jones - Its Saturn check it out

Two Paintings one of Saturn one of the Sun OPTICKS GAM2011 Moon BOUNCE via Radio Waves

4/4/2011

Moon Bounce was Live on Sunday April 10th

Deirdre Kelleghans painting of Saturn inspired by Cassini images
Any questions ? skysketcher@gmail.com

Image credit Bernard Kelleghan

My Saturn/ Cassini painting is inspired by many of the magnificent images taken of Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft. In particular I really love the images in which the shadows of the rings are cast over the planet by sunlight. Many of the black and white images are extremely beautiful impactful pure ART

This painting is 3 feet 3 inches by 3 feet 3 inches , mixed media on canvas.
Acrylics, Pastels, Metallic Gold Fabric Paint, Metallic Gold Paint, Metallic Gold Particles
Feathers, and the Wind.

In the painting we are viewing Saturns Rings edge on , the shadows of the rings are cast over the gas body of the planet. Cassini has taken iconic images on its journey around Saturn. The spacecraft is custom covered in a golden protective blanket. In 2017 Cassini's exploration of the Saturnian system will most likely end and the spacecraft will be directed into the planet.

Its protective blanket will no longer be needed, but Cassini will leave us with a golden legacy that is unprecedented in science and beauty. My painting includes gold particles disseminated throughout the work. Cassini is merging into Saturn in particles , just as
Saturn merged into Cassini through its outstanding visual exploration.

How the painting developed February 22nd - April 3rd 2011

Image credit Bernard Kelleghan

My Solar Painting is inspired by the first light images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory in space 22.300 miles above the Earth. The painting is 8 inches by 8 inches in Acrylics and Pastels on canvas,one of a series inspired by different wavelenghts expressing knowledge about our star.

The paint is used thickly and energetically in order to somehow emulate the energy created in and exploding out of our star. When I paint I try to be in the subject , thinking about the sun from the inside out. Thinking about the subject helps me find ways and methods to produce it in paint.
SDO images are very strong visually , they tell the story of the sun in many wavelengths many different forms of light.

Light is so much more than it seems
Light is an educater
Light is energy
Light has particles.

Both paintings will BOUNCE off the Moon on April 10th 2011 at 7pm during a performance art event called OPTICKS GAM2011 Read about the project here

Look deep, deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
Albert Einstein

Action Sun in Java – a week of learning and harmony at Bosscha Observatory - Building the Scientific Mind 2013 Blog 2

A short video showing Action Sun on display under the 7 ton Carl Zeiss Telescope at Bosscha Observatory West Java Indonesia

Moon over South China Sea - Reflections on Building the Scientific Mind 2013 at Bosscha Observatory West Java Indonesia Text, Images & Video Plus What's Up for June 2013

A selection of slide images for this first write up on the Colloquium

Early Morning call to prayer in Lembang West Java , the white thing in my video is the column on my balcony and the flashing red light is on a mast just in front of the volcano.

What's Up for June 2013 from Jane Houston Jones

In response to Objects from my childhood - Interest based learning MIT course

Action Sun at St Pauls Senior Girls School Dublin 12 - What's up for July 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

What's Up for July 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

Action Sun – Lets bring the Sun to Earth © by Deirdre Kelleghan - What's Up for June 2012 from Jane Houston Jones - The Transit of Venus

Slide show of Action Sun at Kilkenny Castle

What's Up for June 2012 from Jane Houston Jones - The Transit of Venus of course :-)

Action Sun - Let's bring the sun to Earth - What's Up for May 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

Whats up for May 2012 from Jane Houston Jones

World Space Week Deadly Moons Rockets and Robots in Walkinstown - What\'s Up for October 2011

Mars Earth Merge Painting - What's Up for July 2011 Asteroids

Irish childrens paintings BOUNCED to the Moon and beyond on Radio Waves - What's Up for April 2011 - Saturn

Moon Bounce was Live on Sunday April 10th

St Cronans Star Gazers attended Deirdre's workshop Deadly Moons for OPTICKS

What's Up for April 2011 from Jane Houston Jones - Its Saturn check it out

Two Paintings one of Saturn one of the Sun OPTICKS GAM2011 Moon BOUNCE via Radio Waves

Moon Bounce was Live on Sunday April 10th

Image credit Bernard Kelleghan

How the painting developed February 22nd - April 3rd 2011

Image credit Bernard Kelleghan

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