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

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

7/5/2012

 
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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 

Sky watching by eye for relaxation - Solar Prominence Sketch sequence - What's Up for May 2011 - Iceland remembered

5/12/2011

 
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Twinkle twinkle for your eyes
A friend reminded me of the value of looking up into the night sky and appreciating the wonders before our eyes.  Sit  comfortably during   twilight in your garden. Forget everything  in your busy life as you gaze upward some still May evening. Watch as the twinkling stars begin to show themselves against the darkening sky.

As the sky colour changes some of the brighter stars will pop into view. Towards the south  at about 10 pm you will see two bright objects, the lower one is the star Spica. Just  above it to the right the other object is the wonderful planet Saturn. Towards the South East , higher than Spica and Saturn the distantly orange star Arcturus shines brightly alone for the moment.   To the East the bright star popping out  at this time is Vega.  Look back to Arcturus, see the shape Arcturus, Spica and Saturn make? a huge triangle over your garden.  Spot the triangle , look at orange Arcturus then bring your eyes to the right and down to bright Spica , then gaze up to Saturn. Complete the triangle in your head , or with your finger or better still do a sketch.  Arcturus is in the constellation Bootes, Spica is in the constellation Virgo and Saturn is a visitor passing through Virgo on its journey through our solar system. Vega is in the constellation Lyra

Slowly as minutes tick away look up directly above your head, you should see the four stars that make the dipper of the Big Dipper, aka the Plough, aka Ursa Major, aka The Great Bear aka the Saucepan. Three stars arc below these stars, they are the handle of the Saucepan,  they arc back toward orange Arcturus.  With your eye keep going down to Spica and the up to Saturn. Remember  Saturn is a planet, it will move during the summer as it orbits the sun. So for the moment, if you look up to figure out this nice triangle with the stars and planet that make it you will be doing well.


Repeat your observation by eye of the twinkling early evening stars, it’s relaxing and rewarding. Become familiar with a few bright stars, they will become friends for life.  Another evening you can fix your gaze on Vega to the East and drink in a whole other family of stars. There is no rush; you have your whole life to figure it out. Let curiosity lead you to the wonders above your garden.
If  you live in Ireland and have never seen Saturn in a telescope , contact me and I will do my best to make sure you do.  skysketcher@gmail.com

Listen to Jane Houston Jones  What’s Up for May 2011 to further your enjoyment of the sky.



I looked up in the daytime on May 10th with my special highly filtered solar telescope and observed a very complex set of prominences move along the western limb of the sun as the day progressed and the Earth rolled toward night.

Sketched May. 10, 2011 Location: Bray, Co Wicklow. Ireland . Details: PST 40 8mm TVP eyepiece = 50X Pastel on black card,upscaled by eye.  Sketched in between gray clouds and rain showers. Prominences on the Western Limb of the solar disc. I found it was difficult to ignore the entire disc , the filaments and AR action and keep observing the proms. I enjoy drawing the full disc.

Rain stopped play late afternoon. Full sketch sequence details. 5 sketches Proms May 10th West Limb PA approx 225 Time 10 - 20 UT Proms May 10th West Limb PA approx 225 Time 11-09 UT Proms May 10th West Limb PA 270 Time 14-01 UT Proms May 10th West Limb PA approx 280 Time 15-22 UT Last sketch May 10th PA 315 Time 16-50 UT
I visited some of the Earths Volcano's in Iceland during  November 2003. Here are a few photographs. The frozen lake within Krafla was once the stage for a concert by Icelandic singer Bjork.

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

    Picture

    Author


    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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