Deirdre Kelleghan  skysketcher@gmail.com
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Action Sun in Java – a week of learning and harmony at Bosscha Observatory - Building the Scientific Mind 2013  Blog 2

6/25/2013

 
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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

 
PictureBaby 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

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    Deirdre Kelleghan is amateur astronomer,
    an artist and also  likes to write.

    "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be lighted"
    Plutarch

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